No Change for North Coast Riding borders, but name change proposed from Electoral Boundaries Commission Final Report

British Columbia's Electoral Boundaries Commission has released its final report on proposed changes to the Legislature seating plan, with a recommendation for six new ridings, all in the large population areas of the province.

The new ridings if approved by the Legislature would see new MLA's in newly created ridings for the communities of Langford, Burnaby, Langley, Surrey, Vancouver and Kelowna.

That would increase the number of MLA's in the Legislature to 93 members, which would make the mark of a seats required to form a majority government at 47.

Other recommendations provide for some tweaks to existing borders and the names for some, though the North with its smaller population did not see any changes towards the boundaries, while two name changes have been recommended.

The section of the report related to the North outlines the challenges for the Electoral Boundaries Commission, with only one of the six ridings (Peace River North) at the usual deviation range.

The other five are below the lower limits and were up for consideration for consolidation, however the advocacy that the Commission received for the Northern ridings towards the need for representation,  swayed their recommendations to remain with the current listings, but with a pair of name changes.

If approved, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice will be adding Haida Gwaii to the Stationary, while MLA Nathan Cullen will be including Stikine in all his talking points references. 

The two MLA's will also host represent the two largest by area constituencies in the Northwest region, with Mr. Cullen's riding taking in 196,484 square kilometres, Ms. Rice's geographical reach takes in 120,664 square kilometres.

The Commission's review of the North can be explored from pages 69 to  80 from the report available here.

With the delivery of the final report, the process is now turned over the Legislative Assembly to determine whether to accept all, some or none of the recommendations that have been provided.

More Notes from the Legislature can be explored from our archive page.

Two Day UBCM Housing Summit underway in Vancouver

A Two day housing summit hosted by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities opened this morning at the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver.

The gathering one that is designed for communities from across BC to come together to exchange ideas and hear background towards solutions, when it comes to the housing situations that have become dominant themes for many City Councils across the province.

The two day sessions are designed much as the Annual UBCM convention is organized, with guest speakers, workshops and other elements of information sharing.

A glimpse at the Agenda for the next two days is available here.

Back in January we provided a look at the themes that were being explored for inclusion this week.

As organizers finalized their speakers list they provided an update on how the event would be rolled out this week.

So far, Mayor Herb Pond has not had anything to share on the city's plans for the forum, or if a Prince Rupert delegation is in attendance.

Prince Rupert City Council has discussed the provincial forum in previous sessions, and many of the themes to be explored are pertinent to Prince Rupert issues; if we have sent a delegation they will have some notes to share from their recent work at a Regional District housing session.

One Northwest community leader that has made the trip to Vancouver is Smithers Mayor Gladys Atrill, who noted of the event earlier today through her social media stream.

As we outlined earlier today, Premier David Eby has provided for some housing themes for the collective to explore at the two day housing forum.  

That as the BC Government introduced its Homes for People program on Monday.

You can follow along as the two days of Housing discussion moves forward from the UBCM twitter feed of the Housing Summit.

Past notes from Prince Rupert City Council can be reviewed here.

Our past work on Housing themes is available here.

Community Workshops ahead for revitalization planning for Pacific Mariner's Memorial Park

Tourism Prince Rupert and the City of Prince Rupert are 
looking to hear from residents when it comes to what they
would like to see included as part of a revitalized 
Pacific Mariner's Memorial Park

A chance for residents of the North Coast to have a say in what the future of Pacific Mariner's Memorial Park could look like comes up next week, with Tourism Prince Rupert and the City of Prince Rupert hosting a pair of workshops, the engagement process one that will help develop some detailed concept designs for the park.

The Lax Kw'alaams Community hall across from
Save on Foods on Third Avenue West is the host
venue for next weeks community engagement

The two sessions take place Thursday, April 13th and Friday, April 14th, with the Lax Kw'alaams Community Hall on Third Avenue West to be the host venue.

The Thursday session is scheduled for 6 to 9 PM, while the Friday session takes place from 9 AM - 12 PM, a timeline that could help deliver as wide an number of participants as possible.

Tourism Prince Rupert has provided some extensive background information towards the plans to serve as a conversation starter, included Amon the items for review: the possibility of creating an iconic landmark for the Park, creation of a flexible event space and potential work towards a covered event amphitheatre. 

click on above to enlarge

Working with Tourism Prince Rupert and the City are some project consultants, with experience towards the themes being explored.

Find out more about the two nights of community engagement here, if you have questions about the events call Tourism Prince Rupert at 250-624-5637

If you're planning to attend, they would appreciate a heads up by registration, though if you may be a last minute decision person, or unsure of your schedule, you can still just drop in for either session to share your ideas.

The organizers note that if you can't make either the Thursday or Friday sessions, they will be following up with a community survey to hear from those who could not attend the public gathering.

More notes on Tourism Prince Rupert themes can be reviewed from our archive page here.

Past themes on Parks and Recreation in Prince Rupert by the city can be explored here.

Province looks to speed up building of homes, with single home lots to see changes to increase allowed housing

A new action plan from the Provincial Government is looking to build on Premier David Eby's goal of ramping up housing construction in British Columbia, with the Premier introducing his Homes for People program on Monday.

