Watson Island project gains national recognition and Brownie Award following Awards ceremony in Toronto Monday

The City of Prince Rupert and its partners were celebrated for their
work on the Watson Island project at a National awards show on Monday

The City of Prince Rupert has an award to share with the community today, making note of the success of the Watson Island brownfield project as a winner at last night's National Awards program in Toronto.

The City is sharing the award with McElhanney from the Best Overall Large Project, the "Brownie" award one that as the city outlines "recognizes brownfield rehabilitation projects across Canada on sites that were once contaminated, under-utilized and undeveloped that have been transformed into productive developments that support the economic vitality of their communities." 

Recently installed Mayor Herb Pond noted of the work of the previous Mayor and. Council on the Watson Island project and the opportunity it will offer to the community.

“Prince Rupert’s Watson Island project was among multiple deserving finalists in the category of brownfield development, and the City and our partners are honoured to have received an award. The previous Mayor and Council, together with City staff, turned what was once a major challenge and environmental liability for Prince Rupert into a source of new revenues and opportunity for the community. That’s a win!”

Among some of the other background outlined towards the city's success by Veronika Stewart,  the City's Communication Manager is a look at the scope of the project and some of the importance of the other partners that were involved in the work.

The project had many partners the City can credit for its success alongside McElhanney, including their partners at Trillium Environmental Ltd, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, as well as numerous both local and non-local contractors. 

To reduce the up front financial burden of remediation on the City and its taxpayers, the site is being redeveloped and remediated through an innovative proponent driven process with the Provincial Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. 

The first project to come online was Pembina’s propane facility, which began operations this past year. With the start of Pembina’s project, the site has been returned to the tax roll and is also now bringing in lease revenue for the City’s Legacy Corporation – which then provides dividends to the City to offset major one-time capital costs like the dam replacement.

The city's information release, which you can review here, also notes of the interest that the project has found from other communities and the potential for further development for the site in the future.

The Prince Rupert project gained its award in a competition with the City of Guelph and a Community project in Toronto.  

The Environmental Journal shared some accolades of its own for the Prince Rupert submission by way of their their recap of Awards Night.

click to enlarge

The City's success that came from the Awards show, has made for one of the few updates of late when it comes to the work at Watson Island.

You can review some of the other background to the Watson Island project through our archive page.