Council hears report on Virtual UBCM2020 which provided for positives, negatives and with an election call reduced access to Cabinet Ministers and officials
Prince Rupert City Councillor Nick Adey was in a reverse position from his previous days as a high school teacher at Charles Hays Secondary, delivering a report on Monday evening to the Council class of 2020 on his views of the September UBCM conference, which in this year of COVID was an entirely online experience.
From his notes, those viewing at home heard of the unique experience and some anecdotes of the virtual version of what is normally a one week out of town road trip for Council members and senior city staff.
One which traditionally provides for engagements for networking, ministerial meetings and opportunities to push for local initiatives as part of the overall UBCM experience.
On the theme of the staycation approach of the online version of UBCM, Mr. Adey did note that the city did save some money on travel expenses and allowed for a more leisurely approach towards which sessions the councillors could choose to participate in.
The Councillor providing some comparisons as to how he viewed the virtual conference and the more traditional in person event.
"Obviously it was very different from previous conventions, last year we all went down to Vancouver and were treated to ... perhaps an appropriate way of saying it ... the full meal deal. And this years version was entirely online. And there's obviously a trade off there, I think the trade off is this: the online version means I think probably a very significant cost savings for the taxpayer, I think it was just the matter of the registration fee for me. And the advantage is that since I'm sitting on the couch at home, if I think that a session is not relevant to me I don't have to watch it and I don't have to feel guilty about that. And I get to carry on my normal life and support my family and still attend the convention, so it's got some advantages" -- Councillor Nick Adey on this years virtual UBCM convention
Mr. Adey also made note of some of the technical glitches that were found through the week, particularly during the resolutions portion of the event observing how the in person event of the past provided for better opportunities for networking and such.
He also observed that with a provincial election called at the start of the convention, many of the opportunities to meet with, or hear from provincial officials disappeared and with that, also coming to an end were opportunities to raise local concerns and seek answers to questions that they may have brought from home.
As we outlined in our archive of last month, the announcement of the 2020 election on Day one of the UBCM conference also meant that all three provincial party leaders put a very political spin to their comments, which while still talking to civic issues certainly came with the prism of an election campaign platform, as opposed to a more detailed overview of shared work with the municipalities.
One speech that the long time SD52 teacher made note of was that of the keynote address from the renowned Canadian author Margaret Atwood, with Mr. Adey exploring of some of the themes on community engagement that she delivered in her presentation and notes for municipal leaders.
With the councillor calling attention to the vision of development ahead for Prince Rupert, he recounted a section of the Atwood address that might resonate well with Mayor and Council.
"It's important in community building to find projects that you can get a general consensus and that people can buy into on a broad scale"
With the councillor observing that: "what we're being told is in the future for Prince Rupert has that quality, so that's a good thing"
He also relayed some of his thoughts as on how municipalities may wish to move forward through COVID and beyond, noting of those changes that may be ahead for communities in an era of remote workplaces and less presence in the traditional office module.
The Councillor also observed how that may change how we view things and how Prince Rupert may benefit from what may be the new normal.
"What that means for communities is that you don't have to live in Vancouver to work in Vancouver.
And so, then you're going to have people that are going to make choices, lifestyle choices, to live in other communities. Potentially smaller communities with more of an outdoor life, more outdoor amenities.
And that's where building the community as we're tying to do here, becomes really signifiant.
Because you have to build a community that people who can work from home, would choose, in term of where they would choose to live and it becomes part of the challenge. And if you do it right I think it's an opportunity to really create some really good diversity through making it livalbe, making walkable, recreation opportunities and so on"
As for how future UBCM sessions may move forward he suggested some kind of hybrid version of in person and virtual version in the future.
Councillor Skelton-Morven offered some thoughts to the topic of engagement with other municipalities and officials as well
The Councillor recounting for Council how he had attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities with City Manager Robert Long earlier this year and that his takeaway from those travels was that relationship building is important for local government and how that relationship building requires showing up and making yourself available to follow up on topics.
You can review Councillor Adey's verbal report from the City's Video Archive page below starting at the one hour six minute mark.
For former students, we offer up our comments section below for a chance to return the favours of the past in education and post his grades from his presentation if you wish.
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