Council members share some take aways from September UBCM Convention in Vancouver

Prince Rupert's Ten member delegation along with MLA Jennifer Rice
were in attendance at the 2023 UBCM convention in Vancouver
(image from Mayor Pond's FB page)

The last few minutes of Tuesday's City Council session turned into a group session of what I did while I was at Convention, with Council members and Mayor Pond sharing some of their impressions from a week of discussions, information sessions and resolution work at UBCM in Vancouver.

The convention which took place from September 18-22 saw Prince Rupert send a delegation of the Mayor and Five councillors  (Councillor Wade Niesh did not attend) along with four senior staff members who all had assignments from Mr. Pond for the week of politicking in Vancouver.

When it came to the reminiscences of their week at UBCM, Councillor Nick Adey was the first to observe of his impressions of the work that was done.

"For those who have never experienced or had a look at the programming of an event like that, there are  an enormous number of opportunities to gather in groups on different subjects. I attended sessions on decriminalization and public use of drugs, building homes and housing issues, mid size communities getting together to talk about issues common to them, a session on police and public safety I won't go through and try to summarize those, although if anyone is interested they can come and ask me.

But what I think they illustrated to me was that, we are in one breath, facing many of the same problems that many other communities face. For example housing,  But in a different breath we/re facing them in different ways and with different circumstances.

To illustrate that, the session on housing. Somebody from Vancouver said and I might have the number wrong but not the scale, said that they were facing difficulties because they had 30,000 projects currently under construction and they were trying to manage that. 

We are clearly not facing 30,000 Construction projects so our circumstance is very different but the issues are very similar but they become real when you see reports like the one that's been referred  to severe tines here on homelessness  and this is the real reason among others that we do these things"

The Councillor also noted of some of the other topics discussed at convention the Wildfire situation in the province, areas of health and police services and the downloading of cost and the dominant theme of housing.

He observed how those themes dominated much of the resolutions portion of the convention, he also outlined how the access to ministers was beneficial.

"I think it was a very positive experience, we had meetings with Ministers on various issues, we were able to bring our local concerns or objectives to them and I think that messaging was very effective and successful"

For Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa the week was one that was positive and successful where council learned more about other communities deal with the issues facing them, he also paid tribute to the work of City Staff.

"I would like to thank also our staff for their great work for preparing all the reports for us, scheduling the meetings and they've done a great job"

Councillor Teri Forster noted how she had been inspired by the week of convention in Vancouver.

"It was my very first one, I had never been to one as a brand new city councillor and I found it really inspiring and it's really good to know that many of the concerns our community have other people have  but there are communities that have overcome it.

And to start tapping into that knowledge where perhaps people have ideas that we might not have tried yet, or maybe they've tried it and it failed so we know not to waste our limited resources on something that may not work for our community.

I found the resolutions really great, I've not been on council long but I usually have something to say so I found resolutions really great to stand up and advocate for our community and we sparked a lot of conversation with other people about our water pipes.

By the end of the few days I had city councillors coming up to me saying hey you're from Rupert you guys have those terrible pipes, and I was able to pull out my phone and show them a picture of what our  water pipes look like and start talking about how things are for our town and where we're trying to get.

Because that's I think what a lot of people miss, I know I didn't appreciate it before I joined Council I would be frustrated with the potholes, I would be frustrated that my water wasn't clean or I would be frustrated that we were on Boil advisories and I'm having a bit better of understanding about what the issues are and where we're trying to get, I'm able to see the path that we're on"

Ms. Forster also noted of the Mayor's efforts to keep the public informed on the issue of the city's water situation and his analogy on how it's similar to house renovations and the challenges that replacements will bring.

The renovation theme and the size of the civic delegation made for comments for Councillor Reid Skelton Morven.

"The analogy has been great and also to add that we still do have a mortgage payment to pay and many other bills that come in on a regular basis. So this is not, you know  fun coupons that we get from the  higher levels of government these are really critical pieces to help kind of renovate the house.

But I also wanted to quote a wise man who was our mayor that had used the analogy of folks that have had commentary about all of us going to UBCM while we have financial difficulty and it's that you can't catch any fish if your boat never leaves the harbour.

So I think for us to go down there and show up and be part of the conversation, this is now becoming common place where we're not only the people talking about Prince Rupert now and the challenges that we're having and how critical this is not only for us but for the province and for one of Canada's main economic trade gateways"

The Councillor also noted of the work of the team at convention the city's success at the event as well as to praise the Mayor for his analogies and wisdoms from the event.

Councillor Barry Cunningham also observed of the city's activities in Vancouver, Mr. Cunningham noting of how well prepared they were for the event.

"I would like to point out how easy it was for us Councillors and the Mayor  to go into meetings with Ministers or approach these Ministers, or Deputy Ministers when our staff and our MLA had done so much work previously to that.

You know they were all well aware of our problem and we just emphasized it more. 

But you know the background that goes into something like this and what the staff had done and all that, I think by that end of that week the minute they saw Prince Rupert, they were we know about it"

A history lesson was some of the theme for Mayor Herb Pond, who outlined how the UBCM process works noting of how each community has the same weight as others at convention. Mr. Pond noting as to how the resolution process workshops and other elements work, highlighting the access to Ministers that it offers.

"Because that many local government people are going to be in one spot, Government comes, and every cabinet minister is there, we set up meetings with them, you've heard how staff do all the work, so that when we walk in and we have fifteen minutes with the Minister it's set our message is set, it's clear.

What staff did this year, which I think helped us be a cut above, was we ended up with little acrylic blocks, two inch acrylic blocks in which included a chunk of that pipe, thin, worn, just about non existent and a chuck of what a new piece of pipe would look like.

And every cabinet minister was turning it and looking at it and going oh man, and one cabinet minister actually followed up with us and said I didn't quite fully understand what that is but she's so excited about it that she wants to show it off.

That's all work that is done to create a connection with those people who are the decision makers that help us get the 65 million dollars that the Premier gave us. "

The Mayor also noted of the opportunity to push for other initiatives such as the Resource Benefit Alliance as well as some of the tasks that he assigned to some of the other members of Council to take to Ministers and other delegates, noting of the success that Councillor Forster had in taking the city's message to those at the convention.

"I want to tell you that your council and your staff team really rose to the occasion I mean they were working it hard until 9:30, 10 o'clock at every reception'

Mr. Pond observed as to how the work of the Prince Rupert delegation resonated with Premier Eby who took the message on infrastructure to Ottawa with him following the convention. 

The Mayor also touched on the theme of the size of the delegation noted by Councillor Skelton-Morven and the value hat it brings to the discussions of the convention.

"I will never apologize for the fact that we spend a lot of taxpayer money, to get this team down into expensive hotels. 

To be in the right place, so that we can be on the floor doing that work. 

But if it brings home tens of millions of dollars, that simply just would not come otherwise. 

It's worth and it's worth it in spades"

You can view the entire conversation through the City's Video Archive starting at the 52 minute mark.

A wider overview of the discussion can be explored through our Council Timeline feature.

Some background on a few of the other items from the Tuesday session can be reviewed here.

Our Archive of notes culled from  the UBCM convention can be reviewed here.