Mayor Herb Pond takes his message to the pages of The Northern View

The Mayor has found the Northern View's editorial pages as a convenient way to put forward his thoughts and ideas on growth and development in Prince Rupert.

Appearing in the weekly paper's Opinion page, the Mayor provided his ineterpretation on a wide array of local items. His commentary ranged from looking at the negative side of growth, most recently highlighted by the loss of trees as developments come on stream, to a commetary on how smaller communities are losing services that they have come to expect. A situation that has partialy been caused due to a change of allocation of resources, part of a major shift in policy that has been implemented many times without a debate.

Which is an interesting way of looking at outside issues, considering some of our more famous municipal issues of late seem to have not been given a prominent public hearing locally as well.

He talks of our future and the need to be a hub, a need that will require growth. His Honours thoughts are provided below and can be found on the Northern View website here.


Addressing development and growth in Prince Rupert
By Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond
The Northern View
Page Six
Oct 25 2006

It's extremely interesting to read local articles and listen to conversations about the negative side of growth, especially when so many of us are still reeling from the harsh impacts of shrinkage. To be sure, the issues identified are real and must be prepared for and managed. By let's not lose sight of the fact that we do need growth.

Take for example the very real concerns expressed about the loss of trees at the old legion site, or for that matter, the loss of the legion building itself. Or a few years earlier it was the loss of the Purple Otter building and some trees in Mariner's Park, to make way for the cruise ship dock. All very legitimate expressions of angst about potential loss.

But it also occurs to me that it's been so long since we've seen major development in Prince Rupert that we've almost forgotten what it looks like. We haven't seen much of the typical destruction and demolition - and it's almost always ugly - that precedes construction. Growth definitely has a down side.

At the same time, we also need to realize that staying the same (or even going back to the way we were) is not an option, not when everything else is changing so rapidly.

The fact is that smaller communities are losing services rapidly. Our current population, or even our record population, won't any longer support the kind of shopping, healthcare, recreational and educational opportunities that we've come to expect - not even when everyone is fully employed.

There has been a very quiet and subtle change in this country as to how resources are allocated - it's a major policy shift that was never debated, it just occurred - and that's density-driven decision making. With the majority of Canadians now living in large urban centers, activity levels are now the accepted prime indicator of whether a service is justified and that means smaller centers are losing out.

There is no longer a sense that every community needs or deserves a hospital with a complete suite of services or a fully staffed school or an airport. Rather, government resources are now allocated based on headcounts, retailers rely on volume, and airports depend on large passenger through put. In this new world, customers, clients, patients and students are expected to travel from small centers to hubs.

So to build the kind of community that we want - one with good air service, good healthcare and education, good retail and recreation choices - we need to be the hub, and for that we need growth.

Rather than resisting growth, we are better to drive it by defining clearly what we hope to gain and what we don't want to lose, and then aggressively pursue both