Highway travel in Northwest BC will bring delays with paving projects

While the ever increasing price of a litre of gas may limit some travel plans this summer, for those still planning on hitting the highway in the weeks and moths ahead may find some travel delays along the way. 

That with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure outlining a few of the significant paving projects planned for the next few months across the Northwest.

One of the projects is focused on the Hazelton area, where work should wrap up in June for some infrastructure work that includes:

A section of Highway 62 from the junction of Highway 16 to Recreation Road; 

The Kispiox Valley Road from the junction of Highway 62 to Kispiox Village; 

Aldous Street and Omineca Avenue in South Hazelton.

Also up for repair work this summer is: 

The highway 35 area near Burns Lake and Highway 37 North south of Dease Lake and Lower Post Side Roads closer to Vanderhoof work in the Culculz Lake area will also bring some travel delays for travellers

Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen who is also Municipal Affairs minister noted of the the importance of road maintenance with the release of the paving plans today.

“In northern B.C., where often there are only a few road access points into remote and rural communities, highway and road maintenance is extremely important. Safe and reliable highways and roads are essential for northerners to get to work, school and appointments.” -- Stikine MLA and Municipal Affairs Minister Nathan Cullen

Earlier this month, the Ministry announced plans for the start of construction for the Terrace Commercial Inspection station east of the newly installed roundabout.

So far, there have not been any major summer road work plans announced for the western end of the Highway 16 corridor between Terrace and Prince Rupert.

Further updates for any plans for the Highway 16 corridor can be explored from our archive page.

City of Prince Rupert Recreation's Summer Active Living guide released

You can get a head start on some summer recreation planing this week, that with the release of the 2022 Summer Active Living Guide from the City of Prince Rupert Recreation Department.

The guide which is available on line here, highlights the General programs that will be available as of June 1st.

Among some of the notable entries, the Summer Camp program that will be offered by the City this year, the first of which is a Pre-School program which will start on July 4th, with the last one starting the week of August 22nd.

Also available will be summer camp opportunities for youth ranging from ages 6 to 12

Other Fitness and Activity programs for teens and adults also make for the summer planning for the Recreation Centre, as well as an outline of what's available through the Earl May Aquatic Centre which has programs available until August 22nd.

The Aquatic Centre will shut down for its annual maintenance period from August 22nd to September 11th.

For the latest notes of interest from the Recreation Centre follow the Prince Rupert Recreation Department through their Facebook page.

Working conditions and pay for Airport Security among themes for Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach during Committee discussion

Taylor Bachrach spoke to Transportation themes as part of a
House of Commons committee session on Monday

The chaotic nature of passing through security at some of the nation's largest airports made for some discussion in a House of Commons committee session on  Transportation on Monday.

Among those participating in the session was Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach, who spoke to themes of budgeting for CATSA, the service which provides for security screening at the airports.

"We're hearing many frustrations, from the workers and from the unions that represent them, when it comes to screening officers at airports and some of the working conditions. We're hearing about, you know challenges with things like bathroom breaks, we're seeing extreme overtime and forced extensions to overtime, missed breaks, washroom access all of these things, as well as uncompetitive pay. 

And I'm wondering if the working conditions faced by screening officers and other airport workers is something you're concerned about and what role it is playing in the challenges you're experiencing in hiring more screening officers for our airports" -- Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach speaking as part of the Transport Committee in Ottawa on Monday

You can review those comments from the session as relayed by the Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP and the reply from Transport Minister Alghabra here.

The full committee session can be reviewed here, click on the May 30 session for the webcast.

Earlier this month the Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP raised concerns on aviation in the House, at that time, we outlined some of the current challenges facing those looking to travel by air.

Yesterday, some of those CATSA members working in Vancouver held a rally to press for their concerns with their employer.

Security screening officers at Vancouver's airport say they're underpaid and burning out
Vancouver airport screening officers rally to demand higher wages, better working conditions 

More notes on the aviation in the Northwest can be reviewed here.

A look at the work of Mr. Bachrach in Ottawa is available here.

Northwest Transit users from Terrace east asked for feedback on Highway 16 community to community bus service

Users of a popular and vital highway connection that runs from Terrace to Burns Lake and on to Prince George are being asked to provide some feedback to BC Transit, that in order to improve the service and plan for the future.

The survey which was launched on Monday, asks those who use the four routes to outline what works well for the service and where the transit users would like to see improvements or enhancements.

 The four routes include:

Route 164 -- Hazeltons-Terrace
Route 163 -- Hazeltons-Smithers
Route 162 -- Burns Lake-Smithers
Route 161 -- Burns Lake-Prince George

The four distinct routes were launched in 2017, part of a municipal led approach to the end of Greyhound Service and to add to the daily opportunity for travellers to get around the Northwest, complimenting the BC North Bus service and other private ventures.

In addition to the ten minute survey, participants are also asked to submit any ideas that they may have towards transit use between the communities, making for an ongoing consultation panel which others can join in on to comment or share their own ideas towards.

Both options are available here.

The reason that the survey stops at Terrace, is that both Prince Rupert and Port Edward chose not to participate in the BC Transit program back in 2017, the City of Prince Rupert noting of local options at the time that the Northwest wide service was being developed.

Despite occasional calls from other municipalities across the northwest, the North Coast remains off the map if you will when it comes to the service that connects municipalities.

