City Council issues invitation to Ecotrust Canada for update on Community Garden plans

Prince Rupert and area residents may soon learn
more about plans for an Urban Garden as part of
a partnership between the City of Prince Rupert 
and Ecotrust Canada
(photo from Ecotrust Facebook page)

The recent announcement of funding success for a local urban garden program has seemingly gotten the town to talking and as a result, one Prince Rupert councillor would like to see a public presentation provided towards plans from Ecotrust Canada for the city's downtown core.

As we outlined last Friday, the Northern Development Initiative Trust approved on a grant request from the City of Prince Rupert towards the Northwest Food Systems Initiative, providing 100,000 dollars towards the project that will build local food access, literacy and security for social and economic resiliency in Prince Rupert and Northwest BC.

At Monday night's Prince Rupert City Council Session, Councillor Barry Cunningham noted that there had been some confusion in recent days over the awarding of the funding for the Community Garden Grant to the City of Prince Rupert, with the councillor recommending that Ecotrust Canada be invited to Council to provide a presentation to the community on what is planned for the project.

"There seems to be some confusion about the urban grant and the city's involvement in that and what they're going to do and how they're going to do it, so I would like request Ecotrust come before the next meeting to sort of put out what their plans are and explain it to people" -- Councillor Barry Cunningham

As Mayor Lee Brain outlined on Monday, Council at a previous session had passed a resolution to apply for a grant on behalf of EcoTrust and now that the grant has been approved believes that it is a timely moment for the organization to appear at council to further outline what it will look like.

"I think, just for clarity's sake, Council passed a resolution to apply for grant funding on their behalf at one of our previous council meetings, but now that the grant has been received ... but I think that it's warranted that Ecotrust would come to Council  and maybe do a presentation on what the project would look like and see some more details on the ground" -- Mayor Lee Brain

When exactly the City passed that resolution to apply for the grant was not outlined by the mayor on Monday evening and there does not seem to be a mention of it in the past Council Agendas packages for this year.

You can review Mr. Cunningham's talking points a the seventeen minute mark from the Video archive for Monday's Council session.

For its part, Ecotrust Canada released some additional information  with a media release on November 10th that filled in some of the details on their initiative

Among the key elements of their update:

This year, after experiencing how the COVID-19 crisis exposed cracks in the sea- and agri-food supply chain in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, Ecotrust Canada pivoted its innovation lab to steer more directly toward finding sustainable solutions for food systems. 

The Northwest Food Systems Initiative is a pilot project with the City of Prince Rupert that will build more local food access, literacy, and security for social and economic resiliency in Prince Rupert and the Northwest BC region. This month, the initiative received critical support from the Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT) — Strategic Initiatives Fund (SIF) program to bring the following two project activities and objectives to fruition in 2021. 

First, the initiative will establish the Kaien Island Urban Farm, a demonstration farm based on a vacant lot in downtown Prince Rupert. This will be a space for local growers, workshops to increase food literacy, donations to local food programs, and research activities to inform policymakers and planners. 

To scale up the urban farm, the second activity will involve building the Northwest Food Network across Northwest BC. This network will be based in Prince Rupert and will facilitate sea- and agri-food trade and procurement in the region. The network will aim to build local, resilient, food economies by creating more employment, trade agreements between communities, and increasing domestic demand for food products

"When Ecotrust Canada came to the City to assist with finding funding for this project, we felt it was a good fit in supporting two key goals that we’ve identified in recent community planning efforts – the revitalization of our downtown, and supporting broader aims of food security for our region. With their capacity and experience, we believe they are well positioned to deliver a project with lasting community impact.” -- City of Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain

"After listening and learning from the Prince Rupert community through the work of the North Coast Innovation Lab, it became apparent that food security is a priority for the people who live here. We’re excited to work with the City of Prince Rupert, and to have the support from NDIT for Northwest Food Systems initiative, which is another step toward building local, resilient, economies in this region.” -- Alexie Stephens, Ecotrust Canada’s Program Manager of the Skeena Region at Ecotrust Canada

The full information release can be explored here.

More notes from Monday's City Council session can be explored from our Council Timeline Feature.

A wider overview of past Council Discussion themes is available from our archive page here.