Port Ed council expresses disappointment at Watson Island situation and rescinds a tax exemption

Like Prince Rupert, back in 2006 Port Edward granted a bit of tax relief to the would-be owners and operators of the Watson Island mill.

With the arrival of the New Year and no progress on the mill front, the council for the district had to come to terms with the prospect of the mill never operating again.

With that weighing over the council, they issued a call to rescind the tax relief program that had been in place since 2006, which had granted Sun Wave the tax vacation while it ostensibly was making plans to operate the mill.

With that process seemingly in limbo, as Mayor Dave MacDonald suggested the mill situation seems to be back to square one.

Perhaps, it is even further back than that, with there being no apparent movement to ever reopen the site or any indication of what is planned for the island.

The point of view out of Port Ed was found in Thursday’s Daily News.

Port Ed facing up to mill's missed deadline
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Pages one and three

The realization that the Watson Island pulp mill may never reopen was painfully evident at Port Edward council meeting Tuesday night, as a subdued council quietly passed a bylaw that rescinds an earlier tax exemption bylaw the district and the city of Prince Rupert had given to Sun Wave regarding the former Skeena Cellulose mill.

Voices were rather soft and coarse as councillors discussed a report put forward by Chief Administrative Officer Ron Bedard, who was not present at the meeting.

"The obligations by Sun Wave have not been met," said Mayor Dave MacDonald.
"We want to rescind our agreement."

When Sun Wave originally purchased the land at Watson Island in 2006, an agreement was reached where, under the condition of getting the mill back up-and-running, taxes would be exempt or reduced for the first five years of Sun Wave's ownership.

But that was contingent on the mill resuming operations by Dec. 31, 2007.
That deadline has since passed with no sign of the mill ever reopening, so the district was forced to go with another plan.

"Part of the agreement was to have the mill up and running by January (2008), and that just isn't possible," said MacDonald.

The report reiterated the three conditions regarding the Tax Exemption bylaw: that the lands are continuously in use for the operation of the service by Sun Wave; the obligations of Sun Wave to provide the service are being continuously met; and Sun Wave continues to meet its other obligations under the agreement.

But Sun Wave hasn't done this, according to Port Edward, so the tax exemption is now null and void.

"Sun Wave has therefore failed to meet all the conditions under which the tax exemption was to be provided," said the report.

Coun. Murray Kristoff wanted to confirm whether council's decision to support the report reflected the councillors' opinion or whether their support meant they were accepting the appropriate legal advice for Port Edward.

"Is that our position, or our legal position," he said. "Shouldn't that be a little clearer? It's obviously a broken agreement ... but is it our opinion, or a legal opinion?"

MacDonald suggested that it was a little bit of both, and that it was time for the district to move in a different direction. But he also said it appears that the situation with the mill is back to square one, which doesn't sit well with him.

"One thing that upsets me is that we're in the same position as a few years ago," he said. "It's not fair that the government has us paying taxes on this."

A field for the sharing

Port Edward officials are a tad puzzled over the lack of interest in using their recreation facilities, with a relatively new and well kept field available for the community the amount of requests for time is rather low.

The Daily News provided details on what is causing the lack of interest and how Port Edward hopes to have their field better utilized by the area's residents.

‘Sports field on the level for everyone’
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Friday, May 25, 2007

Years ago, the district of Port Edward opened a brand new sports field that arguably is the best facility on the North Coast. Yet years later, that potential field of dreams isn't being accepted as a reality by North Coast residents.

At this week's Port Edward council meeting, Coun. James Brown brought up the touchy subject that even today, residents in both Port Edward and Prince Rupert complain about all the fees involved with using the field.

"I'm getting approached by a lot of people about the field, and they're not happy," said Brown.
The overwhelming response from both Mayor Dave MacDonald and Chief Executive Officer Ron Bedard was "what fees?"

They say we're hindering them, and they're completely wrong," said MacDonald. "I want people to use that field."

Bedard said that the only time the district requires a fee is if it involves league play or a tournament.

But even then, for such events as a day tournament, all the district requires is a damage deposit, which is paid back if the field is cleaned up after.

"The deposit, you get back as long as you clean up, and don't wreck the field," said Coun. Ed Wampler.

In the past, council has heard that Rupertites have declined to use the field because it is too far to drive, said Bedard.

MacDonald added that recently, a Rupert slo-pitch team wanted to use the field for a practice, and he said that was fine.

"I just told them to call the office to book a time, so they got it, and that was all," he said.
Bedard said that it is obvious there is confusion on the North Coast about the availability and cost of the Port Edward field, and that for the next council meeting, he will bring a report for council to read that should clear up any confusion.

Brown, who currently is hosting soccer drop-in nights every Tuesday and Thursday at the field, agreed with the plan.

***

Port Edward is considering redoing its Official Community Plan.

