North Coast Review

Friday, September 1, 2017

Last Long Weekend of summer brings reduced hours for many services

The clock is ticking down to the long Labour Day weekend, though it would seem that more than a few Rupertites have already packed the car (filled up with gas -- slight weeping here) and hit the highway.

With the three day weekend (four for some of the lucky ones) now ready for launch, a reminder that a number of civic and provincial services will be either on reduced hours or closed for the Holiday Monday.

Among them the Prince Rupert Library which will close at 5 PM today and reopen on Tuesday at 10AM.

The City of Prince Rupert, District of Port Edward and North Coast Regional District offices will also be taking Monday off, with office hours returning to the regular schedule on Tuesday.

The same goes for the area's First Nation Government offices in communities across the North Coast.

Likewise, Federal and Provincial offices across the Northwest will be closed until the return to work on Tuesday morning.

With a long weekend upon us, holding on to your recycling items until the
Kaien Road centre reopens on Monday may help avoid past scenes like this

The North Coast Regional Recycling Depot in the Industrial Park will be Closed over the weekend as well, and while there are outdoor bins available for after hours use located outside of the gates, past long weekends have seen those bins fill up fairly quickly. To help reduce the overflow found in the past, those that can, might want to hold onto their recycling materials until Regular hours return on Tuesday.

The Recreation Centre has yet to outline what kind of schedule they will be operating under through the weekend, you can follow their latest updates from their Facebook page here.

And with more traffic on the road this weekend, RCMP detachments across the Northwest will be directing a little extra attention to travel on the highways through until Monday.

With that in mind, safe travels to those taking to the highways this weekend, and a well earned rest from their Labours of the year, for those that remain at home over the three day weekend.

We will add any updates to our list above should we become aware of them over the weekend.

Opening of Ray-Mont Grain Terminal brings state of the art shipping to North Coast

There was no shortage of ribbon cutting this week in Prince Rupert, as
officials of the Port, CN, Ray-Mont and area First Nations officially
opened the new grain handling facility on Ridley Island
(photo from CN photo stream)

It's been a busy week for celebrations at the Port of Prince Rupert, earlier this week the Port and its partners cut the ribbon on the Fairview Terminal Expansion, which will boost the opportunity for throughput out of the container port to 1.3 million TEU's.

And while much of the attention was focused on Fairview and the growing footprint it has on the Prince Rupert waterfront, the ribbon cutting scissors got another workout on Tuesday.

That as assembled dignitaries took part in the official opening of the new Ray-Mont Grain Terminal located on the south side of Ridley island as part of the Port's Ridley Island, Road, Rail and Utility Corridor.

The Ray-Mont facility in 10 acres in size and includes a 100 car rail loop corridor, grain dumper pit as well as what is described as a state of the art conveyance system that will transload grain from CN rail hoppers to containers for export shipment.

As it opens for business, the Ray-Mont terminal is the only unit train stuffing facility on the west coast of Canada.

Shipments arriving by rail in Prince Rupert will include grains, cereals and pulses from terminals located across Canada and the United States.

As part of the Tuesday ceremony, Charles Raymond, the President and CEO of Ray-Mont was joined by Port officials, as well as representatives from transportation partners and area First Nations in cutting the ribbon to officially open the terminal for business.

As part of his comments, the Ray-Mont CEO offered up an optimistic outlook on the future for his company, the Port and the community as the Prince Rupert facility prepares for the upcoming crop year and the opportunity to put the Ridley Island terminal into full production.

Speeches and a demonstration made for part of the Grand Opening of the
Ray-Mont grain facility on Ridley Island
(photo from CN photo stream)

Now that it is open, the first customer to make use of the Prince Rupert terminal will be Agrocorp processing, which is one of the largest trading houses in the world, offering up a combined export capacity of over 500,000 metric tonnes.

The newest industrial group to locate in Prince Rupert recently started hiring staff for the upcoming fall shipping season, as part of that quest for employees they hosted a hiring fair, an event that put a focus on job opportunities for First Nations residents in the community.

