Talyor Bachrach and NDP introduce Right to Vote at 16 Act

Canadians as young as 16 could be casting a ballot in the 
next Canadian Federal Election if MP Taylor Bachrach
finds success with a private members bill introduced today

If Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach and the NDP are successful with a Bill tabled today in the House of Commons, the voting pool for the next Federal election could include those from 16 years and up.

The Northwest MP introduced a Private Members bill, Bill C-210 this afternoon, the MP observing how he is looking forward to engaging Canadians across the Country as the NDP works to pass the bill into law. Calling Canadians to contact their own MP's to support the call to reduce the voting age to 16.

You can review the text of the Bill here

Private members bills don't often have a lot of success in making it to the finish line, so Mr. Bachrach will need a fair bit of assistance from his fellow Members of Parliament to steer the proposal towards adopted status.

If it progresses forward, it would go into force six months after it gains Royal Assent.

More notes on the work of Mr. Bachrach in the House of Commons can be explored here.

Overtime Thriller keeps River Kings undefeated as Terrace tops Rampage 2-1 in Saturday play

The always loud Jim Ciccone Civic Centre was in full throttle Saturday night as Northwest rivals the Terrace River Kings made the treacherous drive to Prince Rupert for a showdown with the Rampage, the travel conditions perhaps making for some additional jump for the visitors who keep their undefeated season intact with a 2-1 victory.

Despite the River Kings being a bit understaffed for their road trip, the Saturday night contest was closely played match up, the depth of the Terrace bench coming through to fill in the gaps in the line up in defence of their undefeated status.

The game remained scoreless through fifteen minutes of play before the Rampage opened things up with Colten Waldhaus breaking the ice, assisted by Jared Meers at 15.13.

The second frame saw some good chances but no goals, with the Rampage destined to be shut out in the third, the Rhino's holding tight to the 1-0 lead until Terrace's Gianni Carmano evened the scoreboard up at 16:39.

Eight minutes later, at 4:21 of Overtime it was Colin Bell who had assisted on the Carmano equalizer, scoring one of his own securing the 2-1 win for the visitors and sending the Rampage fans off to their disappointment at the result but not the effort on the ice. 

The marker for Bell moves him closer to team-mate Ryan Rosebbom for the leagues top score honours.

As is the case when the two rivals get together, the two teams tangled on the ice, picking up where they left off from days past in the time before COVID.

The First period found the River Kings in an ornery mood assessed 4 of the five penalties in the first twenty minutes. The roles reversed in the second as Rampage players sat in the penalty box for five of the eight penalties assessed.

Things settled down significantly in the third and OT, with no penalty calls made, leaving the players to dig deep to try to put away the winning marker.

Tyran Hunter earned the River King victory in the nets, turning aside all but one of the 22 shot she faced, Kieran Sharpe was up to the challenge from the River Kings, facing down thirty shots, surrendering just 2 on the night.

The full scoresheet for Saturday night can be reviewed here.

Another COVID maximum sell out of 525 took in the contest which was also  big night for the Salvation Army and KidSport to name a few.

Terrace will be looking to head into the holidays atop the CIHL Standings as an undefeated team with one more game at home on Saturday against Hazelton. 

The Rampage who had a month off prior to Saturday night  now have close to another one off, they do not return to action until early January when they hit the road for Vanderhoof and Hazelton on January 8th and 9th.

More notes on the Rampage and CIHL can be found from our archive page.

BC COVID recovery money to be put to use in support of local festivals, including two based in Prince Rupert

The BC Annual Dance Competition which takes to the stage
of Prince Rupert's Lester Centre (above) is on of man
groups in BC to receive recovery funding this month
(photo from Lester Centre of the Arts)

Some new pandemic funding from the Province of British Columbia will soon be making its way to five popular events on the North Coast, Central Coast and Haida Gwaii, designed to help reduce the challenges local groups have had from COVID over the last few years.

