Adoption the focus of North Coast MLA's Legislature Statement of Monday

November is Adoption Awareness month in British Columbia and to mark the occasion, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice spoke to the topic as part of Monday afternoon's statements period of the Afternoon session of the Legislature.

Ms. Rice made note of the 1,000 children currently in the care of the government of British Columbia who are waiting to be adopted and observed as to some of the benchmarks in the provinces care system which see those children in permanent foster care advised by the government that they are officially on her own.

During the course of her short statement to the Chamber, Ms. Rice recounted some of the positive things that have developed in British Columbia's adoption process and applauded the Minister of Children and Family development for some of the government's efforts to help to improve adoption rates in the province.

You can review her full contribution to the discussion from the Legislature minutes for Monday afternoon here at just after the 1:40 point.

The video presentation of her statement can be viewed below:


More information on the adoption process in British Columbia is available from the provincial website.

For more items related to Ms. Rice's work at the Legislature see our archive page here.

Broken Water main makes for re-erouted travel on East side of city

City crews have been dispatched to
the City's east side to deal with a
water main issue

A broken water main at the intersection of Crestview Drive and Applewhaite Drive is going to mean a change in access to Frederick Avenue and 11th Avenue East for at least the next week

Public Works crews began work on the problem area on Monday with excavation work starting on the roadway in the area of the waterman, to allow crews access to the waterman.

As a result of the required road closure, Prince Rupert Transit has had to make a change to the number 53 route to the east side, with the bus now rerouted to 11th Avenue East to Frederick and then on to India Avenue.  A temporary bus stop will be set up at corner of Conrad Street and Prince Rupert Boulevard for those in the upper Crestview area.

You can learn more about the required work from this item posted to the city's website.

A map of the affected area and the temporary change to the transit route can be found below.

The waterman issue marks the second incident in the region over the last two weeks related to Prince Rupert's water infrastructure, City crews most recently had to provide emergency repairs to a water main issue at the corner of Frederick and 8th Avenue East on October 21st.

For more items of interest from Prince Rupert City Council see our archive page here.

Students at NWCC research invasive species with the Smithsonian and DFO

Invasive species on the North Coast
are the subject of research work
at the Prince Rupert campus
of Northwest Community College

As October came to an end, students of Northwest Community College's Applied Coastal Ecology program could be found working along the North Coast waterfront, engaged in a wide ranging research project into invasive species into area waters.

As part of their work last month, the local students received some high profile assistance from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre in California and Maryland, as well as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Nanamio office.

Together, along with Jason Scherr of the Prince Rupert Port Authority, all involved in the research project began their work of retrieving PVC panels from the floating docks covering an area from the Prince Rupert Industrial Park to Port Edward.

The main focus of the work was to identify and count each species collected and to take samples of all of the marine life found, using the the marine life for further examination and DNA analysis.

The project comes with two goals to follow the first, is to establish a baseline inventory of marine invertebrates for this area. A crucial step which will enable scientists to monitor changes over time. Those changes could come by way of ocean warming, acidification, pollution, invasive species or some other factor. 

 The second goal is to look for invasive species resulting from transportation in ship ballast water, or attachment to the hull of ships or ocean debris from disasters like the Fukoshima tsunami.

“This is a great opportunity for our students,” ... “It provides them with real experience on meaningful research projects." -- Natasha Lebedick, NWCC Applied Coastal Ecology instructor, on the importance of a current research project taking place in Prince Rupert.

The project also provides some valuable research work for the students of the Applied Coastal Ecology program at the Prince Rupert Campus, as well it allows the college to refine their methods on the study of the issue, while allowing them to maintain the project into the months ahead.

You can learn more about the project from this item from NWCC.

For more information on the Applied Coastal Ecology program at the Prince Rupert Campus see this course outline from NWCC.

More background on education in the Northwest can be found on our archive page.

