One of Prince Rupert's popular eating spots is migrating eastward, Fukasaku which for the last few years has held down some real estate on Second Avenue West, will be moving into the Sea Horse Trading complex at the Atlin Terminal.
The announcement made through the Fuskasaku social media streams, advises that the restaurant is now closed downtown, with an anticipated opening date at the new location to be Tuesday, August 4th.
The plan is to keep the same business hours at their Atlin Terminal location, as well as to continue to continue to offer alcoholic beverages with meals.
The Prince Rupert restaurant is one of two sushi establishments in the city, both of which will now be located within walking distance of each other, with Opa Sushi long established the in Cow Bay area as well.
The shift to the Cow Bay area is quickly turning that part of the city as one of the main dining locations in the City, with the Cow Bay Cafe, Smiles, Dolly's Fish Market and Cowpuccino's also found in the area.
You can keep up to date on the Opening plans for Fukasaku as well as review some of the offerings that will be available next month through updates on their Facebook page.
Adrian Liu and Derrick Ng are turning to crowdfunding to help with their quest for an Olympic berth
With a clerical error having denied a pair of top Canadian badminton players from the Pan AM games, Prince Rupert's Adrian Liu and Vancouver's Derrick Ng are looking to the public now to keep their dreams of an Olympic qualification in place.
As we outlined on the blog on July 10th, the pair were shocked to learn of the clerical screw up just hours before they were to take to the court following the opening ceremonies of the Toronto games this month.
The problems for the pair became worse after the clerical error that disqualified them from the Pan Am games was announced, resulting in a major sponsor pulling their financial commitment to the pair, owing to the lost points that came from their Pan Am games absence.
With a 40,000 dollar bill ahead of them in order to participate in the 18 tournaments that they will need to make up those qualifying points, Liu and Ng have turned to a crowd funding campaign to try and raise the money required to compete.
The CBC has more background on the Badminton Canada error and the slow nature of their response to the plight of the two badminton players, leaving the pair to try and find their own funding to make their way to Brazil in 2016.
The fundraising initiative has been underway since July 18th, as of this morning, more than 4,300 dollars towards the forty thousand dollar goal had been raised towards their tournament ambitions by mid morning.
A crane that has been looming large on the Cow Bay waterfront for the last few days is making some good progress on a much anticipated destination project for the Atlin Terminal area.
The Cow Bay Marina project is starting to take shape on the water behind the Prince Rupert Port Authority offices, with progress on the breakwater and floats continuing to provide an outline of what the final project will look like.
The Prince Rupert and Port Edward Economic Development Corporation posted a pair of photos to its Facebook page last week showcasing some of the progress to date.
A crane working on the Prince Rupert waterfront is putting in place the framing of the new Cow Bay Marina which will include a 600 foot public pier
And while the original date of installation of July 31st doesn't seem to be a likely target for an opening at this point, the progress to this week does seem to suggest that North Coast residents may yet get to see the facility in use before the warm sunny days give way to the fall storm season.
Included in the design for the project is a 600 foot public wharf which will be the centre point of the waterfront development and once completed is certain to become a popular vantage point for those visiting the Cow Bay area.
Mobile Alabama will join Prince Rupert as a major CN Rail Gateway to North America giving the railway a presence on three coasts
The success of the Fairview Container Terminal has so impressed officials of Canadian National Railway, that they will be taking the concept in place in Prince Rupert to their facilities in the deep south of the United States.
One month ago Canadian National and the Alabama State Port Authority, along with APM Terminals in Mobile signed a memorandum of agreement for development of the Mobile inter modal Gateway Project.
A project that CN notes will provide a third coast for the railway which crosses Canada and now reaches the Gulf Coast of the Deep South. The addition of Mobile to the CN Rail map will mean that the railway will soon be operating some 32,000 kilometres of track across North America.
The blue print for Port development in Mobile will be one rather familiar to those working at Fairview Terminal at Prince Prince Rupert's waterfront, with CN looking to make the same seamless transition from ship to rail as part of their Alabama plans, which will see the new gateway increase its capacity by some 90 percent.
In an interview with the Journal of Commerce, CN officials outlined how their experiences in Prince Rupert have provided them with the confidence that the model they have in place on the North
Coast of British Columbia will prove to be just the kind of project that will make their Mobile plans a success.
To highlight just how successful their shipments to and from Prince Rupert have been, the expansion plan into the Gulf Coast is being called the Prince Rupert Model.
Highlighted by a significantly lower dwell time than many other terminals in North America, with goods unloaded in Prince Rupert on their way into the US Midwest within 100 hours of arrival at the Fairview Dock.
It's the through the work of those working at Fairview Terminal and along the CN lines east and south that the volumes through the Port of Prince Rupert have increased since the terminal shifted from its break bulk use to its dedicated use as a container terminal in 2007.
Shipments through the Mobile terminal will use CN's network into Chicago and beyond as well, leaving the Railroad confident that within five years, Mobile will be following much the same path as Prince Rupert has when it comes to on time delivery and reputation.
More background on developments at both the Port of Prince Rupert's Fairview Terminal and with Canadian National can be reviewed from our archive pages below:
ORCA LNG has yet to announce where in the Prince Rupert area that their proposed shipment terminal will be located
A first step for one of the proposed LNG terminals on the North Coast gained some momentum on Monday, with the approval of the National Energy Board for export shipments for a proposed LNG shipment facility to be operated by a company known as Orca LNG.