The main thrust of the proposal one that will speed up approvals for home construction and make some changes to civic zoning  and permitting themes that would allow for that.

“If you’ve scrolled through rental listings or seen the prices of homes in your community, you know how tough it is to find an affordable, decent place to live. 

Even though our province is currently building more housing than ever before, it’s just not enough to meet the need. This plan will take us to the next level with unprecedented actions to tackle the challenges head on, delivering even more homes for people, faster.” -- Premier David Eby

The program, which is a bit light in the details as to how it all will work, is Focused on four priorities – unlocking more homes faster; delivering better, more affordable homes; helping those with the greatest housing need; and creating a housing market for people, not speculators.

Some of the elements that were outlined on Monday include:

Among the key takeaways from the Monday launch include allowing for up to four units to be constructed on what is now considered a single family lot, a move that may in many cases make the days of Public Hearings somewhat redundant for municipal governments across the province.

The province has in the past expressed some frustration with municipal government over its inability to move forward on much needed housing, as local officials worry about community response to proposed housing.

Monday's program also featured plans to rein in property flipping and speculation, as well as to make it more desirable for single family home owners to renovate their current homes to include secondary suites.

The announcement of the new approach to home building can be reviewed here.

The plan was also released as part of a video presentation on Monday.

Some additional documentation that expands on the program is available from the links below:

Homes for People Action Plan

Homes for People Technical Briefing 

The Monday announcement also includes a map that highlights Provincially led housing projects across the province, the Prince Rupert map identifying some of the recent work in the community towards affordable and supportive housing.

More notes on Housing issues in Prince Rupert can be reviewed here.

How the announcement has been received across the province was the subject of a number of media articles from Monday, you can explore some of that feedback from our Political Blog D'Arcy McGee here.

City of Terrace gains North American recognition for its 'spirit of full disclosure' in Financial Reporting

The City of Terrace could be the guidepost for the rest of the northwest when it comes to sharing information with its residents, with the Skeena Valley hub city recently gaining recognition from a North American Government Oversight Association.

Terrace officials recently shared word of their success with the Chicago based Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) which reviews the work of over 20,000 municipalities that are members. 

Founded in 1906,  the association represents public finance officials throughout the United States and Canada. The association's more than 20,000 members are federal, state/provincial, and local finance officials deeply involved in planning, financing, and implementing thousands of governmental operations in each of their jurisdictions. GFOA's mission is to advance excellence in public finance.  

Terrace's Municipal Finance Office was awarded the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting, that for the work of staff on the City's Annual Financial Report. 

The City's Report noted for its 'spirit of full disclosure' as part of the recognition that comes with the award.

The accomplishment for the City's Financial office was celebrated by Terrace Mayor Sean Bujtas 

"We're very proud of the hard work and the details that our Finance Department provides for all its reporting. It's especially exciting to see the recognition come from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). A big congratulations to our entire department for this honor!" -- Terrace Mayor Sean Bujtas

You can review the volume of financial information that the City provides for its residents from the City of Terrace website here.

The Chicago based Association has awarded a number of British Columbia municipalities for their work in a range of categories; the most recent listings, on the GFOA website are for 2020 and can be reviewed below:

click to enlarge

Also of note from the 2022 rollout so far, is the work of Oak Bay when it comes to it's work on Infrastructure Replacement.  A program which has the Vancouver Island city among the Five most recognized municipalities in North America.

Those notes can be reviewed here.

The synopsis of the work of Oak Bay is something that will likely be of some interest for many Northwest communities facing similar infrastructure challenges.

More items of interest from Terrace can be reviewed here.

Municipal themes in Prince Rupert can be explored from our archive page here.

Damaged fibre repair cause for Monday Night CityWest outage

Prince Rupert area residents and those across Northwest BC spent some of Monday evening with interrupted online plans, from streaming to computer usage and more, the CityWest connection was shut down for over an hour, that as CityWest crews tended to some repair work.

The Prince Rupert based communication company outlined the nature of the work through a Social Media post released on Monday evening.

The notice of the outage brought some response from across the Northwest as customers shared their thoughts on the outage.

The repairs were completed roughly an hour after the 6:50 PM interruption in Prince Rupert.

Communications were taking a double whammy Monday night in Prince Rupert, as we noted on Monday afternoon, Rogers Customers in the region had been without their cellular service for much of the afternoon and into the evening.

That service returned by mid Monday evening as well.

More notes on communication across the Northwest can be explored here.

Rogers Service in Prince Rupert down for much of afternoon

There's no service currently available for those
on the Rogers Cellular phone network in Prince Rupert

Update: Service resumed mid Monday evening.

*********************** Original story *********************************

Customers who use Rogers Cellular  and Speakout phones may be wondering why no one has called this afternoon.

Service for customers was interrupted and has been impacted by a wireless issue earlier today in the region.

A check through the Rogers Wireless Help page delivered the result below this afternoon.

The work appears to still be in progress, with the loss of ability to send or receive texts, or make phone calls for customers in the region.

There is no timeline available towards a return to service at the moment.

More notes on communication services on the North Coast can be reviewed here.