City seeks manager for Earl Mah Aquatic Centre

The City is looking to take a dip into the labour pool to start off November, as the recreation department launches the search for a new Director for the Aquatic Centre.

The advertisement for the position, appeared on the city's Careers Opportunity page of the website late last week, with the City seeking a detail orientated individual, looking to coach, develop and lead staff to reach their full potential.

The public aspects of management required for the position are also it seems key to any applicant, with the city hoping that the successful candidate will be one who demonstrates sound judgement, tactfulness and diplomacy while working with guests and staff.

The deadline for those interested in the position is Friday, November 20th.

The full requirements for the job opportunity can be found below:

It has been a fairly hectic period of time at City Hall these last few months, as the city significantly boosts the level of both management and unionized worker positions with the City.

You can review the year of civic employment opportunities from our archive page here.

For more background on City Council and City of Prince Rupert items see our archive page here.

Bleacher issue resolved for Recreational Basketball League

A few weeks back we noted a percolating controversy between one of the city's basketball leagues and management at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre, with the issue of use of the bleachers in the Russell Gamble Gymnasium the main point of contention.

The situation first came to note in early October, when the dispute which focused on concerns over access to the gymnasium bleachers by the group made for a widely read item on the Prince Rupert Recreation Basketball League Facebook page and along with it, a lot of feedback from those that support the league.

With many of the league supporters taking the time to comment, offering not only their concerns over the situation, but suggestions on what measures the league might wish to take, including a suggestion to explore alternate venues such as those that could be offered by the School District.

At that point, the league organizers were hoping to arrange for a meeting with Civic officials to seek some kind of explanation of the city's policy when it comes to Civic Centre usage and how it was impacting on their situation.

Since then, it appears that league organizers did get that promised meeting with he Mayor and the City Manager to seek a resolution to their concerns and if the latest update from the League's Facebook page is an indication, things appear to have been settled to everyone's satisfaction.

Following discussions  in October,
fans of the Prince Rupert Recreational
Basketball League now have a
place to sit during game action
(photo from PRRBL Facebook page)

Concerns over bleacher use at the
Civic Centre were raised in early
October by one of the user groups 
(photo from PRRBL Facebook page)

Following their session with the City where a number to topics were addressed, the two sides came an apparent promise to work better on communications issues when it comes to the use of the Civic Centre.

As for the bleacher situation, the sections along the wall by the dressing rooms are now being pulled into place for the use of spectators during game action.

More on the topic and other notes related to league activities can be found on their Facebook page.

For more items on developments with the City of Prince Rupert and City Council see our archive page here.

Real Estate Tracker, week ending November 1, 2015

Our weekly review of the listings of the local real estate agents, tracking those properties which appear to be driving the local price structure for the North Coast.

Every Monday, we look over the listing prices of the past seven days and outline the Top 10 asking prices in the area, providing a snap shot as to where the Real Estate market may be trending on a week to week basis.

The listings below are purely for information purposes, for further background on the properties recorded, see our links page for access to the individual real estate listings.

The Archive for our weekly review can be found here.

Our list of the top ten priced homes for the week ending November 1 is below:

Prince Rupert Real Estate
West Side Nov 1 2015

Prince Rupert Real Estate
East Side Nov 1 2015

There was one return to the listing of ten this week, with a property on Summit Avenue returning to claim the 10th position on the week. While another property on Heron Road featured a new price over the last seven days.

And while there may not have been much movement on the property side of the real estate business this week, there has once again been a shake up on the rosters of those selling the properties for the city's real estate offices.

As Nadia Movold shifts from Royal Lepage over to Remax, taking with her some of her properties noted in reviews past over the last few months.

The high end overall remains marked by a 2nd Avenue West Avenue entry, with the return on Summit now holds the tenth position on the week.