Bedard notified council that a new Community Assessment Grant of $5,000 is now available.
"Our report is 13 years old, but in reality, it should be done every five years," said Bedard. "But with our financial situation, it wasn't possible to do so."

The plan would cost approximately $40,000, and would bring in an outside engineer to come up with a new report. This would also give Port Edward residents a chance to speak up about what they would like to see happen in the district during the next few years as the North Coast continues to move forward with economic engines such as the new container port.

"I think it's well worth it," said MacDonald. "We know what we feel is good for Port Ed, but we'd like to hear from the residents what they want for Port Edward.

"What type of community do we want?"

Council then okayed Bedard's motion to apply for the grant, but Bedard added that if the grant was turned down, they would wait until a later date to review the Official Community Plan.

Port Ed beckons for those that seek tax relief

While the city of Prince Rupert continues to increase the tax collectors work load (not to mention the rate payers debt load), twenty some minutes down the highway is a place where the taxes are low and they hope soon the town will grow.

Port Edward once again has delivered a budget to its residents, that doesn’t put a hand in their pocket for more money; in fact they are taking less.

A situation which should give more than a few Rupertites to follow the lead of a recent citizen asking Rupert city council about their ever increasing tax agenda. At the time, one irate taxpayer asked council why he shouldn’t move out to Port Edward, pay less in taxes and still use Prince Rupert’s services. He may soon have company on the daily commute.

For details on this modern miracle of financial accountability we head for the front page of Thursday’s Daily News.

PORT ED FIND WAY TO KEEP TAXES LOW
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Thursday May 10, 2007
Page one

The district of Port Edward has once again found a way to lower taxes.

And it has done so despite the fact that the district has not collected any taxes from Skeena Cellulose in more than five years.

Port Edward announced during this week’s council meeting that it was lowering the general residential municipal tax rate from 5.9345 per cent to a flat rate of five per cent, a decrease of approximately 0.4 per cent.

The decrease comes on the heels of yet another tax increase for all Prince Rupert residents.

“Even though this council saw most assessments go up, council actually lowered the mill rate, which will actually lower the cost,” said Chief Administrative Officer, Ron Bedard.

So, if a house was assessed at $100,000 to say $110,000, then the resident would be paying more tax than last year, but not at a higher rate, added Bedard.

Every other general municipal tax, such as utility, business and recreation remains at the same percentage rate as 2006.

Meanwhile, the tax rate for the Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional Hospital District and Northwest Hospital District’s tax rates have also decreased across the board by approximately half a per cent.

The only tax rate that increased was applied to the Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District, where taxes in every category all went up by a minimum of 0.5 per cent.

Also Tuesday evening, Port Edward gave three readings to the five year financial plan, where total revenue for 2007 is expected to be $3,855,840, as are the expenditures, meaning the budget should balance.

Bedard noted, though, that many of the revenue projections are very conservative and they could prove to be better than expectations.

“Realistically, that number should be higher,” he said.

That will also help account for any shortfalls should they occur, said Mayor Dave McDonald,

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. We’ve been bitten before.”

As usual, Port Edward council has not included any potential tax revenue from Skeen Cellulose in the plans, because council does not expect to receive taxes for the 2007 fiscal year.

Spectacular fire guts fishing lodges in Port Edward

A Wednesday night fire in Port Edward harbour has destroyed a fishing lodge which normally is placed off of Dundas Island and had been in operation since 1992.

The fire brought out the combined resources of the Port Edward Fire Department, the Canadian Coast Guard and a large fishing vessel docked nearby, who tried to douse the flames, which eventually consumed three barges of the lodge tied up in the harbour. All three had structures of the Silverback Fishing Lodge burn down to the waterline.

No cause for the fire has been identified yet.

Fishing lodge gutted by fire
The Daily News
Friday, April 20, 2007

Three barges with the Silverback Fishing Lodge caught fire while docked in Port Edward harbour Wednesday night and burnt down to the waterline.

Paul Tasker of the Canadian Coast Guard said the Point Henry, Port Edward Fire Department and firefighters on a large fishing vessel docked nearby all responded to fight the fire from both the land and from the water side.

“It burnt for more than an hour, pretty much down to the barge line,” said Tasker.

Speaking on behalf of Silverback owners Clayton Vanier and Jennifer Nelson, Robyn Bertrand said thankfully no one was hurt and they are insured.

Bertrand said they were in the process of preparing to leave for the first trip of the season.

“They are a nice couple and I am upset as anyone this happened to them,” said Port Edward Mayor Dave MacDonald.

No one knows yet how the fire started.

Silverback Lodge, also called the Haa Nee Naa Lodge, has been in operation since 1992.

The lodge is usually docked up near the north shore of Dundas Island and offers bottom fishing, salmon fishing and fly fishing to its clients.

