Regular Council Meeting - October 23rd, 2023

Did you miss the meeting? See below for a summary of key agenda items. 

• At the Committee of the Whole Council the Mayor presented the Prince Rupert Middle School Jazz and Concert Bands and their director Kristy Tillman with Civic Merit awards for excellence in music. The PRMS bands took home two gold medals in Niagara Falls at MusicFest Canada’s band finals in May of this year.
• Council heard a presentation from the Lester Centre regarding upcoming programming and initiatives. For more information on this year’s schedule of events, head to: https://www.lestercentre.ca/. General Manager Chris Armstrong also noted that the theatre is always looking for volunteers, and that their busy schedule of events is always looking for folks to take shifts. For more information about how to give back to the arts in Prince Rupert, reach out to him at manager@lestercentre.ca or call (250) 627 8888.
• Following the presentation from the Lester Centre, Council adjourned the Committee of the Whole and started the Regular Meeting.
• Council approved a Letter of support for Community Futures for the their application to NDIT for their rebranding campaign.
• Council received a verbal report from the Director of Operations & Intergovernmental Relations on the 4^th Avenue staircase, which noted that following a geotechnical and engineering review of the project it was estimated that the project will cost an additional ~$250,000 for slope stabilization and to rebuild the wooden section of bridge that was destroyed when a portion of slope gave way last winter. Given there is only $15,000 remaining in the project budget for this year, it was also noted that the work would need to be deferred until after the 2024 Budget is considered.
• Council voted to extend an existing program for 1 year that waives fees for residential rezoning, development permit and building permit applications that result in new housing units until December 31st, 2024. In addition, Council also extended a waiver of fees for all development and building permits, as well as rezoning fees for the downtown core for the same period. This was a recommendation of the City’s Housing Acceleration Action Plan, adopted at the previous meeting. Additional information can be found, here: https://www.princerupert.ca/community/housing-information
• Council voted to send two Development Variance Permits to public notification.
• Council gave final reading to Reserve Fund Amendment Bylaw No. 3522, 2023 in order to house funds provided through the Ministry of Municipal Affair’s Growing Communities Fund (GMF), as per Provincial requirement.

For the full agenda package for the meeting, head to: https://www.princerupert.ca/index-pages/meetings/regular-council-meeting-october-23rd-2023-0

For the video of the meeting, head to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDuEmoWHcwI