There's a new journalist in town, as Seth Forward takes up reporting with the Northern View, that after former editor KJ Millar relocated to the prairies
July brought some significant changes to the Black Press publication in Prince Rupert, with KJ Millar departing her post as the editor of the Northern View.
The Multimedia journalist joined the local publication in 2020, she was promoted to editor in February of 2022, that after the departure of Publisher Todd Hamilton from Black Press.
During her time at the Northern View, Ms. Millar gained recognition through a number of awards at the annual Ma Murray celebrations each fall. She had also become a fixture in the community at local events and through her recent work with the cast and crew of this years musical of Mamma Mia at the Lester Centre.
As of the end of July, she has taken up new duties in Manitoba, announced as the new editor for the Shilo Stag, the Canadian Armed Forces publication at CFB Shilo, located east of Brandon, Manitoba.
Ms. Millar's introduction to the Base residents and her new readership can be reviewed here.
The shift east for Ms. Millar comes as Thom Barker expanded on his footprint with the local newspaper, the Regional Editor for Northwest BC has seen his byline featured on a number of recent articles on local themes in the weekly paper and on its website releases.
One of his contributions to the local news stream in recent days was the introduction of the latest journalist that will be making the climb of the stairs at the Northern View offices atop the Besner Block on Third Avenue West.
As the welcome to Prince Rupert notes advise, Mr. Forward, who was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario most recently served an internship with the Vancouver Sun.
He has hit the ground running as it is, already having filed a number of stories, including some notes of interest on the July City Council session.
How to engage with the public during Council sessions made for a short overview at the tail end of the July 24th Council session
How City Council should engage with the public as part of their schedule of public council gatherings made for some discussion at the July 24th council meeting, with City Councillor Nick Adey offering up his thoughts on the process in place towards community engagement and public notifications.
The topic made for some short conversation at the end of the only council session for July, with the Councillor leading off the discussion.
"On the theme of public notifications ... I guess dialogue with the public, we've just passed three DVP's that go to public notification, I think we've experienced some turbulence around that process recently.
So I think it's worth just I would like to spend just a minute talking about that interaction with the public.
That public notification process with regard to peoples initiatives with their property is really important, I hope that the public attends to it where they can provides some input.
I also think there's another place in our meetings where we have an opportunity for the public to come forward and make comments and ask questions regarding items on the Agenda, I think ironically there were no questions tonight, but sometimes there are.
And I want to be nuanced in how I talk about this, because I think there is an opportunity there to ask questions that perhaps don't necessarily warrant a response in a formal sense, but sometimes the questions do.
So I'm interested in ensuring that people who come and ask questions where it's appropriate that those questions receive some answers, that we endeavour to do so in an endorsed or formalized way."
Towards how Senior staff view the public comment period and how it operate, City Manager Robert Buchan observed that the period is not to be considered a Question and Answer period.
"My first I guess observation on that is that section of the agenda is for public comments it's not a Question and Answer period. That doesn't mean that we don't take note of matters that we can follow up with and do so judiciously.
It's really an opportunity for people to speak to council before Council deals with the item and share their views, that's the intent. But, you know, sometimes within comments there are questions and where appropriate we try to follow up"
Mayor Herb Pond also offered up a short observation of how he views the community engagement process when it comes to the access to Council theme.
"I want to echo what Doctor Buchan said, you know the intention of putting that on the agenda and it's even stated, it's a public comment time.
So that, you know, if you're opposed or you've got a concern around a particular thing that council is discussing you can let Council know that before the decision is made.
We work pretty hard actually to build an agenda where there aren't sort of gotcha questions ... nobody looks good when questions can't be answered immediately. We would love, if we know in advance that something is going to be asked, that we can come very well prepared and inform the public.
And so what I would like to think, and I think it's been talked about, but you know the developing of some kind of Frequently Asked Questions. Where some of these, rather than just having it answered once and then answered again when the next person has the question.
Is it should just go onto the website as a building reservoir of: yeah, we've answered that and here's the answer right and we can be referring people to that"
The full exchange around the council chamber took place at the one hour, seven minute portion of the council session.
As Councillor Adey noted, some of the past exchanges between the public and Council have become somewhat animated, with the city's process of notification in some instances found wanting by residents.
"I myself have noted the questions, as I'm quite certain our CFO has as well. And we will, someone will get back, likely Ms. Bomben, will get back to Mr. Sawka with those answers" -- City of Prince Rupert Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller at the June 26th Council session
A wider answer for the public to those enquiries however, has yet to be posted to any civic information option.
A new look and some new tools are among the features of the civic website upgrade introduced earlier this month
Residents of Prince Rupert looking for civic updates and those visitors surfing the internet looking for information on the community have an updated resource to work with, the City introducing their upgrade to the civic website earlier this month.
The debut for the new information portal came with a presentation to City Council at the July council session, with Veronika Stewart, the City's Director of Communication, Engagement and Social Developing taking Council members and those viewing at home through some of the features of the upgraded portal.
Ms Stewart outlined how the current website was becoming more challenging to maintain as it aged and then provided some notes on the look to the new features and how it incorporates the new city logo design and branding.
"If you Google Prince Rupert, the city's website is the first thing that comes up, so it's our best face forward that we can provide to people that are looking to either invest in Prince Rupert, visit Prince Rupert, live here, or for existing residents.
So it's really important that we have a good strong website. There were some challenges with the existing website because we have lost the person who built it in house initially so some of the updating for the website has been challenging because there's less familiarity with we development with existing staff ...
So we looked at you know finding another way forward that was easier for staff to maintain and also that incorporated our new city brand.
So that was one of the considerations as well that we do have a new city brand with new standards and colours and design elements that we would like to incorporate better into our website."
Ms. Stewart also observed of the opportunity to incorporate the new look at a minimal cost.
"The cost was 5,000 dollars this year to migrate all of the content over and develop a new site based on a template based system.
And then going forward, there's around 2,500 dollars annual fee for maintenance, web hosting, security, regular updates of mobility and accessibility standards that would otherwise be of in house capacity and development costs that we might have to outsource if we don't that capacity in house.
And we should also note that this is one effort among many towards community renewal and so you know the online web presence isn't going feel like the most important pressing thing I know for many people who are looking to the community and saying you know we need to revitalize other areas and focus on housing and downtown revitalization for instance.
But this is part of how we package the information that we share about what initiatives that we are doing around those projects"
A slideshow that was part of the presentation provided additional details to the new civic information piece.
The Communications Director noted that the city is welcoming comments and observations from the public and those who use the site towards the new look for the city's face to the world.
Council members and senior staff also had some thoughts on the new look as it was revealed at the July session.
City Manager Rob Buchan paid tribute to the work of the civic staff towards the development of the new portal and observed of the financial benefit that came from the creation of the new site.
"I just want to take a quick moment to commend the work that Ms. Stewart has done here, 5,000 dollars cost, plus some staff time. To have this outsourced for a full rebuild would have been between 150 thousand and 250 thousand dollars.
We've been talking about doing this at least for the time that I've been involved with Prince Rupert and funding has been an issue but the need to do this has been pressing.
So to do this for this cost, you know shows how staff work really hard to do things with less and the timing for doing this is remarkably quick too. Bearing in mind all the other things that staff do. This is very impressive"
Councillor Randhawa asked about the potential for reporting on items such as potholes, Ms. Stewart observed that the public works reporting will be a feature as well as that residents can use the app.
Councillor Cunningham also paid tribute to the work and look of the new website plan.
As it launched earlier this month, a few gremlins popped up to keep administrators on their toes.
The early days featured a lack of information on career opportunities and other broken links in some information sharing areas, along with a loss of links to some past information on City Council agendas.
Areas where work continues to return those elements and a few others current as the launch continues.
You can review the presentation to get a sense of what the project offers the community from the City's Video archive from July 24th, Ms. Stewart's overview of the new civic look opens up the council session.
One item of note from Ms. Stewart's presentation was the highlighting of the feature that translates the website into a vast library of global languages from Afrikaans to Zulu ...
One language however, is still to be represented in that feature, that being Ts'msyen Sm'algyax.
With some of the website upgrade observed as part of community renewal, the new website could provide an opportunity towards the city's ongoing commitment to reconciliation.
Towards that, adding the language of the First Nations of the territories towards some of the elements of the online presentation would seem to be a natural evolution for the future.
And perhaps a project of reconciliation for the city to pursue some grant funding towards.
Much of our list of ten looks the same as prior to our July/August sabbatical, but as we return to our chronicle of the upper levels of homes for sale, there are a few new entries, both of which are found on the city's west side.
The distribution of our property listings this week finds six properties listed on the west side of McBride, four to the east.
The real estate review below is purely a snapshot for information purposes and reflective of our weekly check on Sunday evening.
Properties can ebb and flow from the listings through the week, for further background on the properties recorded, see our links pages for access to the individual real estate listings, to consult them on a daily basis.
The last week of rain and cool conditions have done much to assist those on the front lines of the provincial wildfire fight in the northwest and the with the arrival of precipitation comes a relaxation on the prohibition for Campfires that has been in place for much of July and August.
The BC Wildfire Service announced today that as of Noon, the prohibition has been lifted, though restrictions remain in place for Category 2 and 3 fires across the region.
More background on the current conditions for the Northwest and points east to Prince George can be reviewed here.
The smores and such will be on hold for a bit yet mind you, prospects for campfires in the Prince Rupert area may be deferred for a bit yet however, the current forecast for the days ahead is one that calls for more precipitation over the weekend.
While we have some work ahead to catch up on our archive of notes from the recent Wildfire Season, you can explore more notes from the BC Wildfire Service here.
Metlakatla Chief Councillor Harold Leighton is one of fourteen new members of the Order of BC
BC Day brought the annual delivery of honours to British Columbians recognized by the province for service to community or exceptional achievement, with fourteen British Columbians announced as part of this 2023 honours presentation.
Among those named to the Order of BC for 2023, was a familiar name for the North Coast.
With Metlakatla Chief Councillor Harold Leighton to receive the honours, the Metlakatla leader who is soon to step away from his duties for the Metlakatla First Nation was hailed for his commitment towards dialogue and cooperation when it comes to relationship building.
The City of Prince Rupert now has a blue print for its Transportation ambitions, but how it all comes together over the next ten years will bring largely a wait and see approach, that as City Council puts primary focus on its much discussed infrastructure woes.
The new plan which took over a year to complete was released as part of the July 24th Council session, with Brian Patterson from Urban Systems providing the tutorial for council members and those viewing at home as to the many elements that make up the expansive document.
The purpose of the plan was to highlight the infrastructure priorities over the next 5-10 years ahead, focused on four areas, model interconnectivity, active transportation, public transportation and Driving elements.
click on images above to enlarge
Mr. Patterson explains that the process of development was taken on over the course of the last year, included in that overview was a look at some of the community engagement that led to the development of the final plan and how to implement it in a phased approach.
The Transportation plan has also incorporated a range of other civic initiatives such as play spaces and parking planning into the document.
With the city currently engaged in infrastructure replacement, it was noted that some of the elements of the Transportation strategy could be incorporated and integrated into some of that work that is coming up in the near future.
Towards questions Councillor Adey observed of the scope of the project, noting of the city's past work on the 2030 Vision plan and how he had the same feeling towards some of the elements that may be more aspirational than practical at the moment.
"There's a lot of work that goes into putting something like this together ... and I reflect in being involved in developing the 2030 plan a number of years ago and how exciting it was because it was such an aspirational document.
