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| Federal Cabinet Minister Dominic LeBlanc has forwarded a reply to a City of Prince Rupert correspondence November on infrastructure issues (image from Gov't of Canada) |
In a letter From March 1st, that is included in the Agenda Package for tonight's Prince Rupert City Council Session, Dominic LeBlanc, the Federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities provides a response to a letter forwarded to Transport Minister Omar Alghabra back in November.
That letter was one of many directed to Federal and Provincial officials prior to and during the December Local State of Emergency related to the city's waterline issues at the time.
The correspondence from Mr. Leblanc offers the sympathy of the Minister to the City's residents when it comes to its current infrastructure challenges and then directs the City towards a few other departments which manage the Federal Assistance process.
The Federal Minister also encourages Mayor Pond and the City to continue to explore potential funding options through the province.
Mr. Leblanc also makes note of the recently announced Provincial Growing Communities Fund observing how it may be an option for the municipality.
That was a timely bit of observation from the Federal Government, as we noted on Friday North Coast MLA Jennifer provided some welcome news towards that fund, outlining the amount of money that a number of communities will be receiving.
With Prince Rupert to receive just over 4 million dollars from the 1 Billion dollar Provincial fund.
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The City really should move beyond exceptionalist narratives about 'special funding', and instead focus on accessing federal-provincial programs that are already in place to assist municipalities like the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
ReplyDeleteIt does not take much reading between the lines of the Minister's letter (top of page 2) to see that the Province has already identified most of its priorities under that program, which means that the City may have missed out, probably from not having its eye on the ball. Also apparent is that writing to the Minister of Transport about a water infrastructure issue was not an effective strategy.
Perhaps the Minister of Transport should consider returning some of the millions in revenue his department receives annually from the PRPA?
DeleteThat’s something everyone should be able to get behind.
Based on that comment, I would suggest you get behind a good economics book.
ReplyDeleteSince 2017, the National Trade Corridors fund has funded almost $124 million into Prince Rupert projects (this does not include the recent $75 million for Trigon's expansion)
How many small businesses have opened in Prince Rupert since 2017?
How has disposable income changed for local workers?
What is the impact on local unemployment numbers?
https://tc.canada.ca/en/programs/funding-programs/national-trade-corridors-fund/projects-funded-national-trade-corridors-fund
And before you say it, I am not a port executive.
You realize that the $124 million you reference was invested in either the PRPA or privately owned industry right?
DeleteNot a cent of it was spent on community infrastructure or amenities.
Your “trickle down” economics textbook is a few decades out of date.
Yes, disposable incomes have gone up. Yes, unemployment has gone down.
and yet… property taxes for the container port have gone down since they expanded. property taxes of the pellet terminal have gone down every year since it was built. And the grain terminal paying less in taxes today than they were almost 20 years ago.