Metlakatla First Nation members find rewards for their loyalty to Grassy Bay gas station operations

 

The Grassy Bay PetroCanada station in the Industrial Park is a go to 
destination for many in Prince Rupert when it comes time to fill up the tank

Members of the Metlakatla First Nation have a good reason to make the drive down to the Industrial site location for Grassy Bay PetroCanada, with a significant saving found for their fill ups, that thanks to a policy of giving back to Members in place from the Metlakatla Development Corporation.

As part of their Giving Back to Members theme, the MDC has provided a glimpse of the savings that members have gained in just the last year; posting a synopsis of the program to the Metlakatla First Nation Facebook page this week.

Even those who aren't members of the Metlakatla First Nation may find a welcome price point at the Kaien Road fuelling station, the Grassy Point station often has a lower price posted (as is seen above) than what the gas stations in the urban area of Prince Rupert have.

Yesterday for instance when the photo above was taken, the three stations in town were posting a price of 1.55 per litre, while the trip to Grassy Point found a price point of 1.49 per litre.

More notes of interest from the Metlakatla First Nation can be reviewed from our archive page here. 

Skeena-Bulkley Valley voters will have a chance to hear from the candidates on September 7th

The first and so far only candidates debate as part of the 2021 Federal election campaign has been set for September 7th in Terrace, the event to be co-hosted by the Terrace Standard and the REM Lee Theatre.

The All Candidates Debate was announced by the Terrace newspaper on Tuesday, the two hour event to be live streamed through the Terrace Standard Facebook page from 7 to 9PM.

While the venue for the debate would normally offer much capacity for a live audience, owing to COVID protocols in place at the Theatre, the organizers will keep the doors closed, with only the candidates and a media panel to be taking part.

Even with that, one candidate, the Green's Adeana Young will be participating virtually, advising organizers that she does not plan to travel during the campaign owing to COVID-19 and environmental concerns. 

As well, there has been no indication from Liberal candidate Lakhwinder Jhaj as to whether she will participate in the event.

The remaining candidates Taylor Bachrach, Claire Rattée, Rod Taylor and Jody Craven have all advised the organizers that they'll be in their places on the stage at the REM on September 7th.

While there won't be any audience participation at the Theatre, the debate organizers will be accepting questions prior to debate night. 

Those interested in submitting their questions can do so by emailing the Terrace Standard at newsroom@terracestandard.com, be sure to include the note Debate Question in the subject line.

You can review how organizers plan to navigate debate night from this item from the Terrace paper.

CityWest has also advised that they will be rebroadcasting the debate on September 10th at 7PM across their community channel network of Channel 10 and Channel 310HD.

More notes on the campaign to date can be reviewed from our archive page here.

 

Regional District is ready for Curbside recycling ... whenever the City of Prince Rupert is

 

In anticipation of a September start to the curbside recycling 
program, the Kaien Road Recycling centre installed a weigh scale.
With the suspension of the curbside program until 2022,
the scale won't see much use now until January at the earliest

A new piece of equipment at the Kaien Road Recycling Centre is now in place and awaiting its introduction for use, with North Coast Regional District having recently finished installing a weigh scale at the facility. 

The project part of the Recycling Centre's preparations towards the City of Prince Rupert curbside recycling program, which was announced with a fair bit of fanfare earlier this summer.

However, as we noted in August, that program has now been suspended until at least January of 2022, that after the City determined that the curbside pick up element of the program was not quite ready for Prime time.

On Monday, the City of Prince Rupert Facebook page, offered up a reprise to their August 20th announcement; with the feedback from those who follow the page much the same as that which greeted the late on a Friday afternoon information drop of earlier in the month.

Upon review of some of the  comments and questions from the city's Facebook followers, the need for a bit more information from the city as to the nature of the delay and their approach to planning for its launch might be required.

It was an opportunity that City Council passed up on at their last Council meeting of August 23rd when the topic never made it into their lively discussion on other topics of the night.

For the most part, City Council as a group has been rather quiet on the delayed launch of the curbside program, something that wasn't the case upon the announcement earlier this summer, back when we had a video from the Mayor and much praise for the arrival of the program around the Council chamber.

With the announcement of the deferral til the New year, the topic has even faded from view on the Mayor's political Facebook page which usually trumpets all of Council's initiatives large and small.

Since they have three months or so to consider the launch, Council members may wish to perhaps seek out further feedback from the public as to what they would prefer for a recycling program. 

That to see if what they plan to provide, is actually meeting the wishes of those who will use it ... or not.

Since they're laying low on the topic, they'll just have to use the comments to the City Facebook page as the Focus Group for now it seems.

August 30th Notice
August 20th Notice

More on the City's recycling travails can be reviewed from our archive page here.

Further items of note from City Council can be reviewed from our Council Discussion page.

Prince Rupert reports rise to 8 new cases of COVID in weekly Local Health Data release today

Local Health Authority Data on COVID from the BC CDC
the results above for the week of August 22 to 28
(click to enlarge)

Prince Rupert has recorded the most new case reports of COVID 19 since the week of April 4-10, with today's release from the BC CDC noting of 8 cases for the city, that's up from One case which was listed last week.

The Prince Rupert results coming as the march of the Delta Variant is raising new case counts across the province of British Columbia.

What should not be forgotten in the data review now however, is  that the current circumstances across the Northwest are very much quite different than those found in the Spring. 

