Prince Rupert City Council members had a marathon of a Zoom day on Monday, with the Council settling late in the afternoon, hosting three separate elements before their work day was complete.
The day began with a Closed Session followed by a Public Hearing at 5:30 PM, with Council receiving feedback from the community towards the overhaul of the Official Community Plan and the Bylaws to go with it.
The Public Hearing would also provide for the largest portion of the Regular Council session on the night, with the Council members using the 7PM public meeting to review the comments from the hearing and to do a little message making of their own over the course of an hour and half discussion.
They also found some time to fit in approval of a contract to purchase new garbage bins for a new garbage/recycling program to launch in the summer.
Some land variance and Temporary use requests gained their attention, as did a request for approval towards the loan authorization process for the Landfill expansion and the Shawatlans Dam project.
The night also provided for the final public consultation update from the City's Chief Financial Officer, who provided a report on the final steps towards the City's Budget and Five year Financial plan.
As the council continues to met at a distance owing to the COVID pandemic, the Public hearing and Public Council session was streamed live through the use of a Zoom conference.
Some background on the work of Council for the night can be reviewed from the Regular Agenda Package for the April 12th session.
The Notice of the Public Hearing can be reviewed here.
Council also hosted a Closed meeting, marking the sixth such session which has been closed to the public for 2021.
The details related to the reasons for the in camera session can be reviewed here.
Further information from our overview and placement in the video archive can be found below, with the permanent record of the council minutes added as they are posted to the city website.
In attendance Monday, April 12, 2021
Mayor Lee Brain -- Present by Zoom
Councillor Nick Adey -- Present by Zoom
Councillor Barry Cunningham -- Present by Zoom
Councillor Blair Mirau -- Present by Zoom
Councillor Reid Skelton-Morven -- Present by Zoom
Councillor Wade Niesh -- Present by Zoom
Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa -- Present by Zoom
Video Archive for Monday, April 12, 2021
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Public Hearing -- Official Community Plan, Zoning Bylaws related to it
You can find the review of the Public Hearing from Monday evening, as well as the follow up discussion by City Council from the Regular Session later that night from our article here.
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( 0:00 - 1:30 ) Regular City Council Session for Monday, April 12, 2021 -- Mayor Lee Brain called the session to order, adopting past minutes and the Agenda for the session underway, noting of one change to the document, advising that Final Reading of the Official Community Plan and Bylaws associated to it would not take place on the night, but at the next Council session.
( 1:30 --6:00 ) Budget Presentation -- The City's Financial Officer Corinne Bomben provided another look at the City's Financial Plan and Budget preparation. -- Ms. Bomben noted that so far the comments process required for the Budget period has delivered no contributions either by comments or questions from the public.
Following the review of her snapshot of the budget planning, Mayor Brain asked for an update on the next step of the budget process.
Ms. Bomben noted that with the consultation period now at an end, Council will discuss the budget findings at their next Session at the end of the month.
( 6:00 -- 25:00 ) Report from Director of Operations -- A report and recommendation on a contract award for garbage bins. for the City's plans for garbage and recycling collection in the community -- Richard Pucci provided the overview of the request for tender process and a recommendation of the proposal from towards the awarding of the contract for bins for garbage and recycling, with the Operations Manager recommending that Rollins Machinery and IPL be awarded the contract.
He then provided a short overview of what the new Garbage collection program would look like with the city to supply two garbage bins to all 4300 households in the community. One for regular garbage and the other for use for recyclable items.
Of the three options towards financing the garbage bin purchase, Council decided to go with the recommended option from staff, which will see residents billed 22 dollars through their garbage fees for a one time levy on the 2022 utility bill and the remainder of the cost to come through the gas tax.
He also noted that if residents were to lose their bins, or they become damaged the replacement would be 41 dollars for garbage and 65 for the recycling bins, plus assembly and delivery.
As for questions from Council members, Councillor Blair Mirau asked if there was a plan for apartment buildings and multi family residences, to which Mr. Pucci advised there was not at the moment as they are not covered by the program, though he did add it could be added in the future.
Mr. Mirau also asked about the potential for any uptick in recycling costs through Regional District and if there would be a increase in taxes on recycling, Mr. Pucci did not have an answer to that for the night, but did say he would research it and forward his findings through an internal memo.
Councillor Mirau followed up with comments expressing his enthusiasm for the project, noting of the benefits he believes will be found by taking this action now.
Councillor Adey follows up with his own thoughts, agreeing with much of what Councillor Mirau had stated calling it a significant forward step, recounting his observations on a recycling program that is in place in Victoria. He outlined some of the benefits that he can see from the program.
He did have a question related to the bins to be purchased and asked if residents would be allowed to put out their own bins as well, or if this marks a transition away from that process.
Mr. Pucci noted that with the new system only the city supplied bins would be allowed to be used, noting that the bins are large and he doesn't see any issues related to that changeover.
Councillor Adey asked if there was any plan for what residents should do with their current bins once the changeover takes place. Mr. Pucci noted that the city hasn't determined what will happen to the old bins.
He then outlined how the new bins will feature a computer chip that will allow for monitoring of the refuse that goes into the bins.
Councillor Cunningham followed up on that theme, asking if there was s structure for the fines that would be in place, as well he asked for an explanation as to how the monitoring would work.
Mr. Pucci, did not have any timeline on what the fines would be or when they would be put in place, as for the monitoring process he explained that with each bin having a chip, when the bin goes up to the truck the items in the bins will be reviewed by electronic means to assess whether any non compliant materials were in the bin and if a fine would be required for the residents.
