The City of Prince Rupert is sharing word today of their status as a finalist for A National Brownfield Redevelopment Award, related to the work done on the Watson Island Industrial Site.
The Brownie's as they are know. by, are presented through the partnership of the Canadian Brownfields Network (CBN) and Actual Media Inc.
In the description of the pgoram for this year, it is noted that the Brownie Awards boasts the most geographically diverse variety of projects and project teams in the history of the awards program.
As Christopher de Sousa, Chair of the Brownie Awards jury and president of the Board of Directors explains, the awards recognize outstanding achievement towards redevelopment.
“The redevelopment of brownfields provides important economic and environmental opportunities to create cleaner, safer, and more socially vibrant communities.
It’s remarkable to see cities and towns represented across Canada this year.
We’re proud to honour the well-deserving award finalists, and we look forward to celebrating their outstanding achievements at this year’s Brownie Awards gala.”
The City of Prince Rupert through an announcement late this afternoon put its focus on how they have made lemonade from lemons, as well as to explain how the Watson Island project qualified for its nomination.
Prince Rupert is in the Reprogram category and is in competition with projects in Toronto and Guelph in Ontario.
The Gala Award ceremony is set for the Delta Hotel in Toronto on November 14th.
Learn more about the Brownie's here.
An overview of what the City has shared of their work with residents through the years of work on the Watson Island site can be explored through our archive page here.
Great job to Bob Long, Richard Pucci, Paul Venditelli and Lee Brain!
ReplyDeleteThe lemonade will taste better when Watson is fully leased out and full.
DeletePembina is a good anchor tenant, keep going, move faster and get more leases signed.
Funny to have never heard this line of criticism directed at the Port’s hundreds of acres of undeveloped industrial lands on Ridley Island …
DeleteThey’ve had decades and multiple failed proposals (think Canpotex, LNG). Why aren’t they moving faster?
The PRPA is private, has a land use plan and are working it in stages with partners.
DeleteWatson is municipal and has no plan or pipeline of opportunities.
This tax payer expects more out of Watson.
What is the plan to get to 100% leased by x date?
Ummm... the PRPA is actually a public entity. It's owned by Canadians. We should expect more from them than the City.
Deletehttps://federal-organizations.canada.ca/profil.php?OrgID=PNR&lang=en
The City also has a land use plan btw. And the open house they hosted when Pembina was first announced clearly showed a phased approach to attracting multiple tenants on different parcels and remediate along the way.
And us taxpayers are getting double the financial benefit from Watson Island as all capped port industries combined. What's the plan to make sure that all non-Watson Island port terminals pay their fair share?
Not true. PRPA is not private. PRPA is a public entity. Here's a copy + paste right from their own website:
Delete"The Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) is a federal Canadian port authority established pursuant to the terms of the Canada Marine Act"
The public isn't allowed to know the plan? The cost? This is a commercial venture. I would much sooner the city fix Crestview! The money coming from Watson Island is just being reinvested into development. Funny the city is doing development on a commercial project and wants to lease a water treatment facility from the private sector!
ReplyDeleteThe money from Watson Island helped double the City’s road budget. The plan is clear: make tax and lease revenues to support infrastructure improvements. Funny that you seem to be advocating a sale of the island ; this was a failed strategy proven and led by the past mayor Mussallum
DeleteA lot of the recent money from those projects came from Legacy Fund.
ReplyDeleteRelease details on Legacy Fund finances. The one or two pages the city puts out doesn’t give the taxpayers a glimpse into what is really going on.
Why do you continue to deny the millions in benefits that taxpayers are receiving from Watson Island? It makes no sense to be cranky about an actual win that this community has experienced.
DeleteLegacy Inc financials show millions in lease revenues from lands, plus almost a million in "throughput", meaning we are directly sharing in the growth of industry (ie. unlike with the container port). Plus hundreds of thousands in interest income while the money is waiting to be spent.
For anyone reading the comment section who wants to do their own research:
https://www.princerupert.ca/sites/default/files/finance/budget/Prince%20Rupert%20Legacy%20Inc.%202021.pdf
The audited financial statements are on the city’s website, perhaps you just need to learn to read and ask questions to appropriate sources rather than complaining here?
DeleteHe has a point. The City's 2021 audited financial statements do not provide particulars as to how much was received from Watson. Neither do Legacy's statements. The Public Budget (Financial Plan 2022-2026) at pages 36-37 reports 2020 revenue from Watson of $1,214,046 and expenditures of $2,036,307, and $480,000 revenue and $475,797 expenditures for 2021. Probably the net loss over those two years is offset by property tax revenue, or by revenue from Legacy that originates from Watson, but those numbers are not presented in the statements. Also unknown is how much the City spent to take down the pulp mill and remediate the site for new development.
ReplyDelete