CN Rail has hailed the opening as another key element for its transportation system across Canada, sharing photos of this week's Grand Opening event and offering information snapshots through their twitter feed.

(photos from CN photo stream)

CN also provided this overview of the scope of the project and what impact it will have in delivering Canadian crops to the world.

For more items related to the Ray-Mont facility see our archive page here.

Emergency Service Files: September 2017

Roadwork to make for disruptions in Industrial Park

Road work ahead for Prince Rupert's Industrial park, with a repaving
project scheduled for the first two weeks of September

The North Coast Paving season will take work crews into the Prince Rupert Industrial Park over the next few weeks, with the City of Prince Rupert issuing a notice for motorists of pending work along Legaic Road, which connects Highway 16 to the Industrial Park.

The project will see the road reduced to one way status for the majority of work, however a full closure is scheduled for the road for late next week, weather permitting.

During the closure, traffic will be re-directed towards Shawatlans Road, the lower road that runs parallel to Highway Sixteen from the SPCA shelter into the Industrial Park.

You can review the full information release from the City here.

For more notes on infrastructure projects in Prince Rupert see our archive page here.

MLA Rice disappointed, awaiting more info on Greyhound Cuts; No comment yet from Prince Rupert Mayor, Council

The fall out continues to roll in from Northwest politicians in response to Greyhound Canada's announcement of its application to abandon the Prince Rupert to Prince George run and four other routes in British Columbia.

As we outlined on Wednesday, the inter-city transportation provider has indicated that the declining passenger levels on the five runs in question are providing too large a financial burden on their finances, with Greyhound pointing to alternative options across Northern BC as one contributing factor to their woes.

Late Thursday afternoon, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice delivered her first comments on the prospect of the end of Greyhound's service, offering up a Facebook post that outlined her disappointment and interest in how the Passenger Transportation Board will address the request.

One of the factors for Greyhound in moving forward with their application has been the introduction of community to community local transit along Highway 16, an initiative that Ms. Rice was long an advocate for, even though the service does not as of now, include the North Coast as part of the Northwest system.

At the time of the introduction of that service to Northern BC, the North Coast was the only region that did not sign on to the province's transportation plan.

In December of last year, Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain outlined how the communities in this region had decided to direct their attentions to services provided by the local social services agency Transition Society.

The northwest shuttle service was launched last year by the Liberal government, which found a quick response from the majority of the communities that dot the map from Terrace to Prince George, with the community to community service now in place along much of Highway 16.

In April, the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine joined the growing list of those communities across the Northwest to offer the shuttle bus service, introducing three day a week service that links the Hazeltons, Kispiox and other communities with the larger service centre of Terrace at a cost of five dollars per segment travelled.

As the expanded routes were rolling out earlier this year, the province was still holding the door open for Prince Rupert to join in on the Northern BC Highway 16 corridor plan.

The announcement this week of the Greyhound application has also caught the attention of the Mayor's of Terrace and Smithers.

Both Northwest politicians shared their comments with local media outlets in their respective communities, while Smithers Mayor Taylor Bacharach also took the issue to a larger province wide audience offering some thoughts on the issue for the CBC's BC Almanac program

For her part, Mayor Carol Leclerc of Terrace weighed in on the situation for CFTK TV last night, observing on the impact of the Greyhound decision and how the shuttle bus system that is in place is not really a viable alternative to the daily service provided by the bus line.

Greyhound has also pointed to the highway service offered by Northern Health as another area of concern for them, however representatives of Northern Health were quick to note that their Northern Connections bus service is exclusively for the use of patients attending medical appointments.

So far there has been no comment from Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain, or from any of the six Prince Rupert council members in response to the Greyhound application.

Nor have the members of City Council offered up any indication as to how the transportation program that the North Coast currently has in place through the Transition Society will work, should the daily Greyhound service to points east of the city come to an end.

More notes related to transportation along the Highway 16 corridor can be reviewed from our archive page here.

Helijet to introduce night vision for air medical flights in 2018

HeliJet, the provider of air transportation for emergency medical services on the North Coast is about to expand on its technical abilities in the air, with plans to introduce night vision to their aircraft early in 2018.