But at the same time feeing like, you know, that sceptical ... you know ghost on the shoulder saying that this is never going to happen, there's too much here.
I kind of have the same feeling here about this one.
But I think that the benefit is that it's a framework and it's a plan that is in place and from this point you can begin to consider those ideas that are in there that are really good that you can implement tin combination with some of the things we have to do anyway" -- Councillor Nick Adey
Councillor Adey and others around the Chamber had more to add during the Regular Council session, with praise for the work of the report but caution as to any anticipation that elements would be adopted in any quick fashion.
"We're not going to be able to slice and dice the whole thing in any reasonabletime nor should we try. It's a document, it's available to the public and I would encourage people who are interested to put some time into having a look at it. ...
This is just one step in improving the Transportation system in Prince Rupert, arguably the first step and achieving all of it, to be realistic is extremely expensive and therefore in the immediate term prohibitive .
I think we have to understand that, that doesn't mean that we don't support it, or I won't support it. It just means that I understand that not all of what is in there is achievable in the immediate term -- Councillor Nick Adey
Councillor Wade Niesh echoed many of Councillor Adey's themes in his commentary.
"Basically along the same lines, the reality is if you asked us tomorrow to approve any of these projects on this Transportation plan we would have to say no, it's just not a reality. It's a plan that was you know paid for through a grant and it is a big plan, it's a lot of pages of a lot of different ideas and a lot of different maps.
I don't feel that, you known, we're in any situation other than when we tear up a street and we are putting it back together, we may be able to throw in certain portions of this. That being said, I'm not trying to take away from the report itself, the reality is that I don't see us in any financial position to be able to do much in this transportation plan."
Councillor Barry Cunningham also framed his comments in much the same vein.
"It's a great wish list and even when we're putting the streets back together, you just explained how people are going to be inconvenienced and we're going to be wanting to put that street back together and get to the next street. And by adding more work it's just not going to work ...
Great Saturday/Sunday reading if you really are bored, I suggest people read it, it's a great document and that but I'm just worried that right now our needs are under the ground and not above the ground ...
It's a great report, but it lacks one thing, the cost of some of these things. I would love to have seen even a little bit of the cost of it and I believe it would be in the millions and millions of dollars and that's just something that we can't entertain that right now. We're struggling just to put what we really need in the ground back together"
The City Manager weighed in on the themes raised, with Dr. Robert Buchan offering up a view that the report and strategy offers is a framework for the future.
"The gravity of our current infrastructure challenges is certainly evident in the comments that Council is making, we completely understand that and are encouraged by that understanding.
In that we are focusing our efforts where they need to be focused because a failed water system and sewer system means that we have a failed city, which impacts everybody's livelihoods and property values and so forth.
So we are focused on the right area.
But we're good at doing more than one thing at the same time and what this strategy does and it is aspiration as is the 2030, as is the OCP it lays out a framework for a better future.
It lays out a framework that achieves many values and many important goals in the most effective way.
Having a document like this allow us then to be informed when we speak with the Ministry of Transportation. It allows us to speak with other government agencies in an informed way about what we want for our infrastructure.
It gives staff direction in terms of where they focus and we're very good at this; is as is evidenced by you know all the grants we get. Where we focus our grant applications, whee we focus our efforts in putting things back better within the budget that we have.
So I take this as more than just aspirational, I take this as you know informing how we conduct our work to be as productive and beneficial as possible going forward.
And I'm convinced that we will be able to achieve a lot of this in our efforts over the next decade and by the time we're ready to review this, I think that we'll see that, I'm being optimistic and justifiably so, we'll have achieved a lot.
So I think it's an important document and I appreciate the work that Director Pope and our consultant Brian Patterson have done in this and I think that it's a very nice thing"
The Full presentation to Council can be viewed through the City's video archive starting that the 15 minute mark of the July Council session. Follow up comments on the plan are also available for review at the 46 minute mark.
A short synopsis of the Transportation plan was included as part of the agenda for the meeting, which you can review here.
