Prince Rupert Unemployment Action Centre seeks letter of support from Council in funding quest

The work load is on the rise at
Prince Rupert's Unemployed Action
Centre on Fraser Street

The number of requests for help at the Prince Rupert Unemployment Action Centre continue to increase at the Fisherman's Hall offices on Fraser Street, where the organization advocates for the unemployed and underemployed on the North Coast.

With those number on the rise, the local group is seeking to secure additional funding for the Action Centre and the work that it does in the community and towards that goal, they are looking to the City of Prince Rupert to provide a letter of reference to support their application for funding.

In a letter to the Mayor and Council from late July, the organization provided some background as to their funding request and where they hope to allocate any funding that they may be able to secure.

The Unemployment Action Centre notes for Council how their work load has increased significantly over the last three years and how if successful in receiving additional funds they will be seeking the services of a second advocate to take some of the load off of the current employee.

Through that additional hiring, a form of succession planning will be put in motion, with the current advocate set for retirement within the next two years.

All they are seeking from the City is the letter of support, providing some perspective from the city's point of view of the work that the Unemployment Action Centre performs in the community.

Council will have opportunity to discuss the request at their next City Council Session scheduled for August 22nd.

For more items related to Labour on the North Coast see our archive page here, further background on discussion topics at City Council can be found on our Council Discussion archive.

Museum of Northern British Columbia to host Book Launch for Tsimshian historical review by Charles Menzies

The latest book to chronicle the history of the North Coast is set to make its debut and Prince Rupert's Museum of Northern British Columbia will play the host for the Book Launch as Professor Charles R. Menzies releases his latest work People of the Saltwater: An Ethnography of Git lax m'oon.

The event takes place Thursday August 18th from 7 to 9 PM, with the author in attendance to offer up some background to his work which explores the history of the ancient Tsimshian community.

The early pre-release notes outline that his latest book puts a focus on the Tsimshian people and their enduring place in the modern world.

Mr. Mezies is a member of the Gitxaala Nation, and is a Professor with the Department of Anthropology at UBC.

He is frequently called up on by the media across British Columbia to help provide context, history  and background to a range of issues on First Nations and relations with the provincial and federal governments.

A review of some of his previous releases can be found from the UBC website

More background on the Book launch event in Prince Rupert can be found on the Museum of Northern British Columbia's Facebook page.

Further notes on North Coast Events can be found on our archive page.

Golf Scramble set to raise funds for Trail Enhancement on the North Coast

Wandering around in the rough is something that members of the Prince Rupert Trail Enhancement and Recreation Society are pretty used to, the group constantly on the look out for areas to develop trails around the Prince Rupert area.

Heading into the rough however may have another meaning come August 27th.

The local group is hosting their first ever Fundraising Golf Scramble a day of Golf with Dinner and prizes to follow to help raise funds for trail enhancement in the region.

The event is scheduled to take place at the Prince Rupert Golf Club on the 27th, but the deadline for registration by would be participants is today.

Entry fee is 75 dollars per person

You can enter you team of 4 or sign up as an individual by contacting Kendal at 250-622-8218 or by email at rupertfundraiser@outlook.com

Decisions to make for SD52 with transportation funding made available by Province

The Provincial Government announced
additional funding for transportation
for 2016-17, but whether SD52 will
seek its share remains unclear
(photo from BC Gov't)

School District 52's elected officials aren't scheduled to meet until month, but when they reconvene on September 13th they'll have more than a few things to address for a new school year.

Beyond outlining for the public what they plan to do about the still vacant seat on the School District council, one of the first items that may be on their Agenda will be how to respond to the prospect of 117,597 dollars that is being offered to the School District towards transportation issues in the region.

The Provincial Government issued a media release on Wednesday providing some background towards their announcement of a new Student Transportation Fund for School Districts to access, designed to expand or reduce the cost for affordable transportation options across the province.

To be eligible for the funding, School Districts must submit a plan to the Ministry of Education by September 30th, 2016 outlining how they will use the available funding to boost transportation services for students and families.

