AMHS finalizes Fall/Winter Schedule with Prince Rupert still a destination closed to travel into 2021

Reduced or suspended service marks many of the entries
on the 2020-21 AMHS Fall and Winter Calendar
(map from AMHS website)

After a final round of review and last minute check of the balance sheets for the Alaska Marine Highway System, travellers who use the State coastal ferry service now have a firm idea as to what the next six months of travel will look like.

And for those who once travelled through Prince Rupert, the transit point will remain closed through 2020 and into 2021, that suspension of service a combination of a number of factors. 

Among them COVID related border closures between Canada and the USA, and still unresolved local issues related to security at the Fairview Bay terminal, as well as infrastructure repairs at the Prince Rupert arrival and departure point, areas which we offered up some background towards last month.

From Fall to Spring the schedule looks the same for 
AMHS Service to and from Prince Rupert

As noted above, the reasons for Prince Rupert's service suspension remain related to COVID and the other issues still outstanding, however a number of Alaskan communities have seen their service suspended as well including, Valdez, Chenega Bay, Tatitlek and Seldovia. 

Most other communities up and down the Alaskan coast will also see service reductions through the next six months.

That as the Marine Highway system continues to face financial challenges and equipment issues.

For more items of note related to Marine Transportation to and from the North Coast see our archive page here.

A near doubling of Tuesday COIVD figures, focus on basic measures to 'push our curve down again'

The yo yo effect was in full play today for the case reviews of Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

The often repeated pattern of late back in motion, as the two top public health officials in the province delivered the Wednesday COVID update noting of a near double the totals reviewed on Tuesday.

“Today, we are announcing 104 new cases, including six epi-linked cases, for a total of 5,952 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 1,127 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 2,786 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 4,605 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Currently, 33 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 14 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation. "

For the review of each Health Authority the totals to date are:

1,974 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 3,112 in the Fraser Health region, 178 in the Island Health region, 445 in the Interior Health region, 164 in the Northern Health region that an increase of four from Tuesday. 

79 cases of COVID were reported from people who reside outside of Canada.

The day did deliver one positive note that of no new deaths to report over the last 24 hours.

Once again the focus for discussion has turned towards layers of protection and keeping circles relatively small to push down on the curve once again.

“Getting back to work and back to school is also about getting back to the basics with our COVID-19 safety measures. 

We need to redouble our efforts to ensure our layers of protection are always part of our daily routines – for everyone in our family. This will allow us to push our curve down once again. 

Take some time to think about your personal circumstances and those of your family. Who may be vulnerable to severe illness and what are you doing to protect them? With each of us doing our part, we can protect our communities, our elders and our loved ones. 

Let’s choose to keep our groups small. Let’s choose to be the person that stays home when we are ill and let’s choose to be safe each and every day while COVID-19 remains in our communities.”

You can review the full COVID report for Wednesday 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, those past advisories  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 

A look at underwater infrastructure the key focus in call for RFP's by PRPA

The Price Rupert Port Authority is looking to get a better idea as to what things look like down there, seeking a Request for Proposals towards an Underwater survey of a number of port related infrastructure fixtures in waterfront areas of Prince Rupert and Port Edward.

The work involved will determine the status of the underwater infrastructure elements such as pilings and other pertinent marine items such as floats and caissons.

Five areas of marine infrastructure will make for the survey

(a) The Fairview Container Terminal (Prince Rupert BC) (the “Fairview Site”); 

(b) SAAM Smit/Diep Sea (Prince Rupert BC) (the “SAAM / Diep Site”); 

(c) Pilot Float (Prince Rupert BC) (the “Pilot Float Site”); 

(d) Tenerife (Port Edward BC) (the “Tenerife Site”); 

(e) RO-RO Ramp (Ridley Island BC) (the “RO-RO Site”)

The underwater areas to be explored as part of a Marine Survey to
be conducted by the Prince Rupert Port Association
(photos from BC Bid website)

The key elements towards the marine survey project include:

1. Underwater investigation of PRPA pertinent marine infrastructure. 

2. Develop a condition rating for each site. 

3. Identify an applicable engineering repair design plan and magnitude of cost for each site.

The deadline for interested proponents to respond is September 18th

The call for proposals was issued in late August, with the Prince Rupert Port Authority looking to have the successful proponent in place by September 23rd, with work underway in the first week of October.

The full scope of what is expected from the successful proponent for each of the survey sites can be explored from the BC Bid website.

For more items of interest related to the Prince Rupert Port Authority see our archive page here.

Break free of isolation with "Quarantine Fest 2020"

Harbour Theatre and UdderFest are both looking to
get your creative process in motion this fall

After six months or so of keeping mostly to ourselves and social distancing, perhaps composing songs for our times in our heads, or creating our own personal sitcoms or dramas to tide us over,  the opportunity to turn the personal experience into art is here.

Harbour Theatre Society and the Udder Theatre Festival Committee have come up with a project to turn the Spring and Summer of COVID into the feature for the Fall, announcing QuarantineFest 2020.

