Mayor Pond, Senior Staffers In Ottawa seeking infrastructure funding for City

Monday's City Council session provided for another appearance of the 'Brady Bunch' screen with four participants of the Monday proceedings participating by remote means on the night.

Three of them, Mayor Herb Pond, City Manager Robert Buchan and Director of Operations and Intergovernmental relations Richard Pucci were all in Ottawa on civic business.

The Mayor providing for a short snapshot of the purpose of the travel of the trio as that released to seeking out more infrastructure funding

"We're, Director Pucci, Doctor Buchan  and myself are in Ottawa. We've just arrived, tried to get here in time so we could participate for the meeting. And obviously we're here to see if we can find, we're going to look under every nook and cranny to se if we can find matching funds for the provincial money that would help us get the water system done"

The matching funding a reference to the 65 million dollars provided by the provincial government that came out of Premier David Eby's  St. Patrick's Day visit to the community.

Whichever Federal officials should be more than well aware of the quest for the additional cash, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach has done some extensive prep work for the civic delegation, taking Prince Rupert's water related issues to the Federal government a number of times.

His approach to the Feds in April gained some notice from Dominic Leblanc, the Federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, who observed at the time that there are solutions to be found.

April 19 -- Taylor Bachrach keeps Prince Rupert's infrastructure challenges on the Front Burner in Ottawa, with Federal Minister looking towards short term and longer term options for assistance 

Perhaps some of those solutions are discovered on this round of travel.

The mayor did not provide for any itinerary for the trio, or any notes towards how long they anticipate being in the nations capital.

The Mayor's short overview came at the ten minute mark of Monday's meeting.

More notes on the Council Session can be reviewed from our Council Timeline or our Council Session archive page.

Update: Mr. Pond is providing for a few updates along the way from his Ottawa travels, check them out from his social media stream. 

A review of the city's infrastructure challenges can be explored here.