Legislature approval for amendments to Nisga'a Final Agreement

Cabinet Minister introduces some amendments to the Nisga'a Treaty
during last week's wrap up to the fall session

As they wrapped up the last of their work at the British Columbia Legislature last week, MLA's put the final approval to a pair of amendments to the Nisga'a Final Agreement, the guiding document for the Nisga'a Lisims Government and Province of British Columbia.

Scott Fraser, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation introduced the amendments to the Legislature last week, outlining the two changes that have been made to the document that was created after lengthy negotiations led to the signing of the Treaty back in 2000.

The first amends the definition of "Nisga'a settlement trust" to enable the settlement trust to also be defined in the taxation agreement. This paves the way for changes to the taxation agreement that will allow the Nisga'a Nation to broaden the scope of investments by the settlement trust. 

The second provision corrects a reference error in the fiscal relations chapter that was identified during the negotiations. The amended agreement will enable the Nisga'a Nation to invest in limited partnerships, which are not permitted under the current settlement trust rules. Changes to federal tax law cleared a path to negotiate these amendments.

The Nisga'a Lisims Government building
from the Nisga'a Nation website

Canada and the Nisga'a Nation have each already ratified the amending agreement. British Columbia is the last signatory that needs to ratify it before the agreement can take effect.

The documentation of the Legislature session can be reviewed here, starting at the beginning of the Tuesday afternoon session.  The video version of the day's events can be found here.

You can learn more about the Nisga'a Treaty here.

For more items of interest about the Nisga'a Nation see our archive page here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

New York Times feature charts travels of merchant sailors and the life they live at sea

One of the many ships that call on the Port of Prince Rupert over the
course of the year, brining merchant sailors to the city

The New York Times ran a fascinating article this weekend on the life at sea for mariners aboard the large volume of cargo ships that travel around the world, something Prince Rupert residents can view every day with a simple glimpse to the harbour anchorages or stop at Fairview.

The focus is on the number of Filipino's who have made work on the seas their life, with the article observing as to how 400,000 of the world's 1.6 million seafarers hail from those South Pacific islands.

It's an expansive piece and done as only the New York Times can do, taking the reader below the decks and into the lives of the principles makes for a good look at how that time at sea, in port and back home consumes their lives.

The Seafarers Mission
across from CityWest

The work of the Times helps to bring some good insight for those of us who often see the merchant sailors in port, but may not quite realize how those lives are lived once the vessels are loaded and back underway for other destinations.

The story also serves to remind us of the work locally by the Seafarer's Mission on Third Avenue West, which serves as an oasis for visiting mariners during their Port call in the city,  They are always in need of donations and volunteers, learn more about their work here.

You can Check the full Times story out here.

You can review the list of vessels that are calling on Prince Rupert at this very moment from the Prince Rupert Port Authority's marine listings page.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

Emergency Service Files: December 2019

Our Archive of items for the month of December, from the files of law enforcement and other emergency responders in Northwestern British Columbia.





From the North Coast Review

--
RCMP in British Columbia respond to Guardian article, note damage done to relations with Hereditary Chiefs
Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP's Facebook post brings heated responses to the Social Media debate chamber
Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP calls for complaints commission review of RCMP plans related to Wet'suwet'en activists
City of Prince Rupert/Rescue launches Facebook page highlighting firefighting work and community engagement
Results from RCMP updates only as successful as the Questions asked 
Prince Rupert Ground Search and Rescue gain more community funding towards command centre planning
Community Gambling Funding to lend assistance to Prince Rupert Marine Rescue Society
Prince Rupert RCMP seek assistance of public in Missing persons file
For City Council it's a selective approach when it comes to National attention
Council's take away following Policing report: Prince Rupert remains a safe community
The Amwaal is celebrated as newest patrol vessel joins the Port of Prince Rupert's fleet
Tis the season for the RCMP counterattack program  
Three year sentence handed down following trial from 2017 manslaughter cases

