More vandalism strikes Metlakatla Ferry Dock lot

Vehicles parked along the city's waterfront area at the Metlakatla dock lot have once again suffered damages after another vandalism spree in mid June.

The latest in what has become an ongoing problem for the area took place on June 14th when members of the RCMP were called to the waterfront at 4 AM after a report of damage to four vehicles.

Upon arrival attending officers discovered extensive damage to the four vehicles with broken windows the main source of the vandalism. Two individuals were reported to have been in the area at the time of the incident and are considered to be persons of interest on the case file.

The Metlakatla Dock has been a frequent target for vandalism and in some instances arson, with a number of incidents investigated and a reward at one point even offered in a quest to find out who is responsible.

February 2016 -- Metlakatla First Nation offers reward related to morning fire on waterfront
February 2016 -- Prince Rupert RCMP investigating suspected arsons on waterfront

November 2015 -- Vandalism spree on Prince Rupert waterfront has RCMP seeking assistance of the public

More on the most recent spree can be found here.

Should you have any information related to the June 14th incident the RCMP would like to hear from you at 250-624-0700 or through Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477)

Further background on Emergency Service notes can be reviewed on our archive page.

CityWest expands internet and phone services to Metlakatla

Don Holkestad CEO or CityWest and
Metlakatla Councillor Robert Nelson celebrate
the introduction of CityWest services to
the community

Prince Rupert's city owned communications company CityWest is gazing to the west for its next expansion of service offerings, with an announcement of the introduction of its fibre-to-the-home technology to the community of Metlakatla.

CityWest working in partnership with the All Nations Trust Company and its "Pathways to Technology initiative" introduced the service on June 15th, a full overview of the announcement can be found here.

The pathways to Technology initiative is a project designed to deliver affordable and reliable high-speed internet services to all 203 First Nations in the province, CityWest is among a number of internet providers to be participating in the program.

Harold Leighton, Chief Councillor of Metlakatla outlined the benefits that his community hopes to find from the new service from CityWest.

"We're happy to have CityWest here to give our members access to a great internet experience, it will allow our community to grow in the years to come"

The addition of Metlakatla makes for another entry for a growing list of other Northwest communities to take advantage of the company's internet options.  Over the last year, CityWest has expanded its internet footprint to include the communities of Gitanmaax, Kispiox and Smithers.

More items related to CityWest and its efforts on the North Coast and further inland can be found on our archive page.

Progress on PILT between City and Port a process years in the making

Port CEO and President Don Krusel
and Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain
at Thursday's Port Annual Public
Meeting last Thursday

A long running irritant on land values between the City of Prince Rupert and the Prince Rupert Port Authority appears to be on the way to resolution, with both sides heralding collaboration for the future as a key result of their recent discussions.

The Port of Prince Rupert and the City of Prince Rupert shared a press release on Friday making note of the latest in progress when it comes to one of the more contentious topics of recent years of the Payment In Lieu of Taxes process or PILT, the mechanism in place to determine how much in the way of financial return the Port provides to the City of Prince Rupert for land within the city borders.

Officials were all smiles and had a few words of shared achievement at Thursday's Annual Public Meeting of the Port of Prince Rupert, as Mayor Lee Brain and Port CEO and President Don Krusel offered up some thoughts on the nature of the agreement that delivers a total payment on PILT to 5.3 million dollars from 2013-15 and sets the stage for further collaboration on issues into the future.

As part of the information release of Friday, Mr. Krusel took note of the background to the long running discussions between the two sides.

"This represents a satisfactory conclusion of a long conversation about the value of vacant federal lands administered by the Port,” ... “We look forward to strengthening our relationship with the City as we both seek to improve the vitality of our community.”

Mayor Brain for his part observed on the tone of the recent discussions and the outcome that they provided.

“The Port and City are working to develop a more collaborative relationship, recognizing that we share the best interests of the community. Faced with differing opinions on land values, both the Port and City staff have acted respectfully and professionally throughout this process. This outcome will allow better certainty for City budgeting, and more opportunities for collaboration with the Port to prepare for growth,”

Mayor Brain followed up on the days events by adding on to the official media releases through his Facebook page, offering up another copy of the media release of the day and providing a short list of some of the highlights related to the shared approach on the issue between the Port and City.

Among the items hailed by Mayor Brain were:

A settlement resulting in total payments from 2013 to 2015 of $5.3 million to the City, acting on behalf of itself and as agent for other taxation authorities.

The agreement includes an commitment by the City and Port to invest in a future local infrastructure project of mutual interest.

The City and Port have devised a process emphasizing greater communication and less uncertainty to guide the calculation of PILT payments for 2016 and beyond.

