An opportunity to access some additional funding for further studies is available for registered Nisga'a students in the Prince Rupert/Port Edward region, with the Gitmaxmak'ay Nisga'a Society outlining the details of a Bursary program now available.
The Bursaries are to be used by those students with plans to proceed to a recognized University, College or Technical School in September of this year.
The Society is offering up to four 1,000 dollar Bursaries to high school graduates of either Charles Hays Secondary School, or Pacific Coast School, with the funding to be made available as long as those applying meet a range of conditions as outlined below:
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Should you have any questions about the opportunity contact the Gitmaxmak'ay Nisga'a Society at 250-627-1595
It's a document that was much discussed through 2021 and an oft suggested initiative that was mentioned frequently in the years previous to that.
But when it comes to putting the City of Prince Rupert approach to addressing Renovictions in place, the path to bylaw has been a glacial one.
With some hints in recent times, that the end is in sight for Council to deliver on their program, but as of yet no firm announcement that the process is finished.
During the Council discussion of the proposed bylaw at the time last September, then Contract planner and now current City Manager Rob Buchan outlined some of the key elements of the proposed bylaw.
"The Community Charter enables the city to establish business regulations which discourage landlords from evicting tenants for building renovations, without making arrangements for each tenant to continue their tenancy at the same rent during and after the renovations" --City of Prince Rupert contract Planner Rob Buchan in September 2022 outlining the main thrust of the city's proposed renoviction bylaw
As part of his presentation of last September, Mr. Buchan made note of recent changes to Provincial legislation designed to prevent illegal renovictions, with the planner observing how the city's bylaw would be implemented with the provincial changes in place.
"I would note that the province has recently amended the Residential Tenancy Act to improve protections for tenants facing possible evictions, this bylaw does not replace that but it complements that recent amendment to the act"
By the time that September City Council session had ended, Council members in most cases were fully onboard with the plan to move forward for the bylaw, speaking in support of the proposed measures but noting of the need to take care of a few details.
That it seems has taken longer to wrap up than perhaps anticipated.
"With the sort of emphasis on that Angus Apartment fire and then it came to light what a poor landlord the owner was, not reacting to concerns and that, and the fact that he does own other property around town and that, where are we with out Renivcion bylaw and the other parts of that" -- Councillor Barry Cunningham on the status of the proposed Renoviction Bylaw -- Councillor Barry Cunningham at the January 10th Prince Rupert City Council Session
That timeline however, may have been a bit optimistic, the document had been put on the Agenda for the January 24th Council session, but as that meeting got underway, Mayor Brain noted that it was to be removed from the Agenda, the item then duly removed from consideration though no explanation was provided on the night as to why that was required.
But as the night wrapped up no one had chosen to bring the topic up for discussion, or to seek an update on the progress for the document.
Considering how much importance that they are placing on that initiative as part of their response to housing issues in the community, a bit more of an explanation should be provided for the public as to the delays and when they anticipate that they will move the Bylaw forward for approval and implementation.
The start of the 2022 SD52 Budget Consultation process got underway on Monday with the first gathering that of a Zoom Session for the Board and participants
The Prince Rupert School District launched the 2022 Budget Consultation process this week, a Monday evening presentation that took place online though a Zoom session with Board officials, trustees and community members participating.
The host for the session was Secretary/Treasurer Cam McIntyre who took the participants through the process, providing some background on areas that impact on the budget, while Andrew Samoil the Superintendent of Schools guided the collective through the first stage of the near four month conmmunity engagement process.
Of note from the introduction was the focus for more attention towards transparency and accountability, support for strategic plans, introduction of Multi Year Plans and a review of how the Board makes use of Surplus funds.
As for the Surplus themes, Mr. McIntyre outlined the range of elements included towards that process, which included funding put to use towards impacts from the Pandemic.
The Secretary/Treasurer outlined what he described as the Cole's Notes version of the Budget Expectations for 2021-22 noting of a few areas of interest.
"We are about to be bringing an Amended Annual Budget for the current year to the Board, I'm going to give you the Cole's Notes version and we'll have more details available when it comes to he Board. But I mean there was a decrease in enrolment and that led to a decrease in Ministry revenue. Teachers salaries have been running higher than budget, some of the other salary categories are running lower and there will be some degree of reduction to supplies and services just to make it all balance in the end, but much , much less than we had done last year at this time in the amended budget." -- SD52 Secretary/Treasurer Cam McIntyre
As for the Funding model for 2021-22 Mr. McIntyre noted that there has been a decrease in revenue for SD52 of about 350,000 dollars, something which won't see a change until the enrolment at the schools increases something that the District has yet to turn the corner on.
Observing how the current budget is tight and with provincial funding decreases anticipated the School District is looking to ensure that they address their priority areas.
An element of the discussion that was addressed by Superintendent Samoil.
He outlined how the new Strategic Plan will reflect those priorities and brought a new Draft Mission statement for review, the document one which the School District will use as its guide to the work ahead
The Superintendent also outlined the range of other plans that the District is compiling towards their overall focus on education, among those plans include the Financial Plan, Operational Plan, Human Resource Plan and Facilities and Technology plan, all of which will be made available to the public soon.
On the work towards the Strategic Plan, Superintendent Samoil noted how COVID has had an impact in bringing it all together sooner.
