Friday, June 17, 2022

City's Annual report features messages, updates and data reviews

A short window for review and comment is now open for the City of Prince Rupert's just released Annual Report, the last of the Budget theme items to be delivered prior to tax collection day on July 4th.

The Report was delivered to City Council at a Special Zoom Council session on Wednesday, with Communications Director Veronica Stewart providing the report to Council to launch what will be the two week opportunity for residents to review the findings prior to City Council accepting it as part of the June 27th Council session.

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The document itself is akin to the annual high school year book for Charles Hays Secondary, it lists all the accomplishments of the year, features a few comments from civic officials and sets the course for the year ahead.

The Report opens as it does each year with greetings from the mayor and City Manager, in this years volume that means a farewell address for Mayor Lee Brain and the first commentary on civic themes from the new City Manager Rob Buchan.

The Mayor's message which will be familiar for many from their Tax Notice package of May. The correspondence from our top civic officials notes of Mr. Brain's pending shift away from municipal politics, while celebrating some of the Rupert 2030 vision and the elements in place to date and those yet to be realized.

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For his part the City Manager, puts the focus towards the future and the work that 2021 provided to chart that course ahead.

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The progress for many of the Major or Special projects that council watched over in 2021 provides for a good portion of the Annual Report Review, listed under their 2021 Accomplishments banner.

Among them two projects just getting their start, in the city's approach to an innovative Sewer Treatment Program and the work on the waterfront at the CN Building.


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The report also provides for a snapshot of some of the statistical notes for the year that ended on December 31st, 2021


A range of other projects also get some attention, some completed, others where the community is still waiting for the Mission Accomplished message.

On the list, The Seal Cove Salt Marsh, Adoption of a new Community Plan and Design Guidelines, Adoptions of a Housing Strategy, Eat Street and Urbaloo construction, Revitalization  Tax Exemption Bylaw adopted and the work on the Civic Branding project with local Ts'msyen Artist Russel Mather.

The Woodworth Dam and Landfill site both get in some attention in the Report, though at the most recent City Council session we heard from CFO Corinne Bomben that the Dam was in the finalizing stages and the landfill site was heading towards the permitting stage. 

However, both of those projects are somewhat behind from their original in service dates and may qualify for a reprise in the 2022 annual report at this pace.

The City's Emergency Services providers also get a short overview from the Annual Report, the findings for both the Prince Rupert Fire Department and Prince Rupert RCMP can be reviewed from our twin items available here (RCMP) and here (PRFD).

The Report also makes note of the 2022 Objectives for City Council, the checklist that made for the To do list for this year included:

Strategic priority setting for new council, following election in October 2022

Final completion of work on the new cell at the local landfill and Curbside Recycling launched

Active Living Guide moving to online format, minor facility renovations at Recreation Department

Final completion of the dam and continued engineering for a water treatment facility and submarine line

Continued advocacy for Northern Revenue Supports

Pass 'Renoviction' Bylaw, implement additional housing related policy and programming changes

Confirmation of Borrowing and Design work towards the development of a new RCMP station

Site lease for new Public Works facility

Launch of new Corporate City Brand and updating of City Assets

Continuation of waterfront Development project

Initiation of Plans for Housing, Master Transportation and Parks

Continued work on Wastewater Treatment Planning and Implementation

Continued training for Firefighters, New Firehall Design and Site Survey

The Annual report wraps up with a review of the Audited Financial Statements which were released in May of this year.

You can review the full 50 page report here.

Council members will have opportunity to make their own comments on the document at the June 27th Council Session at 7PM. 

Members of the public will also be invited to make comment on the report if they wish at that session. 

If you can't attend that session, you can provide written comments by email, address your contribution to Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller at rosamaria.miller@princerupert.ca or you can submit them to 424 3rd Avenue West, Prince Rupert BC, V8J 1L7

All comments must be delivered to City Hall by 4 PM on June 27th.

The Report could be somewhat of a preview of the State of the City Presentation that Mayor Lee Brain has announced plans for, with the public session to take place on Tuesday, June 28th.



For more notes on the City's Budget process and all the documentation that comes with it see our archive page here.

A wider overview of Council Discussion themes is available here.





1 comment:

  1. I note the above document takes credit for final completion of the new cell at the landfill.
    For the work to be complete all permits have to be in order. At Mondays council meeting the permits were not in place.
    So which statement by the city is correct?

    ReplyDelete