Operating under a contract with the BC Ambulance Service, the air service provides air medical services from Prince Rupert to Vancouver through its local base at Seal Cove, transit to and from the North Coast is by way of the Sikorsky S-76C+ medical helicopter aircraft which are on call on a seven day a week, 24 hour basis.

Brendan McCormick, HeliJet's Director of Flight Operations outlined how the new technology will improve service to those that rely on the air ambulance service that the company provides.

“This equipment will significantly enhance our current air ambulance service delivery, allowing us to provide services where we couldn't before and dramatically increasing safety where we have".

The Night Vision Imaging System will be introduced and installed in all three dedicated air ambulances that HeliJet operates in British Columbia. The cost of the installation, which will be borne by HeliJet and is estimated at 1.6 million dollars.

Once in place the NVIS technology will enhance cockpit flight operations, providing better situational awareness for pilots as they travel across British Columbia's challenging terrain.

The system makes use of image intensifier tubes that produce an enhanced image of a scene in light conditions too low for the normal human eye to identify clearly during navigation and pilotage.

The new system is to be installed through a partnership with BC Based VIH Aerospace along with Rebtech Technologies and Night Flight Concepts. HeliJet pilots will begin their training this fall with plans to have them fully ground and flight trained in the use of the technology by early 2018.

Some background on the roll out of the new night vision technology can be reviewed here.

The Air Ambulance service out of Seal Cove is primarily used for transportation of patients within a 100 mile radius of Prince Rupert.

You can learn more about the Air Ambulance service provided by HeliJet here.

More notes related to medical services in Prince Rupert can be reviewed here, while a wider overview of health care in the Northwest can be found here.

Up, Up and Away ... Gas Prices skyrocket on North Coast, across Canada

From Prince Rupert to Prince George, motorists are watching the price at the pump

Travel on the Labour Day weekend just got a whole lot more expensive, as gas stations offer up a surprise for travellers this morning with a significant jump in the price per litre for the fuel for your weekend journey.

All four of Prince Rupert's gas stations have a posted price of 126.9 this morning, which marks an eighteen cent litre price jump from just a few days ago, when we last filled up the North Coast Review News cruiser.

Both 7-11 Esso (above) and Chevron in the downtown core have posted
126.9 as the price of gas this morning

Both Petro Canada locations in the city in the Industrial Park (above) and
on Hays Cove Avenue also have increased their per litre price to 1.26.9

The high prices for the North Coast appear to be the canary in the gas price coal mine today, according to the 8AM price listings through the GasBuddy website, Terrace is still listing prices ranging from 104.9 to 111.9 per litre, though situation would appear to be about to change, with one location boosting its price to 122.9.

Down Highway 37 to Kitimat gas prices are in the 109.9 to 117.9 range for now.

Further along Highway 16, Smithers is listed at 121.9 as of this morning, while moving east towards Prince George, Burns Lake is listing prices of 119.9 per litre.

For those making the trek to Northern BC's largest city this Labour Day weekend, Prince George itself seems to still be hosting lower prices.

The current price point in Prince George remains close to the one dollar a litre mark, with only pennies the difference among that city's fuel providers.

Gasoline prices are expected to spike through the month of September owing to supply issues out of Texas with a large portion of the American refineries located in the now flooded areas of the Houston area.

The impact of Hurricane Harvey has delivered video out of the US of long line ups of cars with drivers looking to fill up their tanks, with a number of those stations running out of gas as the supply tightens across that country.

According to oil industry observers, the shutdown of the American production will mean extra stresses and strains on the Canadian refineries that service American markets, providing a spin off effect across Canada.

The price hike was not unexpected with warnings issued over the last few days, thought that's little consolation for those about to head out on the road for the final weekend of summer.

Gas prices to spike over long weekend as Harvey fallout mounts
Gas prices to rise in Canada after tropical storm Harvey sweeps through Texas refineries
Major Gas Price Spikes Headed Canada's Way: Analysts
Why Canadian Gas prices could spike

More notes related to travel along the Highway 16 corridor can be found here.