Members of the Lax Kw'alaams community will be facing another two weeks of lockdown measures, that after the Lax Kw'alaams Band Council announced an extension to ongoing health measures in response to an outbreak of COVID in Prince Rupert.
Towards the community advisory, the Emergency Measures Committee outlines the current specifics related to access to the community:
Residents leaving the community will not be allowed re-entry unless:
They are residents authorized to do so for EMERGENCY patient travel as authorized by the Health Centre Nurses. These patients must isolate for 14 days upon their return.
They are authorized to leave the community by the Assistant to the CAO for compassionate reasons (funerals, attending to those in critical care).
Non-residents currently in the community do not have to leave; but when they do leave, they cannot re-enter the community.
Contractors who enter the community will be assessed on an individual basis. Priority will be given to essential services or the various projects currently underway that influence community infrastructure and safety. These contracts will have no contact with community members.
Retail grocers must not go back and forth. As before, please put your vehicle on the ferry, get it picked up at Aero Point by another individual, and get your vehicle returned unattended.
In addition to the lockdown, the community is currently dealing with a water supply issue, with residents of Lax Kw'alaams urged to conserve water at this time.
No update has been provided as of today, so the messages to the community from the weekend would appear to still be valid for the situaiton.
The community also saw one of it's long time landmarks destroyed by fire over the weekend, as we noted on Saturday evening, Grace United Church was consumed by flames in a fire early Saturday morning, there were no injuries reported from the fire, the RCMP has indicated that it was suspicious in nature.
The latest initiative from the Canucks Autism Network is going to help children, youth and adults on the autism spectrum in the province connect with a range of programs, that as the Network offers families a free iPad loan and monthly data program.
The project was announced last week and in the Northwest families in Prince Rupert and Kitimat can participate, which will see families provided the use of an iPad mini equipped with monthly data and registration in weekly virtual programs, all of it free of charge.
The program is also available, for those families that already have their own devices and internet access.
Prince Rupert's Christine Danorth an Canucks Autism Network parent and community parter outlined how the support of the Network has benefited the North Coast.
“Canucks Autism Network has been an invaluable resource for training and increasing autism acceptance in Northern BC for several years now. I am thrilled to support their efforts to make a positive impact in our community with these new opportunities for our local families to directly experience CAN programs.”
The Virtual programs are ongoing throughout winter, spring and summer 2021. iPad loans and virtual programs will continue year-round. Interested families can register here.
For more notes related to the Canucks Autism Network see their website or Facebook page
All but three floors are fronted by scaffolding at the Digby Tower renovation work is underway at the long vacant apartment building
See update below:
Prince Rupert's second tallest building is in the midst of some renovation, with Marcan Construction having taken on some work at the Sherbrooke Avenue Tower, with scaffolding currently inching its way up the outside of the long vacant east side apartment building.
So far there has been no official announcement from the developer about the work, related to what the finished product may look like, or where it may fit into when it comes to offering some solutions to the city's housing stock situation.
The work ahead for the Digby Tower was noted back in December in a year end message from Mayor Lee Brain, who outlined that potential housing solution, as well as a range of other housing themes either in motion or in the proposal stage.
Housing has long been a theme of discussion for City Council, though to date the results when it comes to actual in the ground foundations has been disappointly low, while a number of the items on the list above seemed to have stalled in recent months.
The housing situation in Prince Rupert has been exacerbated in recent years through the loss of housing stock owing to a number of fires, or through renovations to existing buildings and the evictions that have followed.
The topic of the renoviction trend one of the more worrisome things for local residents desperately trying to find accommodation.
As the Mayor notes with the prospect of a growing workforce related to Port activities, housing will clearly consume a large focus for the year ahead and that was a theme that Councillor Nick Adey touched on at last week's Council session.
Coun. Nick Adey spoke to housing at last week's Council Session
"It sort of moves to lead to undertake ways to ensure that the housing supply that Prince Rupert can offer, can support the expansion that arises as a result of the Port expanding. I just think you know, that all levels of government we need to really see those things in lock step. You know, you can't have an expansion on one hand and not address what that implies on the issue of housing, I offer that just as a comment"
"We did a good portion of our part tonight by passing that ... Tax Incentive Bylaw so that we can start moving toward with development in the downtown, particularly with multi-family"
Mr. Brain also made note of his New Year's address and how it highlighted the city's work on Housing and Child care, themes which he identified as the top priorities for Council.
The Mayor added that he may provide a housing update for the community at a future council session, something that will be welcome for sure; providing that it offers up some details as to expectations and not just what Council hopes may come to pass towards addressing one of the larges issues in the community.
You can review the comments from last week's council session from the Video archive starting at the 50 minute mark of the Monday council meeting.
Update: On Tuesday, February 2nd, Mayor Brain made note of the Digby Towers activity, outlining that an out of town investor from Victoria had purchased the long dormant apartment building last year; with plans to hopefully add 60 more units of housing options for the community by years end.
The support for the frontline workers at the facility came following a terrible week for the Manor, which saw three confirmed passings announced prior to the Friday evening commemoration. Northern Health is expected to provide further information related to the situation over the weekend at the Manor later today.
North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice was among those to organize and participate in the Friday evening event, she along with Pastor Diana Edis have also announced a program to collect items for the residents of the Manor.
With drop off locations at for the community initiative at the MLA's Ocean Centre Office or the Lutheran Church at Fifth and McBride.
Among some of the items that the staff at Acropolis are in need of include;
Homemade cards or artwork made from kids.
Decks of playing cards
Colouring books with crayons
Large Print Word Searches
Large Print Reader's Digests
The photos from Old Calendars
Extra Large Ziploc bags for making up the care packages
One of a growing number of messages for Health care workers being posted to a local FB page
Some residents have been sharing their comfort and wishes to the Manor through the Northern Health Facebook page dedicated to the Prince Rupert area, you can add your name to that list here.
The comments from residents of the region, have been added to those from elected officials with Mayor Brain offering condolences from the City last week, as did Port Edward mayor Knut Bjorndal.
For more notes on the ongoing efforts towards the COVID outbreak at the Manor and other items of interest on Health care in Prince Rupert see our archive page here.
The rotation of appointees to the BC Climate Council will see Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain exit his post, with George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy announcing three changes to the Council membership on Friday.
As last week came to an end Mr. Heyman outlined that the new council members would include Toni Boot, Mayor of Summerland; Arjun Singh, a city councillor in Kamloops; and Scott Maloney, vice-president of environment, Teck Resources Limited taking up positions.
In addition to Prince Rupert Mayor Brain, the outgoing council members include Josie Osborne, former mayor of Tofino and now minister of municipal affairs and Tom Syer, vice-president of stakeholder relations, TC Energy.
The Minister offered thanks to the newcomers and paid tribute to the departing members as part of the Friday statement.
“I want to thank the incoming members of the Climate Solutions Council, who bring strong skills and experience to support their commitment to building a cleaner, stronger future for everyone in B.C. I’d also like to thank outgoing members for their major contributions and the expertise they brought to the council. Their efforts and willingness to collaborate strengthened our CleanBC plan as we work to combat climate change and build a more resilient and sustainable economy.”
The Prince Rupert Mayor had his first taste of provincial/municipal engagement on climate themes when he joined the BC Mayors Climate Leadership council in 2016, replacing Buns Lake Mayor Luke Strimbold who left politics that year.
A few new entries bring the total value of the list of ten up by a few hundred thousands dollars from last week's review, as some higher range properties made their entry over the last seven days.
The split between the east and west of the city shifted somewhat with four properties on the east side, joining six west of McBride to the review.
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.