**************************************************************************

Prince Rupert/Port Edward/Haida Gwaii/North Coast


Prince Rupert Fire/Rescue Facebook Page

Prince Rupert RCMP Detachment website

December 17 -- Grief Counselling through the holidays (video)
December 16 -- Missing Prince Rupert woman found (video)
December 13 -- RCMP looking for missing Prince Rupert woman
December 13 -- Prince Rupert RCMP looking for missing woman
December 13 -- Prince Rupert RCMP requesting publics's assistance in location a missing Prince Rupert resident
December 13 -- Missing Person: Courtney Dudoward (RCMP statement)
December 13 -- Prince Rupert Fire Rescue responds to gas leak on Third Avenue
December 12 -- Prince Rupert RCMP investigating possible impaired driving incident
December 11 -- Sentencing hearings begin as Prince Rupert man pleads guilty to possession of child pornography
December 5 -- Masset residents receiving extra incentive to get home safe this holiday season
December 5 -- Gitga'at and LNG Canada announce new Marine Emergency Response and Research facility in Hartley Bay
December 3 -- Prince Rupert man who killed foster parents in 2017 receives three year sentence


Terrace/Kitimat

Terrace RCMP Detachment website

December 20 -- New document on the 3 murders in Northwest BC (video)
December 20 -- Christmas Tree Safety (video)
December 20 -- Holiday Safety Precautions to keep your Family and Home Safe
December 19 -- Terrace wants province, LNG Canada to help pay for more police and bylaw officers (audio)
December 18 -- Terrace Search and Rescue building progress (video)
December 17 -- Kitsumkalum family in need after fire destroys family home
December 17 -- Fire destroys family's home in Kitsumkalum
December 17 -- Fire claims Kitsumkalum home
December 17 -- Weekend fire damages home in Gitaus
December 16 -- Terrace RCMP push for designated designate driving plans to reduce drunk driving on the roads  (video)
December 16 -- Fire damages family home ten days before Christmas
December 13 -- Kitimat Cram-a-Cruiser event this weekend at Kyle's No Frills
December 13 -- Terrace RCMP fill four police cars for 9th annual Cram a Cruiser event
December 12 -- Community crams four cruisers with food bank donations (RCMP statement)
December 11 -- Cram the Cruiser Kitimat December 14 2019 (RCMP statement)
December 10 -- Terrace RCMP take more than 200 service calls at the start of December
December 10 -- Terrace RCMP start off December with 200 calls
December 10 -- Impaired driving, assaults among the weekend's calls for service (RCMP statement)
December 9 -- Terrace SAR headquarters in last stretch of fundraising
December 6 -- Kitimat won't be affected by provincial RCMP budget cuts
December 5 -- Terrace RCMP request assistance in locating a man from Kispiox
December 5 -- Terrace RCMP search for wanted man
December 4 -- WANTED: Damien Shanoss
December 4 -- Terrace RCMP looking for Kispiox man
December 4 -- Terrace Police on the lookout for Kispiox man (RCMP statement)
December 2 -- Terrace Mounties recognized for exceptional work

Bulkley Valley/Lakes District 

Smithers RCMP Detachment website

December 24 -- The RCMP sets the record straight on its protest response  (RCMP statement)
December 24 -- Logging truck driver dies near Smithers
December 23 -- One man killed in single vehicle motor vehicle incident   (RCMP statement)
December 23 -- Concerns about the RCMP activity at the Wet'suwet'en pipeline protest (video)
December 20 -- Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP calling for independent review of RCMP action to Gidimt'en
December 18 -- Smithers RCMP ramps up impaired driving enforcement for holiday
December 18 -- Way to go Burns Lake
December 15 -- Witness testimony in RCMP excessive force suit concludes
December 13 -- BV Search and Rescue receives grant from the province
December 11 -- No parole for Giesbrecht until 2031
December 11 -- Houston Rescue truck purchase approved
December 9 -- Northwest petition underway to lengthen sentence for former Burns Lake Mayor (video)
December 9 -- No parole for 12 years for Burns Lake man convicted of second degree murder
December 6 -- Petition started to call on an appeal for former Burns Lake Mayor Sentence
December 5 -- Petition calls for appeal of Luke Strimbold's sentence for sex assault
December 5 -- Luke Strimbold sentenced to two years for sex offences
December 4 -- Strimbold to serve time in jail
December 4 -- Former Burns Lake Mayor sentenced to two years less a day for sex crimes
December 4 -- Former Burns Lake mayor gets two years for sexual assaults against minors
December 3 -- Former Burns Lake Mayor expected to get sentenced tomorrow
December 3 -- Griffin makes second appearance in Smithers court