Among the recipients of the region to benefit are:

Prince Rupert

BC Annual Dance Competition $16,000

Prince Rupert Regional Swim Meet $4,000

Haida Gwaii 

Tluu Xaada Naay gwii kyuuwee – The Trail to Canoe People’s House  $166,160

Edge of the World Music Festival $15,000

Tlell Fall Fair $4,450

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice noted as to how the funding will be used to bring British Columbians together.

“The pandemic made it more challenging for people to gather for events and enjoy all the arts and culture the North Coast has to offer. 

This new funding will help support local fairs, festivals and events, allowing us all to safely come together again as a community.”

The five events to receive funding from this allotment are among 43 in Northern British Columbia and 681 events province wide.  

Across the Northwest other communities to receive funding included:

Bella Coola
The Bella Coola Valley Ridge Riders Annual Rodeo $17,230

Kitimat
Spring Fling $4,253

Smithers
Smithers Saltos Invitational $8,566

103rd Bulkley Valley Exhibition $40,000

Telkwa
110th Annual Telkwa BBQ $16,330

Terrace

Northwest Regional Airshow $22,150

The Pacific Northwest Music Festival $15,000

More on today's announcement is available here.

You can review the full list of organization to receive funding here.

For more items from the Provincial Government see our archive page here.

Conditions look good for some space rock viewing tonight

Earth and Sky map out the direction of the Geminid
meteorite shower, with tonight and tomorrow the prime
early morning viewing periods

The current cold snap may actually work in the favour of star gazers tonight as the Geminid meteorite shower reaches its peak viewing period tonight and tomorrow.

With the potential of up 50 meteors per hour, you are sure to see something flashing across the sky at some point tonight, as the remnants of the rock comet 3200 Phatehon zoom across the sky above, 

In a helpful guide to the celestial show, CNN notes that the peak period for viewing is around the 2AM period.

Over the weekend, residents of Vancouver Island not only saw some of the space entertainment but may have heard it as well, with a loud boom recorded from Victoria to Campbell River and west to Tofino attributed by some to the volume of space rocks flying around at the moment.

Tonight's forecast is for Clear skies above Prince Rupert

While it seems unlikely considering the forecast. 

Should the skies cloud over, or if you're not inclined to stare at the sky in the cold at 2 AM, NASA has us covered with a live stream of the event which you can follow here.

Space.com and Earth and Sky.com both have more on the early morning viewing event.

More note on Community themes can be found here.

Oldfield Creek Hatchery officials hatch plan for mudslide removal

A big dig is ahead for the Oldfield Creek Hatchery which is moving forward
with plans to remove the debris field created from September's landslide
(Photo from Oldfield Creek FB page)

It's been over two months since the heavy rains of September cascaded down Mount Hays and wreaked some significant havoc on the Oldfield Creek Hatchery and its ecosystem, with officials at the Wantage Road facility now sharing some notes on their plans ahead.

In an update posted to their Facebook page last week the Oldfield Creek crew shared word that they have now secured a tender to construct a road to their intake area to get the removal of the mudslide debris underway. 

Once they have that area cleared, they'll have a clearer picture of the work ahead for the creek channel and to determine if the waterline can be replaced in its current location.

No timeline is noted towards when they hope to have the first stage of what will be an extensive bit of work completed and how they will move forward from that point.

Among those supporting their efforts on the project are the Department of Fisheries and Oceans,  the Pacific Salmon Foundation, McElhanny Engineering and the City of Prince Rupert.

The extreme weather event of September, created an emergency situation for the Hatchery which made the decision at the time to release their 7,000 plus collection of coho salt to ensure their viability.

As a result of the damage, the Facility is still listed as Temporarily Closed.

You can follow the progress of the remediation work ahead from the Oldfield Creek Hatchery Facebook page.

More items of interest from around the Northwest can be found from our Community Notes archive.

Home Mailer campaign provides launch for 2022 curbside recycling program

Over the course of the last week, providing the mail made it to your area through the snow, residents of Prince Rupert have received the latest information update on the City's Curbside Recycling program with a home mailer arriving in mailboxes to outline the path ahead as of January 1st, 2022.

