A call for more support for municipal government had a familiar ring in the House of Commons today, with Skeena Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bacharach calling for on the federal government to become more involved in the City of Prince Rupert's call for additional assistance.
Bachrach provided some background for MPs in the House and those viewing at home during Question period, noting of the city's place as an important strategic port for the nation.
The MP recalling the Local State of Emergency that was declared in December and the efforts that went into keeping the system functional an ongoing fears for the water infrastructure to function
"This past December, the City of Prince Rupert declared a state of emergency after several water main breaks. And now City officials fear a catastrophic failure of the city's water infrastructure.
Now the BC government has pledged its support already and has written to this Minister of Infrastructure and asked for Federal help.
Why won't this Liberal Government step up and help this city in crisis"
In response, Dominic LeBlanc the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Communities noted that he and the MP had discussed the issue previously. As well as to observe, that the Federal government has discussed the issue with the City of Prince Rupert and the Federal government understands the issued
"This is a critical piece of Canada's economic infrastructure and yet a municipal water system is dependent on a community with a population that is necessarily much more limited than the economic impact of the larger port and its infrastructure.
I've had conversations with the Government of British Columbia in this regard and we hope to have good news soon"
The conversation with the Minister can be reviewed below:
Mr. LeBlanc's comments in the House come following a recent correspondence with Mayor Herb Pond that wasn't quite as optimistic towards federal assistance.
As we noted yesterday that letter while acknowledging the issues and offering up sympathy, didn't really deliver on any potential funding promise.
The comments from the House today might suggest some of that view is changing.
More notes the city's Infrastructure issues can be reviewed from our archive page.
A look at the work of the Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP in Ottawa is available here.
Whatever the news, it will be consistent with federal-provincial agreements under which it is the Province that takes the lead on identifying and prioritizing municipal projects that will receive funding from the two governments. Taylor Bachrach must know how the system works. As on other issues, the City really needs to focus more on Victoria.
ReplyDeleteOn the latter, it's noteworthy that the ScraptheTaxCap group has now delivered a petition with 1,784 names to MLA Jen Rice. It will be interesting to see how that plays out and whether the council presents something more substantial than social media posts and the odd sound bite that seemed to be the preferred strategy of the previous council.
What a strange line of criticism. This is a video of our MP doing his job, calling on the feds for assistance, yet you’ve somehow construed it into a knock against the City not focussed on Victoria. Silliness.
DeleteAs far as sound bites go, I for one certainly miss the popcorn worthy updates from MLB.
If you look at the Canada-BC Bilateral Agreement for the Investing Canada Infrastructure Program, which lasts until 2028, you will see in section 4 that BC is responsible for implementation and under 9.1 that "British Columbia will be responsible for identifying and prioritizing eligible projects, and will engage engage with local and regional government ....". That's why the City needs to focus on Victoria.
ReplyDeleteI’m saying you’re being silly for criticizing the City in response to our MP doing his job and advocating for more resources in a community in his riding.
DeleteThis shall now be called “Municipal Aversion and Loathing in City Establishment” (MALICE).
Or how about being labelled a GRUMP: grumbling and rebelling against Municipal Politics.
Or do you just ACHE with Anti-City Hall expression syndrome?
Do you enjoy saying things like that?
Delete