Ketchikan and Southeast Alaska

December 19 -- Two arrested for ATM theft in Hydaburg
December 13 -- Meth found in package leads to three arrests on Prince of Wales Island
December 12 -- Sitka settles police whistleblower lawsuit for $325,000
December 9 -- Coast Guard aids teenage hiker in weekend rescue
December 9 -- After second dog fatality, state to eliminate problem bear
December 9 -- State troopers' plan to move dispatch to Anchorage draws criticism from Kethikan borough
December 6 -- Fire House to see another live auction 
December 2 -- Police arrest Seward murder suspect in Ketchikan
December 2 -- Electrical fire leaves Ketchikan house uninhabitable

Miscellaneous notes

December 13 -- Cities may need to develop fire department-style agency to deal with social problems, Prince George report suggests


Archive of month to month review for 2019 





To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

Real Estate Tracker: Week ending December 1 2019

There was a bit of change over the last week, with a pair of properties crashing the 499,000 mark to claim some space on the list of ten.

However, even with the turnover, the West side of the city continues to provide for the largest volume of property listings for another week.

Every Monday, we look over the listing prices of the week just passed 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 December 1, 2019 can be explored below:

Real Estate listings on the East Side of Prince Rupert
Week ending December 1, 2019

Real Estate listings on the West Side of Prince Rupert
Week ending December 1, 2019

The West side continues to dominate our review, with nine of the Ten found on our list continue to be located in a cluster around Graham and Atlin, with one other is in Pineridge area and one along the Downtown waterfront area on Bill Murray Way.

The east side of the city is left with the remaining property listing which is located on Raven Crescent.

The total value of the list of ten sits a the 6.6 million mark this week, making for much of the same territory as in previous weeks.

The lowest mark for the list of ten now sits  at  $449,000, while our top end from the last week remains marked  at the price point of  $1,350,000



Below find our findings as of the Week ending December 1, 2019

1824 Graham Avenue                    $1,350,000 -- Remax
175 Bill Murray Way                     $669,000 -- Remax
1933 Graham Avenue                    $649,000 -- Remax
1714 Sloan Avenue                        $649,000 -- Remax
1800 Atlin Avenue                         $649,000 -- Remax
2067 Graham Avenue                    $588,000 --  Remax
2201 Atlin Avenue                         $525,000 --  Remax
149 Raven Crescent                       $538,000 --  Realty Executives
1819 Atlin Avenue                         $499,000 --  Realty Executive
180 Alpine Drive                           $499,000 --  Realty Executive

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.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

Weather Warning issued for North Coast Inland areas

While the Prince Rupert area is in the midst of a rain and wind event for this Monday, those travelling inland will want to make note of the Weather Warning that has been issued by Environment Canada which is calling for periods of snow mixed with freezing rain, with accumulation of up to 15 centimetres, more likely north of Terrace, expected through the day before the system tapers to flurries.

Currently the Highway Cameras at Rainbow Summit and Kwinitsa show snow on the highway

Conditions earlier today at Rainbow Summit

Conditions earlier today at Kwinitsa along Highway 16

Highway cameras closer to Terrace are currently off line, however the Rosswood camera

located north of Terrace show that snow has recently fallen.

Conditions at Rosswood North of Terrace this morning

You can track the highway cameras that are operational from our archive page here.

To get updates on Road conditions to the east of Prince Rupert see the Drive BC website or follow the Drive BC NW twitter feed and MOTI Skeena Twitter feed.

For Prince Rupert the day will be mostly a windy one, with gusts of up to 70 km/h before the system dies down  to bring showers this evening and tomorrow.