And this is one piece of mail that you will receive this holiday season that you don't want to banish off to your recycling bin with too much haste!

The home mailer brochure includes a map of the city, divided in a number of sections with a corresponding colour to go along with the new calendar for the year ahead, which features a few new wrinkles. 

Included among them, for the most part a dedicated day through the year for our neighbourhoods, which means the day of the mental calendar math to remember when garbage day is soon to be at an end.

As well, the city is about to introduce a program of picking up garbage/recycling in two areas of the city each day. 

The City's Go Map program has been updated to feature the collection areas and you can zoom into your specific property location to see where you fall on the collection map.

The information package also provides a few notes on how the program will work, with a reminder to have you garbage and recycling at curb-side by 8AM

The January launch also offers up a chance for homeowners to make a switch of their garbage cans if they wish, that after some residents in the community noting of the smallish size of the containers provided this summer.

However, while you can switch over (for a cost) the City continues with its mission to encourage a much smaller footprint for garbage from its residents.

click to enlarge

Should you require a larger can for your home, you can click on a link on the city website and Request a New Bin, the city notes that there is a one time exchange fee and that an additional collection charge may apply.

On the latter, you can replace the word may from the brochure, with the words Will be charged from the bylaw.

City Council provided final approval towards the new Fees for Garbage and Recycling at their December 6th Council session, which included the  addition of the annual fee of $100 dollars for the Super Size Cans, that in addition to the $518.04 fee for Solid Waste in 2022.

You can learn more about the City's recycling program here.

A look back at the path towards curbside recycling in 2022 can be explored from our archives.

Capital projects on display and looking for approval from Prince Rupert City Council

It's Presentation Day at City Council, like the days not far removed from high school and that one final chance to impress the teacher with your work on the year.

This afternoon, the heads of a number of civic departments will parade through City Council chambers, providing a snapshot of their hopes and plans for Capital Spending in 2022.

Mayor Lee Brain introduced the plan for a Presentation Day at last week's Council session, setting 3PM this afternoon for the process.

As part of the work on the day, Council will then make the final decisions on the spending plans at the Special Regular Council session called for 7PM, one which also puts the bow and holiday wrapping on a range of increased civic fees and charges for 2022.

This afternoon's review of spending proposals features Fire, Policing, Operations, Recreation and some of the high profile Vision projects that Council has introduced in the last year or so.

Included in the notes for today, spending towards the CN Revitalization project and the plans for Improvements to the Waterfront including the relocation of the Airport Ferry Dock to the Kwinitsa area.

As for the 3PM Festival of hopeful spending, the summary of Requests for the year ahead looks as follows:

click to enlarge

Among some of the top end items of note when it comes to the wish lists on the afternoon presentation roster includes:

New Fire hall Design ($350,000) and purchase of a Reserve Pumper ($1,000,000)

CN building revitalization ($5,300,000)

RCMP Detachment ($30,0000,000)

Waterfront Development Improvements ($10,900,000)

Landfill Dozer ($1,000,000) Snow Plow ($300,000) Garbage Truck ($400,000)

Annual Paving Program  ($1,000,000)

Landfill Cell Closure ($2,601,000) New Landfill Cell ($1,664,000)

Woodworth Dam Replacement ($5,000,000) 

Water Treatment Facility and Submarine Line Engineering Design ($4,000,000)

SCADA Upgrade ($1,150,000)

Annual Water line Replacement ($750,000)

Liquid Waste Management Plan ($750,000) SCADA Upgrade ($450,000)

Annual Wastewater Line Replacement ($750,000)

Details towards all of the above and many more items can be found as part of the Agenda Package for this afternoon's Presentation. During the Afternoon gathering the items from he Capital Spending list will be explained further.

More notes on today's double header of civic governance can be found from our Council Preview Page here.

Other notes on themes of Budget Planning can be found here. 

While the Archive of Infrastructure, Major Projects and Planning for the City is available here.