Below find our findings as of the Week ending November 1, 2015

1942-46 2nd Avenue W                 $659,000  --  Royal Lepage
527 4th Avenue East                      $650,000  --  Remax
160 Van Arsdol Street                   $649,900   -- Remax
2126 Graham Avenue                    $595,000  -- Royal Lepage
331 - 11th Avenue East                  $565,000  -- Royal Lepage
1724 Graham Avenue                    $558,000  -- Royal Lepage
210 Heron Road                            $509,000  -- Royal Lepage
1229 Conrad Street                       $525,000  --  Royal Lepage
100 Alpine Drive                          $479,900  --  Royal Lepage
1125 Summit Avenue                   $469,000  --  Remax

For more items related to Real Estate see our archive page here.

For background on Housing issues in the region see our past items here.

Blog watching, week ending November 1, 2015

Such is the nature of interest in LNG development these days on the North Coast, that pretty well any item we discover through the week will find a large audience by the time arrives to gather our top hits of the last seven days.

This week was no different, with four of our five stories in the Top Five placements having some relation to the LNG files.

Readers found the news of permit approval for the proposed Trans Canada LNG pipeline from Northeast Alberta to the North Coast of some interest, with a large volume of readers exploring it further since its posting of Tuesday.
  
Some comments from Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain to CFTK TV 7 on the theme of Pacific NorthWest LNG also drew a large audience, as did our look at the recent LNGinBC conference in Vancouver and reports that some Prince Rupert council members took in the annual event.

A story that only debuted on the blog in the mid-afternoon of yesterday quickly found an audience, with a growing number of readers looking for more information on the Science Report regarding Lelu Island and Flora  Bank, a document which was released Friday by the Lax Kw'alaams First Nation.

And the prospect of a national food chain making its preparations for a new Prince Rupert location also found a wide audience, as readers gobbled up our story on Pizza Hut as though it were the last piece of pizza at a sports banquet.

However, the lead off item which found the largest audience of the week, proved to be the topic of Trans Canada's proposed LNG pipeline and the significant permit approval received this week by the company.

Trans Canada clears regulatory hurdles for proposed Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Pipeline -- The BC Oil and Gas Commission provides the final permits for the proposed LNG pipeline from the Northeast gas fields to Pacific NorthWest LNG's proposed terminal near Port Edward (posted October 27, 2015)

That article was followed by:

Prince Rupert Council takes neutral stance on Pacific NorthWest LNG project -- In an interview with CFTK TV 7 following Monday's City Council session, Mayor Lee Brain outlined that at the moment, the City of Prince Rupert is a neutral party when it comes to the proposed LNG terminal  (posted October 29, 2015)

No slides, no notes and nary a Facebook post from Council when it comes to LNG conference  -- While Councillor Kinney may  have noted some of Prince Rupert Council's recent travel plans for Regional District, those on Council that may have attended the LNGinBC conference in Vancouver seemingly had nothing to share from their journey  (posted  October 28, 2015)

Lax Kw'alaams releases Science Report related to Lelu Island  -- While it hasn't even been posted to the blog for a day yet, our outline of yesterday regarding the Lax Kw'alaams Science Report on Lelu Island and Flora Bank has quickly found a large and interested audience (posted October 31, 2015)

Pizza Hut looks to late November for Prince Rupert opening -- Some long range dining plans were on the minds of our readers this week, with a significant amount of the weeks readers seeking more information on Pizza Hut's plans for the city  (posted October 26, 2015 )

You can find our Blog watching featured posted every Sunday morning by 9AM, a handy way to catch up to the week that was, at a leisurely weekend pace.

You can also review the full listings of the week just past from our Blog Archive index page found on the right hand side of the page.

For those looking for updates to items as they are posted to the blog, don't forget about our email alert access.

A daily review of the latest items on the blog can be delivered to your email in box, simply by entering your email address into the information bar, items posted to the blog will be delivered to your e-mail account each day.

You can find the link to that feature on the upper, right hand side of the blog. Underneath the Follow the North Coast Review by Email indicator.

Our archive of weekly Blog Watching  can be found here.