Lack of response from elected officials brings cancellation of planned public forum on city's water infrastructure

The local advocacy group People for Public Infrastructure has cancelled their planned Public Forum on the city's water issues that had been scheduled for January 21st. 

A notice posted to the organization's website by Tom Kertes observes that after having asked for the city's elected officials to attend the session, none had RSVP'd and with that the decision was made to cancel the forum.

The group indicating that they hope that the City will organize their own public forum so as to inform the public as to the ongoing challenges of the city's infrastructure issues.

click to enlarge

A look at the launch of their plans from November, as well as some past items of note on their work is available here.

As we outlined last week, the first City Council session for 2022 did not provide for any update on the situation from December which saw a Local State of Emergency Declared by Civic officials.

Since that week long period of concern, a number of provincial and federal politicians have taken pen to paper to urge the Federal Government to join in towards resolving some of the city's water infrastructure concerns.

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice started the letter writing campaign during the State of Local Emergency, a number of Provincial Ministers followed up in January with a letter calling for the Federal government to partner with the city and province on the issue.

As we outlined yesterday, Skeena-Bulkley Vally MP Taylor Bachrach has been the latest to weigh in, forwarding his own letter to Federal Minister Dominic LeBlanc on Thursday.

As for People for Public Infrastructure, the group will be hosting their next meeting on Sunday February 12th at 1PM.

click to enlarge

Further updates on their plans and notes from their archive can be reviewed here.

When it comes to the City's original interest in the public/private partnership options towards civic infrastructure, the topic has not returned to the Council chamber since it was introduced by the City's Operations Director in the fall.

A look at some of the city's Major Projects and Infrastructure themes is available here.