A day for Polar Bears and Prince Rupert swimmers comes January 1st

An empty Ruhsbrook Floats Boat Ramp during the recent King tide,
the scene will be a little different on New Years Day
as Rotarian's host the annual Prince Rupert Polar Bear Swim

Prince Rupert's Rotarian's are putting together the finishing touches for the region's annual tradition of the Polar Bear Swim, set for Tuesday, January 1st at 1PM at the Rushbrook Floats near the Canadian Fish plant on the city's east side.

For those new to the community, Rushbrook Floats is located at the very eastern end of George Hills way which runs parallel to the waterfront from Cow Bay, the floats are just past the Canadian Fish Plant located at the foot of Drydock Road on George Hills.

Participants are encouraged to wear costumes to the annual event, though you can take the plunge in just a bathing suit if you wish, Rotarian's will have Free Hot Dogs, Hot Chocolate and Coffee for everyone who drops by whether to participate or just encourage those that will wade into the chilly waters of Prince Rupert Harbour.

The event is one of the signature events for the Rotary Club of Prince Rupert and makes for a popular way to greet the New Year Ahead. You can find out more about the event from the event page hosted by the Prince Rupert Rotary Club's Facebook page.

District of Port Edward works towards strategic planning for 2019

It has been a busy few months for the District of Port Edward council, with a number of items on the horizon for delivery in 2019.

In the District Update for December, newly elected Mayor Knut Bjorndal relayed some of the areas where the District Council was focused on, the first was their work on a Strategic Planning session, the results of which will be delivered to the public in the Spring when they have the financial information that is required to complete it.

They are currently working on a Dog Park for the community, as well as clearing land that the District owns and is up for sale.

They have also had an engineering firm come to the District to evaluate and inspect the water plant to ensure it is operating at an optimum level, with a report expected to be reviewed in the coming weeks.

They also had meetings scheduled with CN Rail to discuss the ongoing concerns about train whistles in the community, with the District set to deliver a report to the community on the outcome of those discussion.

As he settles into his work in the Mayor's Chair, Mr. Bjorndal has also committed to delivering a monthly message for residents to keep them informed on what they have been focused on.

The next public session for the Port Edward District Council is January 9th.

More notes on events and concerns in the community can be found from their December update.

Further background on our notes on Port Edward can be found here.

Tracking underway, as Santa Claus makes his annual trip around the world and late evening rendezvous with Prince Rupert

There's still a fair bit of time before North Coast Residents may hear the sleigh bells ringing  into the night and perhaps a glimpse of a famous red nose leading the way, but in many parts of the World the annual journey of Santa Claus is underway and the travels of Mr. Claus are being kept up to date by the Joint Canadian-American Air Command at NORAD.

What they do once he arrives in North America, as well as a large number of games, music and other features for those that wish to follow can be found from the NORAD TRACKS SANTA website which also will be providing for live tracking of Santa through the day.

The NORAD Tracks Santa Facebook page also has some behind the scenes glimpses as the staff on hand at the tracking Centre help to  keep the flight plan to its schedule.

Updates are also available through Twitter.

NORAD put together a bit of a preview of the night leading up t Santa's lift off today.




As has been the case in the past, Royal Canadian Air Force  pilots out of Bagotville, Quebec will be the first to escort Santa into North American air space, changing off with their American counterparts for the journey into the USA, that handover will continue up and down the border as Santa makes the trek across the continent from East to West.



This years travels began a few hours ago in Eastern Russia, Australia and New Zealand to name a few of the stops to this point, it's a pretty long day for Santa and his support team down at the North Pole, one that won't be over until he makes stops in Northwest BC, Alaska and Hawaii before he returns to his workshop not far from the Arctic Circle.

As the journey towards North America continues we'll offer up some of the snapshots from NORAD below, giving North Coast followers updates on just how close that Santa and the reindeer are getting as they make their way to the area.

In the Northwest:

Santa travelled into Prince Rupert at 1:05 AM destined north for Ketchikan, Alaska and points beyond. Heard passing overhead just past the Westview Pellet Terminal was a joyous yell of "Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night"

The trip into the Northwest arrived just before 1AM as Santa made his first of the Northwest stops in Kitimat, Smithers and Terrace


. Santa's journey so far:

Heading towards midnight, Santa made his first entry into British Columbia, travelling North to South from Fort St. John to the Kootenays

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The home of NORAD is the latest stop for Santa as he works his way Northbound towards Alberta

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10 PM Pacific and Chicago is Santa's kind of town 


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At the midnight hour in Ontario (9 PM in BC), Santa heads into Metro Toronto and the other large cities of Canada's most populous province

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8 PM -- If he can make it there, he can make it anywhere ... Santa is crossing Mid town Manhattan and the four other boroughs of New York City.


