Enbridge Marketing 2.0 reboot

The bid to secure approval for a bitumen pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat has hit the refresh button, as Enbridge is set to introduce a new marketing strategy to outline its case for the Northern Gateway Project.

An approach that from many accounts, doesn't actually mention the word Enbridge in the same sentence that may feature the words, Northern, Gateway or Project.

The new ad campaign for Enbridge, will reportedly feature the Energy corporation's Vice President Janet Holder, introducing the theme that  the "Northern Gateway" is more than just the energy company.

The approach it would seem is one designed to include more of the "stakeholders" of Northern British Columbia into the fold and we imagine, seek to solidify, or gain support to move the project forward.

Ms. Holder appeared with Michael Smyth on CKNW's the Bill Good Show this morning, Smyth previewed one of the ads playing an audio segment featuring the Executive VP, following up that with some discussion and background on the upcoming advertising campaign (CKNW Audio Vault Wednesday, October 2, 8:51 to 8:55 AM).

Some reviews of the new campaign can be found below.

CKPG-- New media blitz moves focus off of Enbridge (video)
CKPG-- Enbridge pipes out New Ad Campaign

And while the ad campaign has not gone into a full rotation yet, the Coastal First Nations (benefitting it appears from some leaked information) were quick to offer up their own video review of the Enbridge plans, releasing a You Tube presentation that provided their response to the new marketing plan of the energy company.

Art Sterrrit, the executive director of the Coastal First Nations outlined how the organization came to learn of the new Enbridge campaign, as well as how they decided what their response to that new approach would be.
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While the dueling ad campaigns prepare to begin their runs, there was a new development on the Northern Gateway front this week,  with word that the Provincial Government had issued 11 permits to conduct preliminary work along the proposed pipeline right of way.

And while the road thus far has clearly been a rough one for Enbridge, company officials still seem to be keeping to their timetable and are bullish on their prospects.

In a Canadian Press story from today, Enbridge officials expressed the thought that while they expect challenges from opponents, they anticipate the pipeline to be running by 2018.

It may not be quite as smooth a process as they might like however, with opponents to the plan still ready to raise their concerns and take other action to halt the pipeline project.

Last week, the NDP issued a cautionary note that it believed that the BC Liberals were about to reverse their field when it comes to the pipeline question, while a BC Aboriginal Group was seeking a meeting with the UN regarding the proposed Gateway project.

This flurry of advertising plans, announcements and talking points all suggest that after a short hiatus, the discussion and debate of the Northern Gateway proposals may once again be ready to heat up.

Recent truck incidents have City Council seeking meeting with RCMP and trucking industry

A pair of high profile truck incidents in the city over the summer, has spurred Prince Rupert City Council to seek out a meeting with both the RCMP and members of the local trucking industry.

Cargo truck flips over while turning into downtown Prince Rupert
No injuries in overturned semi

With those two incidents still fresh in their minds, Prince Rupert City Council  revisited some of their previous concerns and  would seem to want to examine the issue further.

At the September 9th session of City Council, the Mayor suggested sending out a request for both trucking industry representatives and members of the RCMP detachment to appear at some future Council session.

The main theme of that meeting would seem to be a review of the recent incidents and to seek out more information from the RCMP and truck industry, exploring issues regarding safety on the roads when it comes to truck traffic transiting the City.

The concern over truck traffic rolling through the city's downtown core area has been a frequent topic of discussion around the Council table in the last few months, with a number of approaches considered as to how best deal with the issue.

As we outlined on the blog back in July, one suggestion was to reduce the speed limit on 2nd Avenue and Park Avenue in order to reduce the potential for further incidents. A suggestion that would be in effect, at least until the much desired truck by pass route is delivered by the Port.

That port development project would see the majority of truck traffic destined for the Fairview Container Terminal travel along the harbour south to Ridley Island. A change in the traffic pattern that would  significantly reduce the volume of traffic that currently makes the journey from Fairview to Ridley by way of the downtown and Highway 16.

Considering the recent incidents of note, that suggestion may become a key part of the dialogue should Council host its summit on traffic safety sometime in the fall.

