A contingent of Prince Rupert City Council members appear to have had a very rewarding experience at a recent Regional District led workshop to explore housing issues in the area.
Councillor Nick Adey was the first to provide some notes on the day long event of March 3rd, observing how it brought together not only civic representation, but a broad collection of participants, including those from Regional District, The District of Port Edward, North Coast First Nations, MLA Jennifer Rice and other stakeholders.
In addition to Mr. Adey, the other elected officials from Prince Rupert that attended the forum on behalf of the city included: Mayor Pond, Councillor Cunnigham and Councillor Skelton-Morven
The overview from Councillor Adey offered up a snap shot of the event and what he took away from the day.
"It was an all day workshop and the intent was to look at the challenges we all acknowledge we're facing on housing and the fact that is in fact a very important issue and a challenge that we need to try and overcome. But also working towards possible solutions ...
We had guest speakers give us information, for the most part around funding issues fro CMHC and the FCM and an organization called. the Community Housing Transformation Group.
And what I take away from it, I thought it was a really positive day, I think that it was really positive just to have that cross section in a room to talk about these issues. I take away from it that the problems are shared among the communities and that there's a degree to which if housing is successfully completed and developed in one community it actually has ripple effects throughout the area in terms of helping to ease some of those pressures.
And so it sort of begs the obvious conclusion, that working on a regional basis in some way is probably going to be one of our best ways to attack the problem.
And so I believe the conclusion was that there's an interest in establishing through the NCRD, a Regional Coordinator to try and coordinate those efforts and address it as what I think it is, which is a Regional Problem.
To attract that not only the funding but the development that results from the funding" -- Councillor Nick Adey
Mayor Pond didn't have as much to say related to the day long session, noting how he concurred with the remarks from the Councillor.
Councillor Skelton-Morven also spoke to the Regional District workshop of last week.
"I also wanna just thank the folks that came out to the Housing workshop and it was great to see all of the stakeholders there and I think there's a lot of solutions on the table.
I think one of the most viable was the pieces around a Regional Housing coordinator to help manage some f the work flows, logistics and challenges that come with that.
Because if we don't allocate someone with full time resources to this particular series of projects, I don't think we're going to be able see the needs of 3,000 plus units over the next ten years.
One of the other items I kind of would like to see if there's a potential of us exploring other opportunities.
And I know that there's some interest around joint ventures between a Municipal Housing corporation that's multi stake holder between Nations and that's something we could see in the future' -- Councillor Reid Skelton-Morven
There's little in the way of information to be found on the North Coast Regional District website related to either Friday's forum on housing, or any extensive notes as to what the Regional focus may be on the topic.
So if City Council members have access to a full report from the day, sharing it through the City website might help to expand on the discussions of the event and evolving strategy.
The presentations from the Monday session do seem to provide for a need for more information for local residents as to how this regional view of the issues may be moving forward.
Mr. Skelton-Morven also noted of a concept of interest to the council members from the past, that of the prospect of creating a Municipal Housing Corporation, something that residents haven't heard much more about from City Council off late.
That concept was introduced in February of 2021, the potential for further action towards it gaining some momentum in the following years, as housing became one of the more dominant themes for City Council.
January 2023 -- Housing Discussion on Renoviction themes points way forward ... to more discussion
December 2022 -- Housing Report spurs on more discussion on housing issues for Prince Rupert Council members
December 2022 -- City Council to receive Housing Needs Report tonight
July 2022 -- State of the City: Housing Development
March 2022 -- Land and lots of it ... City of Prince Rupert outlines plans to make property lots available through Legacy Inc.
March 2022 -- Housing and the challenges for families and residents highlighted in Council presentation
As, well with the City looking for grant funding towards a pair of Non Market housing initiatives in the downtown core area, providing an update on those proposals would give residents some sense of where things are towards those themes.
Most importantly from the review of Mr. Adey is a need for more details on the Regional approach and the plans for a Regional Coordinator.
With Council offering up a glimpse for the public as to what those duties would include, how the position would be funded and what kind of supports would the City be providing to the regional project.
In addition to those areas of note, Council may also want to offer up some updates on the status of some of the high profile housing projects still delayed.
With little activity seen for both the Lax Kw'alaams led 11th Avenue East housing plans or those in the McKay Street area.
Two significant proposals for housing that would go a long way to alleviating some of the current urgency of the affordable housing stock in the city.
Another much noted project which came late into 2022, was that of plans for the Seal Cove area, something which hasn't been mentioned at a Council session since the announcement was made in November.
You can review the discussion on housing from the City's Video Archive Mr. Adey's themes begin at the 27 minute mark, while Council Skelton-Morven's observations are found starting at the 36 minutes.
More notes related to Monday's Council session can he reviewed here.
A wider overview of housing issues in Prince Rupert can be explored through our Housing Archive page.
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