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7PM and the first sighting of Santa over Canadian Airspace, with Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Atlantic provinces about to receive their annual visit.   

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The 6PM Satellite and Radar fixes found Santa over some familiar terrain, with  the Jolly Old Elf refuelling in Greenland.




5 PM was Salsa time for Santa with a stop in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 
and the rest of eastern South America.



 Just past 4 PM and Santa's in England to visit the Queen and everyone else from Edinburgh south, he also skips over the channel to make Stops in Belfast, Derry and Dublin to name a few calls on the night

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Mais Oui, ces't Paris, Santa crosses into France just after 3 PM



2PM and Santa is stopping for a cappuccino in Italia

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1PM and Santa was spotted over the Pyramids of Egypt

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Noon Hour Pacific found Santa over Greece



10 AM Santa was travelling through Russian airspace



  Towards the end of the 9AM hour reports came in from Afghanistan of Santa's arrival



At 9 AM Santa had crossed over to India and began his approach towards Europe



7:30 AM PT South Pacific



5:30 AM PT Santa spotted over Tokyo, Japan



 Lifting off from the North Pole

CityWest wraps up its Twelve Days of Christmas with A Grand Prize Delivery

Just in time for Christmas Eve the elves at the CityWest workshop have wrapped up their 12 Days of Christmas Plus One celebrations, the popular annual event that now has put the bow on the Northwest communications company's fifth year of gift giving to loyal customers across the Northwest.

Friday was the day to announce the closely guarded Grand Prize, which was a Smart TV and Soundbar combo courtesy of City Furniture.

The wrap up prize was delivered to Eric Hand in Prince Rupert who was on hand at City West on Friday to receive the entertainment pairing from City Furniture and CityWest.

The Grand Prize announcement was posted to the CityWest Facebook page.

The daily awarding of prizes began on December 5 with the Bonus draw and then the Twelve Days began their countdown towards Friday's Big Finale.

All of CityWest's customers were entered in the draw, the complete list of prize winners can be found below.

You can learn more about the annual giveaway from the CityWest website here.

With the Christmas New Year period now here, CityWest will have some holiday hours in place for customers to make note of, you can review those below:

More notes on the Prince Rupert based communications company can be found here.

A wider look at the Commercial sector in the Northwest is available here.

Regional District holiday schedule features reduced hours and two days of closure for Recycling Centre

The Kaien Road Recycling Centre will see some reduced hours and
Closures during the holiday period

Heading into the Christmas/New Year's Holiday period, North Coast Regional District has posted the hours of operations for the Regional recycling facility on Kaien Road.

The schedule features some reduced hours and two days of closure between today and January 2nd.

December 24 -- 8:30 to 4:30 PM

December 25 -- CLOSED

December 26 -- 11 AM to 4 PM

December 27 & 28 -- 8:30 to 4:30 PM

December 29 -- 10 AM to 2 PM

December 30 -- 12 Noon to 4 PM

December 31 -- 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM

January 1 -- CLOSED

January 2 -- Return to Regular hours

The facility does have off hour transfer stations available, but in recent years the have quickly filled to overflowing, so if possible residents may want to hold on to their holiday recycling until the larger centre is in operation at the hours above.

As for the administrative offices for Regional District, they are now Closed until January 1st, with a return to regular hours planned for January 2nd.

You can review the schedule for Prince Rupert/Port Edward, as well as the notes related to operations on Haida Gwaii from the NCRD website. 

For more items of interest related to Regional District see our archive page here.

Regional District to make use of Alternative Approval Process for planned upgrades to Regional Recycling facility

Regional District is making plans to borrow funds for planned upgrades
for the region's recycling centre on Kaien Road

Plans for upgrades to the regional recycling facility in Prince Rupert that serves the City, Port Edward and other North Coast areas of the region will be going to the alternative approval process, with the decision to make use of the at times controversial process announced at their December 14th District meeting.

In a notice posted to the NCRD website, the Regional District will be seeking authorization to borrow up to  500,000 dollars for the purpose of borrowing funds, over a 20 year period to complete upgrades to the Regional Recycling Facility. 

