Annunciation plans moving forward as return to school nears

Prince Rupert's Independent
School Annunciation is ready
for September

Like SD52, Prince Rupert's Independent School Annunciation is making its own plans for the return of school in September.

The city centre school posting a range of documents to their website to provide some background on how the school year will progress and how they plan to communicate with parents and guardians through the year.

Among the notes on the Annunciation website is the COVID communication Plan and policies, with the school website, newsletters and a still in the planning Social media platform on Facebook yet to come. 

The newsletters are sent out to parents/guardians every Thursday by email  to receive one you can sign up from the website's main page.

School COVID protocols, the school calendar and some past newsletters from the last year also make for some of the information stream as well as link to provincial guidance on education for 2020-21.

School resumes on September 8th with a three hour morning session for Grades 1 to 8, with the Kindergarten year getting underway with orientation sessions.

You can review all of the Back to School notes from the Independent school here.

As that start nears, returning and new students, teachers and staff will be greeted by a new principal, with Ms. Tina McDonald taking the helm of the school over the summer, she replaces Mrs. Laura Lowther who left her position at Annunciation at the end of June.

For more notes related to education on the North Coast see our archive page here.

When it comes to the City's two Major summer road infrastructure projects; One down, one to go

It's been a summer of infrastructure challenges for the
City of Prince Rupert

Motorists along the McBride/First Avenue roadways can finally make use of all the travel space of the city's roads, that after the City's Public Works Department put the finishing touches on a lengthy bit of infrastructure repair underneath the pavement of the downtown core near the Court House.

The work came to an end late last week with paving the final bit or repair to take place before the roadway was reopened to the public after a period of just under two months.

Before and After work on infrastructure issues below McBride St.

And while the City can celebrate the wrap on that project, as we outlined earlier this month, the other long running repair work at the Intersection of Fulton and Sixth Avenue West seems destined to carry on for a period of time yet.

The intersection work at Fulton and Sixth will continue
on into September and beyond

Over the course of the last few weeks the city has dug up significantly more roadway than it has repaired at the Fulton location, advising the public that the work on that particular infrastructure issue may be a bit more of a long term one.

Those who manage to navigate the off road like course set up around the Fulton intersection however aren't quite out of the woods on their travels. 

Just a few blocks west of that site the road again poses challenges with some suspension testing holes in the road along Summit, those however seem soon to be addressed as the city's summer paving program moves into the home stretch into September.

For more items of note on infrastructure see our archive page here.

Further themes from City Council can be explored through our Council Discussion archive.

AltaGas gains regulatory approval for second level of LPG shipments

AltaGas Ridley Island Propane Export Terminal

With the pace of production and shipments at the Ridley Island Propane Export Terminal delivering impressive results to date in 2020, Alberta bases AltaGas has found success with a second request of the Canadian Energy Regulator to export an additional 46,000 barrels per day  of propane out of their Prince Rupert facility.

The initial application to seek the second level of propane shipments was submitted in November of 2019, the process delivering the positive assent on August 21st.

The most recent statistics released by the  Prince Rupert facility indicate that RIPET had shipped an average of 41,000 barrels per day this year, that from their initial export licence with the initial volume more than meeting the parameters in place from their original permit.

As we outlined in June, the success of AltaGas was noted by both the Prince Rupert Port Authority and CN Rail, the latter realizing additional freight movements through the addition of the Propane export facility on the North Coast.

In July, the company released their Second Quarter results and in a year full of challenges for the energy sector, the strong performance of RIPET was included as part of the highlights of the overview for shareholders and would be investors.

"Performance at RIPET remains strong. We continue to deliver on our goals, setting a record in the second quarter with 41,460 Bbls/d of Canadian propane exported to Asia on seven ships. We are pleased with the progress we continue to make at RIPET and we remain on track to hit 50,000 Bbls/d before year-end." -- From the AltaGas Second Quarter Report.

AltaGas won't take advantage of their second export permit just yet, as they await further guidance from the Federal government there has been no timeline announced for the introduction of additional shipments through Ridley Island.

For more notes related to AltaGas in Prince Rupert see our archive page here.

Real Estate Tracker: Week ending August 30, 2020

One more property joins the listings of the Graham Avenue area, with the collection of homes on the West side making for the bulk of our focus for the area's top end homes again this 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 August 30, 2020 can be explored below:

Real Estate listings on the East Side of Prince Rupert
Week ending August 30, 2020

Real Estate listings on the West Side of Prince Rupert
Week ending August 30, 2020

The majority of our list is marked by eight properties on the west side of the McBride street divide, with a good sample of those found in the Graham/Atlin area of the city.

From this weeks rearrangement of the top end of the listings, there are two properties on the east side as part the review.

The total value of the list of ten now sits at just over the 7.5 million dollar mark, marking much of the same value as last week.

The lowest mark for the list of ten  sits  at $569,000 while our top end from the last week now is marked  at the price point of  $1,290,000

Below find our findings as of the Week ending August 30, 2020

1824 Graham Avenue                    $1,290,000 -- Realty Executives 

2060 Graham Avenue                    $955,000  --   Realty Executives

2050 Atlin Avenue                         $849,000 --    Realty Executives 

508 Cassiar Avenue                       $685,000 --    Remax

1714 Sloan Avenue                        $649,000 --    Remax
1933 Graham Avenue                    $649,000 --    Remax
1928 Graham Avenue                    $645,000 --    Remax

173 Bill Murray Drive                   $639,900 --    Remax
251 Parker Drive                            $570,000 --    Realty Executives

1068 6th Avenue East                     $569,000 --    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.

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

Nisga'a Valley Health Authority issues notification of suspected COVID-19 exposure in the Nass

A number of health protocols have been put in place for residents in the Nass Valley and for those who may have travelled into the area between August 17th to 28th that after the announcement of a suspected COVID-19 exposure in the region.

The advisory issued on Saturday notes that all attendees of a funeral/feast for a community member  between August 21 and 25th should contact the NVHA  clinic in their area, as well as to notify their respective Village government chief Administrator, as well as to self isolate.

The period in question included the community ceremonies for recently deceased Nisga'a leader Dr. Joseph Gosnell. 

The Nisga'a Lisims Government had already put in place significant travel restrictions through the summer towards keeping the spread of COVID-19 in check in the Nisga'a Nation. 

Officials have added on to those guidelines in the wake of yesterday's advisory.

The full list of important information related to the advisory can be explored here.

More items of interest on the Nisga'a Nation can be explored here.

Blog Watching: Week ending August 27, 2020

Our list of the five top stories makes for an interesting mix of items over the last seven days.

A break in a near three year investigation into a 2017 bank robbery came this week, as Prince Rupert Mounties made an arrest related to the case file in the Fairview area. 

Other themes on the week included updates on the drinking water situation in both Port Edward and Prince Rupert.

Municipal government topics were also high on the reading list, with our look at the release of SOFI information for this year and some of the work at Monday's council session of note for the week.

We also received some interesting statistical notes from the BC Centre for Disease Control, with the provincial agency releasing its data break down by community in the province. The results provided a look at the confirmed case count of COVID and with the exception of the large community outbreak on Haida Gwaii, the rest of the Northwest delivered impressive results.

However, when it came to the most read item of the last week, the work of the local detachment of the RCMP on a bank robbery case file dominated our views of the last seven day.