We last heard of their interest in the region back in September of 2014, when Orca LNG first submitted their application with the NEB, which at that point had not identified where exactly they planned on building their liquefaction storage tanks and terminal facility.
To this point, the company still has yet to develop any form of presence in the community or through any kind of website update.
The approval from the NEB provides for a 25 year licence to start on the date of the first export, with an early expiration clause in effect should exports not take place within ten years of yesterdays approval notice.
The approval notice however is just the start down the road to a potential export terminal for the region, to provide readers with some sense of the time lines in place.
The Pacific NorthWest LNG project, which at the moment is the one on the North Coast that has the most momentum, received its NEB approval back on March 31st of 2014, that after starting their application process on July 5th of 2013
You can review the ORCA LNG Decision from the National Energy Board from their website.
What few items of note that we have found regarding Orca can be found on our archive page, see the 2014 archive.
The Province of British Columbia and Federal Government travelled the Northwest on Monday with funds for infrastructure projects
British Columbia Transportation Minister Todd Stone and Prince George area MP Bob Zimmerman made the rounds of the Northwest on Monday, making announcement after announcement of provincial and federal funding for a number of transportation and infrastructure projects in the region.
Yet, the GPS coordinates taking funding from community to community seemed to stop just a little bit outside of the Terrace city limits, as the Prince Rupert wasn't to be found on list of five infrastructure programs announced on Monday.
The Highway improvement will be of particular help when it comes to residents of the North Coast making the trek into Terrace for those frequent shopping trips, or to make air connections through the soon to be expanded Terrace airport.
The Federal and Provincial governments will provide $1.2 million dollars each towards Sewage Treatment Plant retrofit project in Kitimat.
“Mayor and Council of the District of Kitimat are very grateful for the support of both the Federal and
Provincial governments in approving our application to upgrade our Sewage Treatment Plant under the
New Building Canada Fund – Small Communities Fund. Upon completion the plant will provide for an
estimated future stable population of approximately 12,000 people --Kitimat Mayor Phil Vermouth
While the landfill in Stewart will receive 863,306 dollars from the Federal government and a matching amount from the Province to be used for an Environmental Management System and Waste Transfer station.
“This is great news. I would like to thank Council and Administration for having the foresight to apply for
the grant to fund this important project. On behalf of Council and the community of Stewart, I would like
thank the federal government and the Province of British Columbia for making such a crucial investment
in our infrastructure.”-- Deputy Mayor Patricia Lynn of Stewart
Considering many of Prince Rupert's current infrastructure concerns, its surprising that the frenzy of funding announcement didn't include something (or anything) for the North Coast.
Speaking on the steps of the Legislature last Tuesday afternoon, the Mayor gave a fair bit of his time to a new initiative called Rebuild Rupert, something that the City hasn't fully explained to its residents as of yet.
Hopefully at some point in the near future, Prince Rupert will be the backdrop for some of these travelling funding presentations, with word on some of our infrastructure issues finding some forward momentum.
For the moment, considering Monday's string of announcements, it would seem that civic officials in Terrace, Kitimat and Stewart have had a bit more success in getting their message across and accessing the funding to move forward with their projects.
See our Council Archive page, for a look at some of the Prince Rupert discussion points from past council meetings, included in those discussions are a number of concerns on infrastructure.
Terrace Airport expansion plans will benefit from 8.8 million dollars in funding from the Federal and Provincial government
It was infrastructure Announcement Day in Terrace today, and with both provincial and Federal representatives in town, some welcome funding for the Terrace area was delivered this morning, with the Terrace Airport expansion plans receiving a financial boost from today's news.
As we outlined on the blog earlier, British Columbia Transportation Minister Todd Stone was in Terrace along with the MP for Prince George-Peace River, outlining details of upcoming investment in the Northwest.
Along with an announcement on funding for a project between Terrace and Prince Rupert on Highway 16, the pair announced details of provincial and federal commitments to the Terrace airport.
BC Transportation Minister Todd Stone was on hand in Terrace for today's announcement
A combined investment of 8.8 million dollars split evenly between the two levels of government, contributing just a shade over half of the 16.4 million dollar cost of the airport project. The Terrace-Kitimat Airport Society will be providing the remainder of the funding for that expansion.
The ambitious plans for the Terrace airport facility will see 1,573 square metres of new building added to the current complex, as well as renovations to be made to the existing 1,110 square metres that make up the Terminal today.
When completed, there will be new facilities in place for such airport features as check in counters, baggage security, passenger screening, offices and improved parking access to name a few of the new design features.
Ron Burnett, the President of the Terrace-Kitimat Airport Society marked the announcement of additional funding and how it will impact on development plans for the airport.
“The Northwest Regional Airport is excited to progress with this important expansion project, in partnership with the federal government and the B.C. government. This is an important milestone in our continuous efforts to improve safety, security, capacity, and efficiency of travel for all of our customers. These enhancements will help improve the flow of passengers and goods, which will encourage more regional economic growth.”
The Terrace Airport has more background available on their Master Plan Concept, which you can review here.
The Terrace airport has in recent years become somewhat of a hub for travel in the region, with Air Canada, Hawkair, WestJet and Central Mountain Air all offering services through the Terrace facility.
