We’ll get by with a little help from our 'friends'

The Mayor and his crew are down in Victoria at the UBCM meetings and they are spending their time in the big city priming the province for the great things to come in the Northwest. However, for those great things to come on stream the city says they will need some help and that has been the recurring theme of their discussion while they work the rooms.

The mayor is apparently in a full court PR press as he tells all who will listen that the city is going places and that we are destined to be the next ‘great port city’.

The UBCM is almost like a giant lobbying convention in some ways, each participant trying to sell the other on the need to sample their plans, each municipality trying to paint itself as the up and coming locale in the province.

Normally it’s the province’s municipalities seeking out the federal representatives or provincial cabinet members and looking for support for a project or two. The week long meetings offer up other things like workshops and one on one sessions, but make no doubt about it, it’s all about positioning your plans as the must support ones. It's the one on one sessions and the sidebar conversations that are the currency of the convention.

And while it doesn't appear anywhere in the ambitious agenda of these meetings, in the end it’s about money, it’s always about money. Like a cross between an Amway convention and a revival meeting, it's all about how you get your message across.

The Daily provided coverage of the Mayor’s selling job on the front page of the Wednesday edition of the paper.

‘HELP UP REACH POTENTIAL,’ Pond
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Pages One and Two

In order for Prince Rupert to achieve its full potential as one of B. C’s great port cities, we are going to need some help from the province, said Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond.

That is the message Pond and members of council are bringing to the provincial and federal representatives during the union of British Columbia Municipalities Convention in Victoria this week.

“The convention is markedly different than three years ago. Three years ago, there was a possibility of a container port. We were still trying to be very positive in the message we were bringing but it certainly wasn’t the positive message we have today,” said Pond.

“Now, when we walk through the door and talk to a minister, they don’t have to be convinced that Prince Rupert is going some place.

“They get it, they understand we will become one of B. C.’s next great port cities, so there’s a greater engagement in the discussion. But for us to be that great port city we are going to need some assistance. You can’t leave it all up to the local taxpayers.”


The convention, which takes place all week, will include opportunities for council members to meet one-on-one with the Minister of Forests, Minister of Health, the Premier, Solicitor General, Minister of Finance and the Minister of Environment.

“The core message is all around the Gateway initiative and the port expansion and what we need to do to become British Columbia’s next great port city,” said Pond.

In addition to all the other meetings, early in the week, the city also met with the Minister of Community Services Ida Chong.

The city has been working with her ministry in the Communities in Transition program for the past several years.

“We are still in discussions around whether there might be some way they could assist,” said Pond.

“There were no commitments but it was a good discussion.”

The program provides provincial funds to assess the city’s finances, which was done two years ago, and then the province looks at ways to assist communities suffering from extenuating circumstances – in this case the loss of millions of dollars of the Watson Island Pulp mill municipal taxes.

“We spoke about the challenge Northwest municipalities are facing, both in terms of finances and infrastructure and really just laying out some options and possibilities of ways we could see some help coming,” said Pond.

It was also an opportunity to explain the economy of the city that isn’t burning quite as much yet as people think.

“When you are away from Prince Rupert based on media coverage in some of the national press you would think that we are booming like Fort St. John. We are not their yet, so we’ve been making people understand we still need some help,” he said.