With a strong vaccination program having taken place from March through to July, a program which has surely meant that the current level of just 8 on the week, while of note, is not quite the thing of concern as was found in April 4 to 10  when the case counts were in the upper 20's. 

Nor those from the start of the year when COVID and the ever rising count of new cases dominated the conversation week after week.

Still, the rise particularly the further east one travels, is a signal that much work remains to be done to try to wrestle the coronavirus off the items of note that are relayed on a daily basis these days.

The results for the remainder of the Northwest also show increases in a number of communities, with the exception of Haida Gwaii which did not report any new cases this week.

The Listings for the Week of August 22 to 28 can be reviewed below:

Nechako -- 56
Terrace -- 19
Smithers --  17
Kitimat -- 9
Nisga'a Region -- 4
Snow Country-Stikine-Telegraph Creek -- 3
Burns Lake -- 2
Upper Skeena -- 2 
Bella Coola Valley -- 1
Haida Gwaii -- 0

Today's provincial report advised of 785 new cases on the day province wide, there are currently 5,873 active cases of COVID in British Columbia.

Of the active cases, 199 individuals are in hospital and 112 are listed in Intensive Care.

Northern Health lists 94 new cases on the day, with 483 active cases.

The Northern Health Hospitalization notes show 17 in hospital, with 13 currently in Critical Care

BC CDC Totals for September 1st for Northern Health
(click to enlarge)

BC CDC Totals for September for the entire province
(click to enlarge)

The full report for September 1st can be reviewed here.

On Tuesday, Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix outlined the path of travel of COVID through August, with the coronavirus one now that is mostly being recorded by those who have not been vaccinated as of yet.

(click to enlarge)

That entire modelling slideshow presentation can be reviewed here.

To find out where a vaccination clinic is taking place in your community, see this link from Northern Health.

You can review the past information statements on COVID and other notes from our archive page here.

Coast Mountain College announces vaccination policy for on campus housing

Students at Coast Mountain College who live in campus housing
will be required to provide proof of vaccination for COVID-19
(Photo from CMTN FB)

Students who live on campus at those locations at Coast Mountain College which have campus housing, will now be required to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, the policy coming into effect as of September 7th.

In an announcement on Monday, Coast Mountain college outlined their requirements something which is by order of the Public Health Office of British Columbia.

The Coast Mountain College Vaccination advisory comes following last weeks roll out of Back to School guidance for Post Secondary Students, which outlined the range of Measures that colleges and universities will be following as the classrooms return to occupancy next week.

As for College housing, Coast Mountain offers campus housing  at their home campus in Terrace, with a new facility currently under construction to add to the volume of accommodation space to be made available to their students.

Coast Mountain College also offers campus housing in the Smithers area, with 20 single occupancy beds available.

An artists rendering of the new housing facility for students
at Coast Mountain College in Terrace
(from CMTN website)

While the need for campus housing in Prince Rupert has been a long running topic of discussion for the college and Prince Rupert City Council, so far however, there has been no progress noted in the desire to see similar accommodation provided on the North Coast.

It's a topic that hasn't seen much in the way of advancement  since we last looked at it in March of this year.

For more notes on Coast Mountain College see our archive page here.

Prince Rupert's Liam McChesney heads into 2021-22 hoops season in the basketball mad US Midwest

Former CHSS Rainmaker Liam McChesney gained a 
Shout out from his new NCAA basketball team last week

In a state that treats basketball as a religion, the fans of the Illinois Redbirds are getting ready to take in another season of top end NCAA play, as well as to follow the progress of one of their newest roster members, with the Redbirds offering up a recent Social Media shout out for Liam McChesney.

As we noted in June, the former CHSS Rainmaker transferred from Utah State to the Illinois program over the summer and will be getting into the thick of the basketball training program this fall.

That as the NCAA team prepares for the upcoming season and their quest to make it into the March Madness showcase in 2022.

His official introduction to the RedBird followers coming on June 22nd

The Redbirds schedule kicks off with a southern destination set for November as the Illinois squad heads to Mexico for the Cancun Challenge games.

From there it will be on to the NCAA regular season and the challenges of the Midwest which is a hotbed for basketball in the US. 

The Liam McChesney entry to the biography section of the RedBirds home page can be reviewed below, where you can catch up on his travels as he prepares for the season ahead.

(click to enlarge)

You can follow the teams progress through the 2021-22 season from their website.

Hoops fans from the Northwest can also follow the former Rainmaker through his twitter feed, though as he notes in his twitter bio, the contributions may be on a rather leisurely pace ...

Watch the blog a little further into the fall as once again compile some notes on Prince Rupert area athletes and where they've located themselves for the season ahead, whether in Canada or the US.

Busy days on the waterfront and boardwalks of the Atlin Terminal

Workers from Broadwater are disassembling pilings
from an area near the Atlin Terminal

There's a flurry of activity taking place this week in the Cow Bay Area, with a number of projects making progress around the Atlin Terminal area.

On the water, the removal of pilings to the west of the Terminal is under way with a ballet of crane, tugboats and workers from Broadwater removing a number of old pilings in the area.

The project is one which was put up for bid by the Prince Rupert Port Authority back in May of this year.

The work is part of the decommissioning process for the mooring area near the Terminal

In addition to the work on the water, some additional renovations are being made to the Boardwalk area of the Terminal itself, with the replacement of railings and a new paint job for the area now  underway.

For more notes related to the Prince Rupert Port Authority see our archive page here.