Details on the new funding can be reviewed here, the full list of money to be made available to the province's School Districts can be found at the bottom of the media release in the backgrounder advisory.

The prospect of extra funding however poses a bit of a dilemma for School District 52 which voted to eliminate its involvement with transportation issues back in April as part of their deliberations on the 2016-17 School District Budget process.

During the course of those discussions, Board Chair Tina Last noted that the School District was not obligated to provide transportation for students as part of their mandate towards delivering education on the North Coast.

Those comments led to communities such as Metlakatla to consider their options for transportation of students to Prince Rupert for the 2016-17 school year.

Whether the prospect of close to 120,000 dollars in funding will give the School District cause to reconsider that position could make for some of the discussion as the new school year gets underway.

Those discussions however will have to take note of the deadline of September 30th that is in place, making for a timeline from decision to action plan that could be a very short one.

Wednesday's funding announcement marks the latest in funding returns to School Districts in British Columbia, the province previously returned 25 million dollars in administrative savings to School Districts.

As we noted on the blog in June, School District received $123,861  from that administrative distribution.

More items related to education on the North Coast can be found on our archive page.

MLA to host final Brown Bag Lunch in the Park session with constituents this Friday

MLA Rice with MP Nathan Cullen
last week at their Community BBQ
Ms. Rice hosts a solo Brown Bag lunch
this Friday at Mariner's Park
(photo from the MLA's twitter feed)

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice will close out her summer series of constituency meetings this Friday, hosting her third and final Picnic in the Park at Mariner's Park overlooking Prince Rupert harbour at 1st Avenue East.

The opportunity to raise issues of interest or just chat with the MLA takes place Friday from Noon until 1 PM, should it rain on Friday, the alternate location for the lunch time session is the MLA's community office at 818 3rd Avenue West.

Ms. Rice hosted the two previous Brown Bag Lunch sessions in June and July.

Her summer constituency tour, which has taken her to Haida Gwaii, the Central Coast and to her home base of Prince Rupert was interrupted in July by a week long summer session of the Legislature in Victoria. Some of the highlights of her tour of the North Coast can be found on her Facebook page or Twitter Feed.

You can review some of her past work at the Legislature to this point of the year from our Legislature Archive page.

Northern Savings launches focus group series across North Coast and Haida Gwaii

Northern Savings Credit Union is
hosting Focus groups through August
to assist with future planning for
the North Coast service area

Prince Rupert based Northern Savings Credit Union is going to the people of the region, seeking the input of its member customers and non-member residents of the North Coast and Haida Gwaii through a number of focus groups taking place through the month of August.

The series which is now underway will be making use of sessions of up to two hours in the four communities where Northern Savings provides financial services, with Prince Rupert and Terrace hosting the first of the focus groups running through to August 19th.

Residents of Queen Charlotte will have their opportunity to provide feedback on August 16th, while those living in the Masset area will have their session on August 18th.

The focus groups which are confidential will be used to collect information for use for future planning purposed

The application period for participation is now closed, with those selected to participate having participated in an online survey process to provide for a list of names of those indicating interest in the project. Participants for the focus groups were randomly chosen from those that responded to the on line survey process.

Some background on the focus group project can be found on the Northern Savings website.

More items of interest from the Northwest Commercial sector can be found on our archive page.

MMIW Archive page 2016-17

Last week on the blog we highlighted the launch of the Federal Government Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, a two year inquiry led by British Columbia Judge Marion Buller that will explore a range of areas related to the issue that has been a prominent part of the Canadian dialogue for a number of years now.

The panel members were introduced by Federal officials at the official launch held in Gatineau, Quebec last week, the work that will span the two years gets underway in September, with an interim report expected to be delivered by panel members by November of 2017.

As the process gets underway next month, we have created an archive page over on our Political Portal Darcy McGee, from that location we'll provide links and original items related to the ongoing inquiry, with a focus on any items out of the Northwest that may be included in those proceedings.

Our introductory piece on the inquiry launch can be found here.

Moving ahead to next month and for the following 23 months, the Archive page at Darcy McGee can be found here.

A fixed link to the project will also be listed on our right hand column, under the North Coast Extra Edition heading.