You can review some of that discussion and the request for a meeting from the City's Video Archive, the trucking issue arrives as part of the "Mayor's Report" (from 1:16:30--1:17:30 on the Archive video)

Council seeks more consultation and conversation with provincial cabinet officials

When it comes to access to visiting members of provincial and federal cabinets, Prince Rupert City Councillors are feeling a little left out.

At their September 9th Council session, Councillors Thorkelson and Garon both expressed their frustrations at the lack of access made available to visiting cabinet ministers to the region.

Councillor Thorkelson led off the discussion on the lack of conversation between municipal and provincial officials, expressing her frustration, disappointment and concern over the recent visits from a number of cabinet ministers. Tours of the Northwest which it would seem, did not include a chance to stop in and answers some questions of City Council.

Following Councillor Thorkelson's points, Councillor Garon echoed some of Thorkelson's thoughts, suggesting that she too felt slighted by the lack of attention to city concerns from the provincial ministers.

Of the string of visits in recent weeks, the pass through from Mr. Coleman seems to be the one that has stuck in the craw of Council the most. With Councillor Thorkelson suggesting that Council should issue an invitation to the provincial minister, seeking Mr. Coleman's return to Prince Rupert  to attend to Council chambers in order to meet with Council as a whole..

You can review the frustrations of the Council members from our City Council Timeline.

For those looking for the video review of the discussion, the City Council Video archive offers up more, the Council members do a little venting at the one hour,  five minute mark.

Interestingly enough, shortly after the Councillors outlined their frustrations over the lack of contact, the Mayor in his "Mayor's Report" observed that he had actually met with Cabinet Minister Rich Coleman, as well as with Ministers Coralee Oakes and John Rustad during their recent visits to the city. (1:14:00-1:26:00  on the Council Video archive.)

Maybe they didn't catch that note  by the Mayor, as Council members didn't offer up much of a follow up to the Mayor's report.

Following his presentation, they had no questions for him in regard to the nature of those conversations with the visiting Cabinet ministers, leaving us all wondering what may have been discussed.

Perhaps the Councillors were saving their questions, hoping for the chance to ask them at some future time.

Two on senior City Staff pass their auditions

The staffing levels at the senior level for the City of Prince Rupert are two thirds complete, that with word that two senior members recently passed their probation periods and will continue on with their duties.

The successful navigation of the probationary period for City Manager Robert Long and Chief Financial Officer Corinne Bomben was announced at the City Council session of September 9th, the pair confirmed to their posts during the closed session of Council earlier in the day.

With the announcement that Mr. Long and Ms. Bomben are now in good standing in their positions, the only position left to fill at the senior staff level is that of the Corporate Administrator, that position became open when Robert Grodecki left the city's employ in May.

Council thus far has provided no update on how that job search has gone, or whether they have a candidate in mind to bring the senior staff levels back up to full strength.

We outlined the delivery of the twin staffing announcements on our Council Timeline for September 9th.

The review of the successful probationary period can be found on the City's video archive, the news of their permanent status announced at the 48 minute mark to 50 minute mark.

School District to seek guidance from Minister of Education on wage increase funding

School District 52 held its first Board meeting of 2013 on September 10th, following that return to School District business, the Board released some of the highlights of that initial session of the new school year.

Not surprisingly a fair amount of material was covered in this first gathering of the Board, high among their talking points the issue of funding of wage increases for staff and how issues of wage settlements should be funded.

Towards that question, the School District intends to write a letter to the Minister of Education asking that wage increases for staff be funded by the Ministry.

Board Chair Tina Last outlined the main scope of the Board's concerns stating "Our Board is unanimous in its view that wage increases should be funded by the Ministry of Education", further adding "We will continue to work with the Minister to achieve a fair wage increase for all of our employees".

That point of concern gained further importance on September 19th, when a tentative deal was reached in the school staff dispute, as CUPE and the BCSPEA came to terms on a new agreement, which will see a 3.5 percent wage adjustment in place running through to 2014.

The burden of the financial terms of the new contract will fall on individual school districts, with SD52 no doubt awaiting a reply and perhaps some guidance from the Minister from their most recent correspondence.

The financials were not the only concern of the School District Board at that September 10th meeting, some of the other items of note from their gathering included a report on a Student Self-Regulation Project at Ecole Roosevelt Park Community School, a program that is focused on the development of students to integrate diverse information in order to develop new skills.

