City of Prince Rupert water infrastructure borrowing plans move forward following end of AAP process

The City of Prince Rupert is moving forward with two loan authorizations towards the city's replacement program for its aging water system, that after the Alternate Approval Process came to an end on Monday.

In an update from the City today, it was outlined that when the end of the respondent period towards the AAP had close there had been minimal opposition to the twin borrowing proposals.

In both cases, the mark of note to sideline the proposal was at least 1,029 residents in opposition, the count by the end of Monday was 47 and 48 respectively in opposition for the Loan proposals.

The low voter response would seem to indicate that some of the push back towards the city's plans found in July did not resonate as much as opponents thought it may when they outlined their concerns over the borrowing plan.

As City Council has explained in the past and the city reinforced in their update today. 

"The two Bylaws are required in order for allow for $45 Million in borrowing on the City side to match a potential $82 Million Federal contribution to water and sewer replacement. 

The City has already received a commitment of $65 Million from the Province for water system repairs."

With the approval in hand, Council moved quickly to set in motion the process ahead towards the borrowing, that as part of their Special Council Session on Wednesday evening.

Today's update also provided a glimpse into the current status of the city's water infrastructure, with Mayor Herb Pond noting:

“This summer is panning out to be the worst on record, rivalling the level of breaks we had during our State of Local Emergency in December. 

Already this August, we’ve seen ten water main breaks and 21 water service leaks. For comparison, there are communities that see less than that in a year.” 

The full overview of the situation can be reviewed from the city's social media message today available here.

Also included in today's information release, is an extensive thirty seven minute video that takes residents through some of the challenges currently face by the city.

In the Video the city's Director of Operations Richard Pucci, takes the Mayor through the scope of what city staff and its workers are dealing with in the quest to keep the city water supply functional.

The video while informative for city residents, likely is designed for a larger audience, that being the  Federal Government.

As we outlined last week, the city's application for the larger 82 million dollars has been directed toward the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation fund, with the city's video review seemingly tailored towards those themes.

A look at some of the past work and the challenges that remain can be explored through our archive page here.

We'll have a full overview of the Special Council session as part of our information flow on Friday.