The Port and City have agreed to jointly explore the challenges posed by the BC Port Property Tax Cap as identified by the City of Prince Rupert

In the last few years, the Port's Annual Public Meeting has become an opportunity to offer up some updates on the issue of the PILT process, or to deliver a recap on previously announced arrangements between the two sides of the discussion.

For the Port of Prince Rupert, the notes on PILT worked nicely towards their theme of last Thursday of valued partnerships with local communities and First Nations, a topic which was given a fair bit of exposure as part of the Annual review.

As well as the movement on the issue of PILT, the City is also finding additional financial benefits from its evolving relationship with the regions economic engine, with infrastructure plans currently under review for a joint project between both the City and the Port.

Another area where the community has benefited from a benevolent industrial giant has been through the Port's Community Investment Fund. That community engagement initiative has over the last few years been delivering a growing level of funding for a number of community projects, something that reduces the burden on the City of Prince Rupert when it comes to providing recreation or cultural benefits to the community.

Credit certainly should be accorded to those that delivered this latest level of progress on the PILT issue as outlined in Friday's information update, the results of that behind the scenes work of recent months making for the main thrust of the PILT file  as outlined by the notes from Thursday's Port meeting.

However, not to be forgotten in the flurry of media releases and background pieces should be some of those that were part of the process of the past.

Those previously elected officials and staff members that took on a thorny issue and kept it on the front burner through the last few years, a level of engagement that took place during some particularly challenging financial times for the City.

The issue of how to best address the PILT concerns was one of the main financial items of the time for the Council of then Mayor Jack Mussallem, that had council had raised the flag on the topic from 2011-2014 and had started to see progress on the relationship prior to the November 2014 election.

Though, as the results of November of 2014 would deliver, not even the improving relations of that time appeared to help the former Mayor much on election day.

Those ancient efforts of past councils, at times it seems are left to the history books without much of a mention, but they did make for some of the foundation for the success outlined on Thursday.

That past work on the issue served as a key contribution towards the forward momentum that has seemingly charted a course of better engagement and progress for both the City and the Port, an arrangement that hopefully finds successful outcomes for both sides and greater benefit to the residents of the region.

Some of the transit from the past to present can be reviewed below:

September 2015 -- Port PILT payment reduction and Airport Ferry costs take the spotlight in City Report tonight
March 2015 -- City of Prince Rupert looks to increase pressure on Province on taxation caps

October 2014 -- Council hears PILT settlement review from City Staff
October 2014 -- City of Prince Rupert and Prince Rupert Port Authority reach agreement on PILT
September 2014 -- Port's PILT Payments, Watson Island revenues decreases highlight Financial Report to Council
June 2014 -- City to take taxation and industrial development issues to UBCM in the fall
April 2014 -- A PILT primer from the Port
March 2014 -- Port CEO and President provides Ports view of taxation, PILT and community involvement
February 2014 -- Mayor hints to progress on PILT and other items with the Prince Rupert Port Authority

November 2013 -- Prince Rupert Port Authority makes partial payment of 2.1 million on outstanding property taxes
April 2013 -- Council looks to Port to provide financial assistance amid current fiscal troubles
April 2013 -- Councillor Thorkelson's Boots are made for talking!

For more background on Port related items see our Port archive page.

Further review of City Council decisions and discussions can be found at our Council archive.

Real Estate Tracker, week ending June 26, 2016

Our weekly review of the listings of the local real estate agents, tracking those properties which appear to be driving the local price structure for the North Coast.

Every Monday, we look over the listing prices of the past seven days and outline the Top 10 asking prices in the area, providing a snap shot as to where the Real Estate market may be trending on a week to week basis.

The listings below are purely for information purposes, for further background on the properties recorded, see our links page for access to the individual real estate listings.

The Archive for our weekly review can be found here.

Our list of the top ten priced homes for the week ending June 26 is below:

Prince Rupert Real Estate West
June 26 2016

Prince Rupert Real Estate East
June 26 2016

One new listing makes its way onto the listings this week, with a property on 11th Avenue East added to the high end notes for the week.

Placed in the middle of out review, that means that there is no change to the two benchmarks for the list this week with 439,000 dollar marking the low end, with the top end of the weeks listings is still listed at 639,000 dollars.

The balance of properties from east to west shifts as well, with six properties found on the west side of the city and four properties listed from the east side of the city's McBride Street dividing line.