As well the Board heard a review of the Camp Jupiter program over the summer which focused on helping students with identified speech and motor skill challenges.

They also received a preview on the Walk to Build Strength that took place on September 21st in the community.

The Board was also brought up to date on a wide range of projects planned for the 2013-14 school year, ranging from efforts to improve literacy, items pertaining to the issue of bullying and projects on instruction in Math, special education and social-emotional learning.

The Board also approved is Capital Budget on September 10th, the first priority being the replacement of Prince Rupert Middle School, a project that the Ministry of Education has identified as a high priority.

A second project that the Board is exploring is one that would see the School Board consolidate its Office staff in the Westview building, currently staff for SD 52 is housed in three locations.

The Board also approved an updated its Policies, with a new bylaw on Student and/or Parent Guardian Appeals, as well as new Policies in effect for Student medication, one on Anaphylaxis and approval of the District Code of Conduct Policy.

You can review the full list of deliberations from the School Board Meeting from the synopsis provided on the School District website, which you can read over here.

The School District posts both its agenda and minutes from their meetings to their website, the agenda from September 10th can be found here, the minutes have yet to be published to the website.

North Coast MLA offers up thoughts on Adrian Dix resignation

North Coast NDP MLA Jennifer Rice has offered up the first of her  thoughts on the resignation announcement last week by BC NDP leader Adrian Dix.

In an item in the QCI Observer this week, the North Coast MLA said that it was "sort of a sad day", but that the decision that Mr. Dix made was "the best thing for the party".

Ms. Rice made prominent use of Mr. Dix during her campaign in the recent provincial election, whether it was through print items, or multi media platforms, the now soon to be departing NDP leader was a key part of the NDP campaign on the North Coast.

Until the short article in the Observer which you can read here, the only other comment that the MLA had on the resignation of Mr. Dix was a short tweet she put out on her twitter feed last week.

In her remarks to the Observer, she made no mention of the start of the BC NDP leadership campaign and whether she had a personal short list of potential leaders for the party. Nor did she have any comment on  the speculation of a possible return of Nathan Cullen to British Columbia.

The North Coast MLA has had a fairly close working relationship with the NDP MP, having made many appearances at a number of functions with Mr. Cullen throughout the region over the last few years.

The NDP MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley is one of four MP's from the province currently giving some thought to their political future in the wake of Mr. Dix's announcement of last week.

You can review some of that talk on the leadership angle from this item of earlier this week, for more items on the provincial political scene with the focus on the North Coast riding you can check out our Legislature archive.

Port Authority creates forum to initiate dialogue on opportunity

"In order to operate and develop a world-class port complex in Prince Rupert, the thoughts, opinions, and concerns of residents need to be discussed in an open and transparent fashion. By establishing this forum, it is our hope to further engage with the community and create a new channel for public discourse that will help shape our shared future." -- Don Krusel, President and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority, outlining the genesis of a proposed Community Information Forum on Port related developments.


Conversation and some dialogue is on the mind of the Prince Rupert Port Authority, as the Port introduces its plan to create a Community Information Forum, providing the opportunity for local residents to discuss and examine port operations and developments.

The details of the proposed forum were revealed in a New Release on Friday, providing some background on how the Port envisions how the forum will work.

The basic structure of the forum will be that of a working group of stakeholders reflecting diverse viewpoints and experience within the Prince Rupert area.

Those selected for participation will have the opportunity to learn about various activities related to the Port of Prince Rupert and provide input on any issues of concern.

Members of the forum, to number no more than 20 participants, will be determined by the Port Authority, they will meet on  a regular basis, discussing a wide range of Port related topics.

Membership in the panel will be voluntary, with participants serving a two year term.

Forum Meetings will be open to the General public, who will be welcomed to observe the proceedings in a "listening role" and then will be asked to submit comments and questions on various topics of discussion in writing, which the registered members would then share and consider those concerns and comments.

That listening role model, may provide for a bit of push back from the larger community outside of the selected participants in the Forum process, especially from those that frequently cast a suspicious eye at any announcements, or proposed developments from the Port Authority.

For those looking to become involved in the process, the Port Authority has more details on their website, outlining the parameters of involvement and details on how you can become involved in the Community Information Process.

The Deadline for application is September 30th, 2013.

N View -- September 18-- Prince Rupert Port Authority launches public forums