Wanted Prince Rupert Man now in custody -- An alleged suspect in a Prince Rupert bank robbery from 2017 was taken into custody this week and had his first court appearance on Friday, as part of the update on the case the RCMP in the city thanked the community for their assistance towards the file.  (posted  August 27, 2020)

That article was followed by:

Port Edward brings Water Advisory to an end for District resident  -- Civic officials in Port Edward delivered some welcome news this week, advising that the Water Advisory that has been in place for most of August is now over. While District residents celebrated that good news, in Prince Rupert the Water Advisory in place since August 17th was extended, with the City of Prince Rupert offering an update on the situation on Friday afternoon.     (posted August  27, 2020)

City's SOFI report outlines 2019 compensation and expense totals for Mayor and Council -- The City of Prince Rupert released the last of the Financial information for 2019 this week, with the two month delayed listings of the compensation and expenses for the Prince Rupert Mayor and Council. Also included in Monday's report was the compensation list for civic employees making over $75,000 and the list of Suppliers of Goods and Services and payments out for the last year.    (posted August 24, 2020 )

Prince Rupert among the best in BC at bending the curve of COVID-19 --  The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control released some expanded information on the provincial work on COVID, with data to show just how many cases of COVID have been recorded in BC communities. Overall the Northwest has fared well, other than the large community outbreak on Haida Gwaii, and for Prince Rupert the results were particularly impressive. (posted August 28, 2020)

East Side Road Closure makes for prelude for potential housing plans -- A rather small item of note from Monday's Council session seemed to attract a fair bit of attention this week, as readers explored our notes on the presentation from Operations Director Richard Pucci and the comments from council on the topic of the road closure in the Edwards Street area off of 11th Avenue East. More items of interest from the Monday Council session can be reviewed here.   (posted August 28 , 2020)

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.

BC's new COVID-19 case count doubles in 24 hours, highlighting the nature of the wild swings of August

The somewhat unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 case number through August continued today, with Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix issuing a statement that notes 124 new cases of COVID, double the number of new cases reported one day ago.

“Today, we are announcing 124 new cases, including one epi-linked case since we reported on Thursday, for a total of 5,496 cases in British Columbia.  

There are 974 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 2,796 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 4,310 people who tested positive have recovered.  

Currently, 23 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, seven of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation."

Across the Province, Health Authorities updated their total numbers as follows:

1,791 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 2,878 in the Fraser Health region, 174 in the Island Health region, 433 in the Interior Health region, 142 cases in total have been recorded in the Northern Health region, a jump of five since Thursday. 

78 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded among people who reside outside of Canada.

There were thankfully, no new death announcements to make today, with the total number of passings to date from COVID at 204.

As a reminder for British Columbians on the need to continue to take heed of the provincial measures designed to bring down the curve, the provincial health officials provided some notes to take into the weekend.

“COVID-19 requires new ways of living our lives with new precautions and routines for ourselves and our families, whether at home, work, school or when spending time with others. This includes keeping our numbers of contacts low, especially at indoor parties and events, whether in a hall or in our own home. We have seen transmission from even small events, and the last thing we want to do is pass COVID-19 to those we are closest to. 

This weekend, let’s remember to use the layers of protection that keep ourselves and those around us safe. This is also a good time to think about the new routines that will be part of our activities into the fall. “The efforts we make today make the difference for all of us tomorrow, so let’s renew our commitment to doing what we can to keep our province and ourselves safe.”

Earlier today, we took note of the data from the CDC and how it provided a snapshot of the path of the virus in the Northwest and Haida Gwaii, with the results ranging from the large numbers of the Haida Gwaii outbreak of earlier this month, which has now been declared over - to the Case count of zero for the Prince Rupert area and the Nass Valley.

Our notes on that data can be reviewed  here.

You can review the full COVID 19 report for Friday here.  

The BC Centre for Disease control has some valuable Coronavirus notes related to COVID-19 you can explore that information here.

You can learn more about the outbreak from both the Province and the Federal government from the links below:

Federal Government site

British Columbia Government site

The World Health Organization website also offers up the latest advisories on the global situation.

More from  Northern Health can be reviewed here 

You can review our archive of past statements and local information here.

Local governments and organizations have also provided for increased awareness of COVID-19 issues, the string of statements that came quickly at the end of the week can be reviewed here.

For notes from across Canada and British Columbia we have been archiving the latest items through our political portal Darcy McGee

Ottawa Observations

Victoria Viewpoints