For notes on past weather events see our archive page here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

Flurry of Sunday seismic action for BC, Alaska. With events recorded Offshore of Tofino and Aleutian Islands among the stronger temblors

The North Pacific fault line has been somewhat active this Sunday

The seismic plates have been somewhat active this Sunday, with a string of moderate and one large quake striking points in British Columbia, Washington State and Alaska since the noon hour.

The flurry of quakes began at 12:30 this afternoon of the coast of Vancouver Island with a 4.1 quake recorded 236 kilometres off of Tofino. Listed at a depth of 10 kilometres, it was far enough offshore that there were no reports delivered from Vancouver Island residents.

A slightly smaller quake was recorded in Packwood, Washington at roughly the same time.

At 4.1 magnitude and significantly off shore from Tofino there
was little of note recorded from the Sunday afternoon event

The largest of the recent swarm was recorded off the Aleutian chain of Islands in Alaska just after 9PM tonight, a 6.0 magnitude quake, that seismic event 90 miles SW of Adak, Alaska had been preceded by a couple of mid range quakes recorded further to the east and closer to the larger population centres near Anchorage.

No Tsunami warning was generated by either the BC event or that of the larger event in Alaska.

For notes on past seismic events along the Alaska and BC coast see our archive page here.

Blog Watching: Week ending, December 1, 2019

Some concerns raised at City Council on  Monday related to the level of health care in Prince Rupert made for the item that attracted the most interest this week, as readers explored some of the themes presented by Councillor Barry Cunningham.

City Hall notes also featured high in interest coming from the Council member's decisions on the distribution of Community Enhancement grants for the year ahead.

The School District also gained some notice with a large volume of readers taking note of the themes found from the November School Board meeting.

Provincial politics also gained a share of the readership for the week, with Skeena MLA Ellis Ross's Monday presentation to the Legislature on the proposed adoption of UNDRIP gaining a strong review, with the UNDRIP  legislation adopted by the Legislature one day later.

And Prince Rupert's water supply came in for another review from the national consortium of journalists, who published their latest work on Wednesday focusing on the use of chlorine by the City of Prince Rupert.

However, the most read story of the week, put the spotlight on Health Care, as Councillor Barry Cunningham looked to bring together all of the region's communities to advocate for the local hospital and care in the region.

Councillor Cunningham calls for collective approach to securing health care in Prince Rupert -- Concerns that Prince Rupert is falling behind in health care has prompted Councillor Barry Cunningham to seek out terms of reference for a committee that will bring the neighbouring communities of the North Coast together, so as to advocate for maintaining and improving on health services. His views on health care were reinforced later in the week by our look at the number of health care positions currently available in the city.  (posted  November 27, 2019)

That article was followed by:

MLA Ross speaks to UNDRIP in the Legislature, sharing his concerns of lost progress over a return to square one  --  With the Legislature wrapping up its Fall session this week, Skeena MLA Ellis Ross provided some additional thoughts on the NDP government's plans to adopt the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People, a process that came to a conclusion on Tuesday, with the unanimous approval of the Legislature. (posted  November 26, 2019)

Council approves City Staff recommendations for Community Enhancement Grants with one addition to the list  --  The City of Prince Rupert outlined which Community groups and organizations would be receiving Community Enhancement Grants this year and how much each would receive, that after receiving a report from City Staff which offered up their recommendations for 2020.  (posted November 27, 2019)

SD52 Board sets liaison positions, hears of school plans and recent Vancouver trip  -- A look at some of the notes of interest from the November meeting of the Board of Education for School District 52.   (posted November 29 , 2019)

Prince Rupert's use of chlorine in civic water supply latest focus for national consortium of journalists -- City Council may not have much to say about their latest work and the latest contribution from the national media probably won't be welcomed by the publisher of the local paper, but the team assembled to explore water issues in Canada had a few more notes to share on Prince Rupert's   (posted  November 28, 2019)

You can find our weekly Blog watching feature posted every Sunday morning by 9AM, making for 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. It can be found underneath the Follow the North Coast Review by Email indicator.

As well, those who use Twitter can get updates as we post new items from our twitter feed

Our archive of weekly Blog Watching can be found here.

To view the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.