To facilitate the borrowing of that money, Regional District will be using the Alternative Approval process which will see the borrowing plan authorized if electoral response forms certified by the Corporate Officer total less that 10 percent of the eligible voters in the Regional District.

The process puts the responsibility on residents of the community who may have concerns or questions on the borrowing plan to gather enough responses to force the issue to a wider consultation process, normally that of a full fledged referendum process.

Should the returns for the Recycling plan total more than ten percent, then the loan request will be required to be put to a voting process. The threshold number  to trigger that voting process would be returns of 916 alternative approval forms.

With the Regional District offices now closed until the New Year, the forms will again be available in the New Year at the North Coast Regional District Office at 14-342 Third Avenue West in Prince Rupert, Blank forms can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed upon request.

Forms may be submitted in person, or by mail to be received by the North Coast Regional District Office no later than by 4PM on Thursday, February 28th.

The information related to what upgrades may be planned is not included as part of the announcement to go towards the Alternative Approval Process, some of the work may be part of a wide ranging report released in June of 2017 which highlighted a number of elements on the Regional District wish list.

As for the plan to go to the AAP process in 2019, the full details for that initiative  can be found here.

Regional District made use of the AAP as part of its plan to change its name back in 2016.

The City of Prince Rupert has used the process a number of times, included on that list was the city's move to expand its boundaries to include land on Tuck inlet back in 2014.

The City also used the instrument in 2013 towards its renovation plans for the Prince Rupert Airport,  and in 2016 on issues related to land on Graham Avenue, 

With the Regional District meeting having taken place after the City of Prince Rupert's last regular council session for 2018, neither Mayor Lee Brain, or Councillor Barry Cunningham who represent the City on the District have had a chance to offer up any notes related to the Regional initiative through a Council meeting opportunity.

Beyond speaking to the issue for residents through City Council, so far Mr. Brain, or Mr. Cunningham have yet to make mention of the Regional District's plans through their social media portals.

Among some of the other notes addressed at the December 14th Regional District meeting was the appointment of Tim Des Champs, the Recycling Operations Manager to serve as the NCRD representative to a Committee established by the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, the committee will assist in the development of a new solid waste management plan for the Regional District.

Regional District will also investigate the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund and its alignment with the priorities identified by local emergency preparedness and response groups.

The Regional District Board will also look to schedule a Special meeting in the new year to hear from Transport Canada with respect to the ongoing engagement taking place related to the Federal Ports modernization review.

The members of the Regional District also discusses initiatives for Haida Gwaii and Oona River.

More notes on the December 14th meeting can be found here.

For more items of interest related to Regional District see our archive page here.

Prince Rupert Homeless shelter receives extended funding through the winter

While the assembly of the Modular Home Supportive Housing residence on Park Avenue continues through the winter, the current shelter has been provided with some extended funding to keep its facility on Third Avenue West in operation through the winter.

The funding for the 25 bed shelter that is operated by the North Coast Transition Society was confirmed as part of an announcement Friday providing for funding for twelve shelters that are located in communities across British Columbia.

No details were provided as part of the Friday announcement towards much of the shelter money was to be allocated to the Prince Rupert location.

You can review the announcement here.

The provincial announcement is a bit of recycling of a previous announcement of August, when it was previously noted that the Third Avenue shelter would remain open until the permanent facility was ready for occupancy.

Last week, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice posted the first photos of the new modular housing construction project taking shape at the Park avenue site, if all goes as planned it is hoped to have the new facility open to those in need early in 2019.

You can review some of the background to the supportive housing plans below:

December 10 -- Supportive Housing Project progressing along Park Avenue
October 31 -- Land clearing complete, Prince Rupert Supportive Housing site sits ready for construction phase
July 31 -- Timeline shifts for Park Avenue Supportive Housing in Prince Rupert 
June 28 -- Thoughts on amenities, road safety among Council commentary on Park Avenue housing permit process
June 25 -- Council to review the Development Permit Application for Park Avenue Supportive Housing plans
May 29 -- The path towards the Park Avenue Supportive Housing project starts with a Public Notice
April 20 -- Much anticipated supportive housing proposal will see summer time build set for property on Park Avenue
March 1 -- North Coast MLA's Budget Defence includes Prince Rupert references


For more items of note related the housing across the Northwest see our archive page here.