He noted how the city is just moving into the process and that Prince Rupert will be looking at how other communities have approach the issue to learn what they've done right and what they've done wrong.
Prior to their vote, Councillor Cunningham asked for the cost of option three which would see the city absorb the full cost through the gas tax, he was advised that the total cost through that option would be 86,000 dollars.
Council then voted to approve the contract and accept option 2 as the way of moving forward with the purchase and introduction of the new approach to garbage and recycling in the community.
Both Mayor Brain and Councillor Mirau observed that by putting a small charge in place for residents that they would take some ownership of the program. Both also observed that this was something they were looking forward to and something they were excited about.
With Mr. Brain also stating that an education campaign will be required to explain the process to the community. And how the new process would make it easy for people to do the right thing and that that Council is doing their part to help them do the right thing as well.
Council then voted to approve the contract and accept option 2 as the way of moving forward with the purchase and introduction of the new approach to garbage and recycling in the community.
As for an introduction for the program, Mr, Pucci noted that a soft start would take place following the Canada Day weekend with the full impact of the program to be found later that month.
Mr. Pucci's report to council is available for review from the City Council Agenda
( 25:00 -- 26:00 ) Report from Planning -- A request for a development variance permit for a property on Sixth Avenue East -- Following the short review of the proposed tool shed for the property, Council moved the process forward towards the notification process. Later in the evening the Mayor would return to the file noting that Council had already moved the proposal to public notification and a change would be required to approve the variance permit.
( 26:00 -- 27:00 ) Report from Planning -- A verbal report providing a review of an application for a Temporary Use Permit for property at 225/227 Second Avenue West -- Chris Buchan from IPlan Planning Ltd. provided the background to the proposal to create an Urban Farm on the site. Mr. Buchan noted that they had not received any feedback from the public on the proposal and recommended that the permit be approved.
With no comments from Council, the members of Council carried the motion.
( 27:00 --28:00 ) Report from Planning -- A request for a development variance permit for a property on Eighth Avenue East for inclusion of a carport. It was recommended that the proposal be forwarded towards public notification. Council followed that guidance and move the process forward.
( 28:00 -- 32:30) Report from Planning -- A variance request for a property on Parker Drive -- Following the explanation of the variance request to increase the building height, Mr. Buchan noted of a mix of comment from the public in opposition to the proposal.
Councillor Niesh spoke against the proposed height variance and noted of the opposition to it from the neighbours, noting how other residents of the area had requested similar variances and had been denied.
Councillor Randhawa also shared similar concerns on the variance request and asked for some clarification from the contract planners on the reasons for refusal of past variances. The planners noted that they were not aware of the reasons for the past refusals. Mr. Randhawa then outlined that he would vote in favour of the motion.
Councillor Cunningham came back to the concerns of the neighbours in the area and spoke against the motion.
From that point Council voted to oppose the variance request.
( 32:30--33:30 ) Report from the Chief Financial Officer -- Authorization for Security Issuing resolution related to the City's Solid Wast Loan process, Authorization for Security Issuing resolution related to the City's Woodworth Dam process -- Ms. Corinne Bomben outlined the background to the borrowing process that the city is required to follow in relation to its loan requirements for the two infrastructure projects, which also involves the Regional District.
Following her comments, Mayor Brain noted that the Council has discussed the topic a number of times in the past, the Council membership then carried the motions forward for both Authorization requests.
( 33:30--2:13:00 ) Report from Planning -- Zoning Bylaw Amendment, Official Community Plan
Our look at the discussion on those two themes can be reviewed as part of our article on the Public Hearing process available here.
( 2:13:00 -- 2:19:00 ) Questions, Comments, Reports or Inquiries from Council
Councillor Randhawa took the opportunity to salute the opening of the Pembina LPG Terminal, which opened for operations earlier in the day.
Councillor Niesh also shared his enthusiasm for the start up of operations for the new shipment terminal calling it a monumental day and observed how he looks forward to more things happening at the Watson Island site to help build on the city's tax base even more delivering more revenue to assist with their infrastructure needs.
Mr. Niesh also returned to a theme he has raised in the past on the city's approach to road painting, calling for the council to consider delaying the road Line painting process until the late summer period.
Councillor Cunningham also returned to some past business asking what the progress was when it came to the city's plans for enforcement of the downtown property clean up. Ms. Miller's reply was unfortunately lost for the audience into the deep space of the digital atmosphere.
Though Mayor Brain did follow up by observing how the City needs to follow a process of reasonable notification before the city can do it's own enforcement and putting the charge on peoples taxes. He further noted that multiple letters and notifications will be required before the bylaw enforcement team can move forward.
Mr. Brain reinforced the city's commitment towards its clean up program, noting that if the downtown efforts prove successful, that the city would then move the enforcement moves towards residential areas, stating that it's multi year plan with a team dedicated towards achieving their goals.
Councillor Mirau also spoke towards the opening of the Pembina LPG terminal offering his own congratulations and noting how heartening it was to see how far that site has come and how it is now set to make the community millions of dollars in tax and lease revenues for decades to come, congratulating staff for their hard work on the file.
Mayor Brain also spoke to the path that council followed towards the Pembina opening.
With no other comments or inquiries, the Council session came to a close and council returned to their suspended Closed session from earlier in the day.
You can access our archive of the City Council. Session here, where a number of items regarding the Council session, including links to local media coverage can also be found.
As always, our Council Timeline is only a reflection of our observations from the Council Session of the night. Be sure to consult with the official minutes from the City, when posted to their website for further review.
Official minutes of the Regular Council Session from April 12, 2021
(not available yet)
The next City Council session will take place on Monday, April 26, 2021
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