"This provides a framework for the District, so just looking at this, the highlights are: Obviously Indigenous ways of knowing very, very important to us, fostering a culture of care for all of our students and staff and of course relationships are so important. And a future focus that embraces change because we know things are changing, the world is changing and our students are changing and we want to ensure that we are including the voices and choices of our student" -- Superintendent Andrew Samoil
As for those current Priorities for the Strategic plan, the Superintendent highlighted the current dedication towards Literacy, Equity, Mental health Literacy and a commitment to Truth and Reconciliation;
"We have been working to improve our new staff to make sure that they are in service on Truth and Reconciliation and in the next two weeks we will be starting those in services with our new staff and then expanding that to include all staff into next year"
Themes of the Pandemic made for a fair bit of review for the presentation, with the Superintendent taking the gathering through the scope of the impact of the pandemic over the last two years.
"Unfortunately in March we're going to mark the second anniversary of COVID-19 and the serious effects of the various variants.
And the District is concerned about the learning loss that has resulted from illness in families and anxiety, depression and a host of other issues that have arisen and increased in these two years.
We're now beginning to read about the unintended consequences of COVID the effects on speech, the effects on hearing. Concerns also in the community that affect what we do in the schools.
And that is the effects on food security and the effects of job loss or just loss of income, are changing many things for our students and we need to be flexible and keep vigilant for changes that affect our staff and our students"
When it came to the Consultation process, the forum was handed back to the Secretary/Treasuere who outlined what was ahead for the public to become involved.
The rest of the evening was turned over for the consultation period with those logged in taking part in the Talking Circle process, which started with three questions for the participants to review and share ideas towards.
Those sessions were not included as part of their video presentation from Monday evening.
The path ahead will see the next Board Budget session take place in February, with the next public session to be scheduled for March 17th.
You can review the near thirty minute session from their Video below taken from the SD52 You Tube archive.
Follow that archive page for other presentations related to the process as it moves forward.
Update on Road conditions issued at 9:48 AM Thursday
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While Prince Rupert residents watch the rain come down this morning, a little to the east the colder temperatures and precipitation are making for Winter Storm conditions with Drive BC issuing a Travel Advisory at 7AM today.
The report noting of Snow for the day that will be followed by Freezing Rain, with the advice to consider alternate travel plans for the start of the day.
The next update to come on the situation is anticipated for 2PM
The conditions along Highway 16 at Kakis as of 8:15AM
The Environment Canada forecast for the North Coast Inland areas expands on the weather ahead today, with a WINTER STORM WARNING in effect calling for up to 15 cm of snow along with freezing rain to follow, the freezing rain something that could last for a number of hours before shifting just normal rainfall
Local Health Authority COVID review by region for January 23 -- January 29
Wednesday's data release from the BC CDC, notes of some significant declines over the last seven days for both Smithers and the Bella Coola Valley, while most other communities mark much the same levels as last with some slight increases in a few cases.
Smithers is no longer atop the COVID listings, dropping to 81 cases from 131 cases the week before.
Terrace which now once again makes for the highest count saw a slight increase from the 81 of last week, is now marked at 86 for the reporting period of January 23 to 29.
Prince Rupert also saw slight uptick of nine this week, with 79 the new total of cases for the last seven days.
Kitimat, Haida Gwaii and Bella Coola Valley all recorded declines, the latter that of 13 cases from a week ago.
The full review across the region for the week of January 23 to January 29 from the BC CDC looks as follows:
Wednesday's provincial report lists 197 new cases of COVID for Northern Health, with 1,104 Active cases. The new cases count marks an increase from a week ago, the Active Cases an decline
For the Northern Health Region in total as of Wednesday, 31 patients are listed as in hospital which is down 2 from last week, with12 noted as in Critical Care, an increase of four from seven days ago.
The breakdown of hospitalizations by community in the Northern Health region is not included in the data release information.
Local Health Authority COVID review by region for January 23 -- January 29
Skeena-Buklkey Valley MP Taylor Bachrach has brought the concerns of constituents and other Canadians on air travel issues to the House of Commons this week for the return of Parliament.
With the NDP critic for Transportation introducing the topic yesterday during Question Period.
In the Commons session, the MP, citing some emails that the NDP have obtained, outlined how the Governments actions on refunds had somehow been redirected towards supporting the airline industry and its financial situation.
"Now we have documents showing that the government wasn't just talking to the CTA, but actively convincing them to let airlines withhold refunds.
Why were senior Government officials lobbying the CTA to protect airlines bottom lines instead of standing up for Canadians" -- Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach in the House of Commons on Tuesday
Mr. Bachrach directed his community towards Omar Alghabra, the Minister of Transport, who for the most part deflected the question and turned it more into a positioning statement on the Liberals handling of the pandemic at the time in 2020.
During that period of time at the start of the pandemic when flights were suspended and communities such as Prince Rupert lost their air service for a significant period of time, the airlines issued flight vouchers over refunds to those impacted for future flights.
Continued snow which began overnight continues to make for slick driving conditions along the Highway 16 corridor today
Groundhog Day has brought a familiar pattern for residents of the Northwest, with close to fifteen centimetres of snow falling for the Terrace-Kitimat region overnight and Environment Canada advising of additional amount of snow to come for those regions through the day today.
The Advisory from Environment Canada one which anticipates another 20 centimetres through the day, reducing visibility for those with travels east or west today.
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The snow appears to be most prominent from the Rainbow Summit area through to Terrace this morning, making for slippery driving conditions.
The Kasiks area of Highway 16 at 11:30 this AM
Rainbow Summit at 11:30 AM today
You can access the latest notes on conditions along Highway 16 and the other regional routes of the Northwest from the Drive BC website and social media streams
While the inland areas watch the snow pile up, the early morning snow in Prince Rupert will soon give way to rain, with a large volume of it on the way for the rest of the week.
Updates on the latest Pacific front making its way to the North Coast can be followed through the Environment Canada website.