While not part of the service, North Coast residents can still log on to share their thoughts if they wish.

The survey project also provides links to the 5 Point Highway 16 Transportation Action Plan, BC Bus North Service, as well as to offer access to each of the BC Transit options available in the participating Municipalities.

More notes on the Highway 16 corridor can be explored here.

Nasoga Lands court injunction steers all concerned towards further consultation towards dispute resolution

A court challenge brought forward by the Lax Kw'alaams Band Council and Metlakatla First Nation over Nisga'a Nation intentions for the Nasoga Gulf has resulted in an eighteen month injunction, though the undercurrent to the decision from Justice  seems to be to send the three parties back to the discussion stage when it comes to the dispute for the land in question.

The case, which was heard from March 8-10 in a Vancouver court room,  was known as Reece v. Canada and in the forty four page judgment issued May 25th by Justice W.A, Baker, the concerns of the Allied Tribes are explained extensively.

The process of review dating back through history and taking us to 2016 when the Nisga'a and Crown announced the commercial terms for the Nisga'a Nation to purchase the lands and lease the foreshore and submerged Crown lands.

The main thrust of the Nisga'a commentary at the time, that of noting they were in effect: "purchasing our own land at fair market value, lands that are already included in our Treaty areas" 

The opposition of 2019 by the Lax Kw'alaams Band and Metlakatla First Nation, was described at the time by the Nisga'a as being politically motivated, that with elections on the horizon for both communities.

During that period of time and in the months and years now that followed, the Allied Tribes would raise awareness of their concerns over the agreement and their historical claims to the area in question, with a range of information approaches. Included in the approach an information blockade along Highway 16 used towards reinforcing their position.

As the chronology of the dispute has evolved there have been a number of discussions held with all the parties involved, however no resolution was found, which brought the topic to the courts in March. 

Since that agreement, the Nisga'a have outlined plans to develop an LNG facility in the area in question, the KSI project, which is still in its very early proposal stage.

The Conclusion to the judgement puts the current dispute into focus and notes how the Allied Tribes concluded the application with submission that their primary objective towards the injunction is to give the parties time to engage in a dispute resolution process before any decision is made on the Disposition and Consent.

With that, an injunction for a period of eighteen months was granted, the Allied Tribes have leave to apply for an extension of the injunction, if good faith negotiations between the Province, Canada, the Nisga'a;a and the Allied Tribes are not completed in that time.

All of which appears to set the stage for some extensive discussion ahead for all the parties to resolve the impasse, with the fate of the KSI Lisims LNG project just one of the elements caught up in the current pause for development related to the Nasoga Gulf and Lands.

The full 44 page judgment can be reviewed here.

So far, other than the Lax Kw'alaams Band making note of the Court ruling on its website, none of the participants have offered up further comment on the current state of the dispute.

We traced some of the original elements of the dispute from 2019 with this archive page.

Further notes on the proposed KSI Lisims LNG terminal can be explored here.

Items of interest from the three principles in the dispute over the last three years can be reviewed through our archive pages below:

Nisga'a Nation

Lax Kw'alaams

Metlakatla 

City's Recreation Department Gearing up for a month of Participaction through June!

The City of Prince Rupert Recreation Department will be All in when it comes to the national Participaction program for June, with the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre set to host a range of free activities to get Prince Rupert moving through the month.

As part of the program, The Recreation Department is asking those who use their facilities to track their patricipaction as the community with the most active users will receive 100,000 dollars towards local facility upgrades. 

The program kicks off this week with the City joining in on Go By Bike week, offering a Free Lawn to Bike session at the Arena on Saturday,   June 4th from 1 to 2 PM.

The full schedule of free events is below:

For more notes on local recreation themes follow the City's Recreation Department through Facebook.

More on the National Participation program is available here.

A wider overview of community events can be reviewed through our archive page.

MLA Rice defers to NDP Caucus Chair Jagrup Brar for comments over Museum controversy

The NDP Caucus is mostly holding to a team approach when
it comes to any comments on the proposed
Royal BC Museum rebuild

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice doesn't seem too inclined to weigh in on the growing controversy over the NDP governments plans to spend over 800 million dollars for a new Royal BC Museum, with Ms. Rice one of a number of NDP MLA's who directed the Vancouver Sun to a statement from Jagrup Brar to serve as her comment to the topic.

Over the weekend, the Vancouver Sun, polled all of the MLA's on the Government side of the Legislature, and for her contribution to the discussion, Ms. Rice offered up the following note:

She was one of many MLA's who chose to let the Caucus chair speak for them on the topic.

A few of the Cabinet members did however share some of their own themes for the topic:

Among them Premier Horgan, Minister Melanie Mark who is steering the project and Stikine MLA and Municipal Affairs Minister Nathan Cullen.

As we noted last week, the topic of the proposed new Museum build has made for an ongoing narrative for the Opposition parties, with the BC Liberals in particular making use of it both provincially and at the local constituency level, highlighting for residents in each riding how that 800 million or Billion (depending on which party is doing the talking) could go towards other and in their minds, more immediate and urgent uses.

So far, the North Coast MLA's approach for the Vancouver Sun has mirrored that of her approach for the constituency; with Ms. Rice providing  no contributions to her social media streams to reflect the Museum announcement or the commentary of the opposition.

More notes on the Legislature can be explored here.