Province offers to prioritize resources towards Prince Rupert water line woes, if Federal government partners up towards issue

The Province of British Columbia has taken up the torch for Prince Rupert City Council in seeking some Federal assistance towards the community's waterline issues. 

That comes with North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice releasing a correspondence this morning, that originated on Monday, which the province delivered to Federal Minister Dominic Leblanc.

The letter recounts the recent State of Local Emergency in Prince Rupert, and provides some background to the week of waterline issues faced by the community, that had City work crews and contractors working around the clock to keep on top of the challenges provided during the cold weather period. 

The letter from Ministers Anne Kang, Rob Fleming and Brenda Bailey also notes of the importance of the community to the Port of Prince Rupert and how a significant water infrastructure failure would impact on the Port's ability to operate.

Key to the letter is the passage calling on the Federal Government to to partner in funding towards the plans for the multi year water distribution system replacement.  

With the province noting that  it would "expect that Canada will come to the table with financial support", along with contributions from the province and the city to urgently move the project forward.

The full letter to the Minister was posted to the MLA's Social media stream today and is a follow up to one that Ms. Rice had forwarded to both provincial and federal ministers in December.

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Now that a pair of letters have been forwarded to the Federal Government,  the topic may be one that Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach could soon advocate for, seeking confirmation from the Federal government of their plans towards moving the funding agenda forward.

A review of Mr. Bachrach's taking points over the last few weeks, suggests that the situation in Prince Rupert appears to have been a bit off the radar for the MP over the holiday period. 

So far City Council has not provided for any updates on the situation facing the city's waterline infrastructure since the Local State of Emergency ended just before Christmas.

More notes from the Legislature can be reviewed here.

Items of inters on the City's infrastructure challenges can be explored from our archive page.