Below find our findings as of the Week ending June 26, 2016

160 Van Arsdol Street                  $639,900   -- Remax
2085 Graham Avenue                   $575,000  --  Remax
1724 Graham Avenue                   $545,000  --  Royal Lepage
1229 Conrad Street                       $495,000  -- Remax
333 11th Avenue East                   $485,000 -- Royal Lepage  new
1125 Summit Avenue                   $469,900  --  Remax
1735 Graham Avenue                   $469,000  --  Remax
112 Raven Place                           $444,900  --  Remax
100 Alpine Drive                          $439,900  --  Remax
1528 7th Avenue East                   $439,000  --  Royal Lepage

For more items related to Real Estate see our archive page here.

For background on Housing issues in the region see our past items here.

Mechanical issues delay Northern Expedition sailing

The Northern Expedition is holding at Fairview Terminals
as repairs are required to the vessel

The Sunday sailing for the Northern Expedition out of Prince Rupert has been delayed owing to mechanical issues, with the vessel holding at Fairview Terminal until repairs have been completed.

BC Ferries issued the Service Notice for today' sailing at 8 AM, advising that it's anticipated that the vessel will be underway on its southbound journey within the next several hours.

Travellers on the Prince Rupert to Port Hardy run can receive updates on the situation from the BC Ferries website or twitter feed.

Past items on BC Ferries can be found on our archive page here.

Blog Watching: Week ending June 26, 2016

LNG items  grabbed some of the top spots on the week for readers, with our look three stories related to LNG development finding their way into the top five on the week.

A report that delivered a bit of cool water on some of the talk on LNG in the province led the way through the last seven days, while an item on the progress to date on one Prince Rupert proposal followed, featuring some notes from the latest update from Aurora LNG and its plans for a development on Digby Island.

One final LNG related item came late in the week yet still found a strong audience, with word that the Lax Kw'alaams Council government had postponed its planned information sessions on the Pacific NorthWest LNG proposal for Lelu Island. Those sessions were scheduled for this coming week and have been postponed until further notice.

A decision from Prince Rupert City council to send a letter to express its support for an oil tanker ban on the North Coast and its opposition to an extension of the deadline for the Northern Gateway process received praise from local environmental groups and proved to be a popular read this week.

And the list of five ends with a look at a Sunday Minor Baseball league tournament that will take place in Port Edward, the all day event providing a sample of the quick growth of the sport and the good reception that it has received in the region.

The top story of the week however, returns to the theme of British Columbia's much discussed LNG Terminal development ambitions.

International Energy Agency study indicates pressures growing for BC's LNG industry -- Items related to LNG proposals on the North Coast seem to constantly attract high attention and this week proved to be no exception, as a large audience reviewed our look at a recent LNG industry survey from the International Energy Agency that suggests a slower pace for development over the next few years for British Columbia.   (posted June 20, 2016)

That article was followed by:

Spring/Summer update from Aurora LNG highlights community engagement on LNG plans -- Some background on the latest information update from Aurora LNG looking at the progress of its plans for a proposed LNG terminal at Digby Island found a wide review this week.  (posted June 21, 2016)

Northwest environmental groups hail Prince Rupert Council's support for oil tanker ban  -- The City's move to write two letters on two major environmental issues was applauded by local environmental groups and proved to be a popular item through the week.  (posted June 22, 2016)

Lax Kw'alaams postpones Members Only Community Info sessions -- Some highly anticipated meetings to provide Lax Kw'alaams Band members with background on a proposed LNG terminal at Lelu Island get postponed until a later date.  ( posted June 24, 2016)

Sunday tournament set to celebrate the strong reception for Minor Baseball's return -- Port Edward is the host for the North Coast Minor Baseball league as organizers host  an all day tournament at McKeown Park Field   (posted June 22, 2016)

You can find our Blog watching featured posted every Sunday morning by 9AM, a handy way to catch up to the week that was, at a leisurely weekend pace.

You can also review the full listings of the week just past from our Blog Archive index page found on the right hand side of the page.

For those looking for updates to items as they are posted to the blog, don't forget about our email alert access.

A daily review of the latest items on the blog can be delivered to your email in box, simply by entering your email address into the information bar, items posted to the blog will be delivered to your e-mail account each day.

You can find the link to that feature on the upper, right hand side of the blog. Underneath the Follow the North Coast Review by Email indicator.

Our archive of weekly Blog Watching can be found here

Small temblor recorded near Ucluelet Saturday

The latest in subtle seismic movements took place for Vancouver Island on Saturday with the USGS taking note of a 2.7 magnitude temblor that was recorded just before 5 PM.

The quake was centred 27 kilometres North East of Ucluelet with a depth of 32.6 kilometres.

The incident which took place at 4:49 PM appears to have taken place with little notice by, or effect on any residents of the West coast of Vancouver Island.

You can review the full update from the USGS here.

A look at some of the other seismic activity in British Columbia and Southeast Alaska can be reviewed here.