The project was announced through the Harbour Theatre Facebook page, with the local theatre community issuing a call out to the community to create and submit original video shorts, to be screened at the Tom Rooney Playhouse later this fall.

The options are endless towards the focus for the contributions, the only real guideline one that suggests a twenty minute maximum for the video presentations.

The deadline to provide a submission is September 30th.

As they note in their call out for submissions, COVID has indeed had an impact on many of the local theatre community's opportunities to create this year, with the popular summer festival Udderfest just one of their initiatives that was sidelined for 2020.

Harbour Theatre was not alone in the impact of the shutdown of our social activities, a range of local productions and the calendar of events at the Lester Centre for the Arts all came to a sudden stop as the coronavirus began its path across the globe in late February and early March.

The prospect that Harbour Theatre and Udder Fest are offering to rejuvenating the artistic themes will be a welcome one for the region, and you can learn more about the QuarantineFest 2020 plans from the Harbour Theatre Facebook page.

To seek out more details as to how to submit your videos or to ask further questions send an email to harbourtheatre@gmail.com

For more notes related to the Community Arts scene see our archive page here, a wider overview of Community themes is available here.

High Volume means additional sailing for Lax Kw'alaams barge service

With the Lax Kw'alaams Ferry away for its annual refit program, the Band Council has found that demand for travel has increased for the the replacement options in place and with that, have shifted around their available transportation resources.

Starting Monday, September 7th they will be adding one barge sailing and reducing one of their water taxi trips as they look to adjust to the additional traffic that is in place.

The new schedule will look as follows:

It's anticipated that the Spirit of Lax Kw'alaams will return to the North Coast and go back into service by late October.

Those looking to book passage on the barge or water taxi can contact the Band at 250-625-2445 for more information. 

For updates on the services offered by the Band see their Facebook page or website

Further notes on Lax Kw'alaams can be explored from our archive page here.

Dancing Feet to land on your doorstep as CityWest makes Phonebook selection

The voters have spoken  and 'Dancing Feet' will be the
cover photo for your CityWest phone book for 2021

Another strong field of contenders made for some tough choices for CityWest officials as they explored the submissions for this years CityWest Phonebook cover competition.

As we outlined in August, the call for photos came in early July with Prince Rupert's photographers delivering a large volume of submissions for consideration for the August selection period.

The range of snapshots was narrowed down to a final 10 with CityWest customers once again casting the final ballots for this years cover choice and when the tallies were counted it was Nathan Combs "Dancing Feet" danced its way to the top of the list.

Voting for the cover photo came to an end on August 28th, the phone books are expected to be delivered to Prince Rupert homes and businesses later this Fall.

CityWest's salute to the winner can be reviewed here.

For more notes on CityWest see our archive page here.

58 cases of COVID returns case count levels to recent benchmarks, notes on Nass Valley advisory mark Tuesday COVID-19 overview

As has been the case through much of August, the Tuesday review in a way provides for the opportunity for British Columbians to take a breath following the weekly Monday COVID update and its focus on what have been large and at times concerning results about the volume of cases relayed over the weekend.

Today, with the shadow of near 300 cases of COVID recorded in that 72 hour period, the rather low figure of 58 as relayed through a statement from Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix seemed to a degree to offer a balance to the previous 24 hours.

"Today, we are announcing 58 new cases, including one epi-linked case, for a total of 5,848 cases in British Columbia. There are 1,124 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 2,761 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 4,505 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Currently, 31 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 10 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation." 

Towards the daily breakdown by Health Authorities, the Tuesday review was as follows:

1,922 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 3,072 in the Fraser Health region, 175 in the Island Health region, 440 in the Interior Health region, 160 in the Northern Health region an increase of six from Monday.

As well there were 79 cases of COVID recorded in people who reside outside of Canada. 

There has been one new COVID-19 related death, for a total of 209 deaths in British Columbia. 

Today's provincial advisory also provided some notes on the recent alert issued out of the Nass Valley, related to a concern over the potential for COVID from the recent memorial for Nisga'a leader Dr. Joesph Gosnell.

“The Northern Health region, the First Nations Health Authority and the Nisga’a Valley Health Authority (NVHA) have issued a joint alert for anyone in the Nass Valley who may have attended recent gatherings between Aug. 21 and 25. Any gathering attendees are asked to contact the NVHA clinic and if symptoms develop, to immediately self-isolate. 

Alerts are posted on the BC Centre for Disease Control's (BCCDC) website, as well as on health authorities' websites, providing details on where the potential exposure occurred and what actions to take, whether you need to self-isolate or monitor for symptoms."

Looking ahead to the rest of September and into the fall, Dr. Henry and Minister Dix had more guidance for residents of the province to take in.

 “As we transition to the next phase of our COVID-19 pandemic in B.C. and prepare for the respiratory season ahead, it is time for all of us to regroup and refocus our efforts to keep the number of new cases low and slow. 

We have the knowledge and we have the tools that we can all use to be safe, no matter where we may be. Let’s use our layers of protection and make them a part of our daily routines each and every day this fall."

You can review the full COVID-19 report for Tuesday 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