Port Ed heads for the moneylenders

The District of Port Ed has a growing list of upgrades to their waterline system that needs to be addressed, and with things getting worse they’ve decided that the time has come to begin the process of upgrading and replacing their shaky infrastructure.

In the Thursday edition of The Daily News, the paper updated the plans of the District to seek out grant monies and interest free loans to try and get things moving on the plans.

PORT ED READY TO BORROW CASH FOR UPGRADES
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Page One

For years, the district of Port Edward has known what was needed to upgrade their waterlines.

Tuesday night, Port Edward council took the first step toward making the upgrade a reality.

“Some waterlines are 40 to 50 years old,” said Chief Operating Officer Ron Bedard. “We’ve already had to repair 16 leaks (this year.)

“It’s not just the cost of the leaks, but the loss of the water.”

At the Union of B. C. Municipalities meeting in Victoria last month, both Mayor Dave MacDonald and Bedard held discussions with various levels of government in an attempt to find funding to finally replace those aging waterlines. They were told that one option was to get a Canada, B. C. Infrastructure grant, meaning that Port Edward then would only have to come up with the $1 million.

The entire cost for replacing the waterlines is approximately $3 million.

Bedard then presented council with a report detailing the process to set up a borrowing bylaw.

“We’ve had some encouragement from the (Northern Development Initiative) trust,” he said. “Of course, with that, we have to go through the bylaw process... to borrow a million dollars if we need it.”

In addition to the infrastructure funding, Bedard suggested council should apply to the NDI for a grant, and possibly a zero percent interest loan that would reduce the cost still further for Port Edward taxpayers.

“I feel it’s the right way to go,” said MacDonald. “If we can’t get the grants, we’re not going to do it.

“One of the things we think we’re going to get from the port is people living here in Port Edward, and we need to do this so people want to live here.”

Once the waterlines are replaced, Port Edward could then look at other plans for their community, such as sidewalks, said MacDonald.

“Until we get the infrastructure in place, there’s no point in getting those sidewalks, if you’re going to dig them up in two years,” he said.

Councillors Ed Wampler, Christine MacKenzie, and James Brown all agreed with Bedard’s plan. Coun. Murray Kristoff was not in attendance, but gave his approval to Bedard earlier in the day.

“He said to go ahead with the project,” said Bedard.

Council then approved Bedard’s recommendation that council authorize staff to prepare the necessary borrowing bylaw, and submit appropriate applications to the Canada, B. C. Infrastructure Grant, and to the NDI Trust Fund for approval.

Port Ed was there too!

Not to be outdone by the front page tales from Mayor Herb Pond of Prince Rupert’s trip south, Port Ed received equal time in the Friday edition of the Daily News, an opportunity to remind their residents that they too were there to ask a few questions.

The Port Ed representatives in attendance at UBCM use their time to quiz provincial officials on the state of two projects close to the heart of Port Ed residents; the local waterlines and the state of affairs at the North Pacific Fishing Village.

The Daily News provided the details as relayed to them by the council delegation upon their return from Victoria.

‘LITTLE’ PORT ED MAKES THE MOST OF UBCM’S BIG STAGE
Municipality uses the gathering of councils to quiz senior politicians
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Friday, November 3, 2006
Pages one and two

Small communities like Port Edward don’t often get the opportunity to voice their concerns on a grand stage before the province, so whenever the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) takes place, the district of Port Edward goes out of its way to do as much as it can.

Last week, in Victoria was no exception for Port Edward, as the council took the moment to get as much information as they possibly could about situations that directly affect the community.

The two issues at the forefront for Port Edward are the waterlines, and the North Pacific cannery.

For the latter, the North Pacific Fishing Village suffered through one of its toughest tourist seasons ever this past summer following the sinking of the Queen of the North on March 22.

Mayor Dave MacDonald and several of his council members were intent on finding out what could be done to help the tourism destination prior to the 2007 season.

“We met with the Heritage branch, and Patrick Frey (from B. C. Heritage),” said MacDonald. “We were asking about different programs, and whether we could get funding, like for the dock.”

“They don’t have a lot of money, but they gave us suggestions where we could look,”

Those talks also included meetings with John Willow, the director of tourism with Land and Water B. C., regarding economic development and tourism. MacDonald met with the Transportation Minister, with the idea of examining possible future improvements to the road that leads to the Cannery, which currently is quite bumping and could use an upgrade.

But Port Edward was also seeking immediate help with their waterlines, which, according to MacDonald, are in definite need of repair.

“There are new grants out there for waterlines,” he said. “That’s one we were approaching hard, and we met with different people on that subject, it sounds positive on the water thing, but we’ll see what happens with the grants. That’s the one we’re really pushing,”

The North Coast is expecting growth in the near future, especially once the container port officially opens in 2007. With that in mind, MacDonald also met with Glen Thompson regarding crown development “if major industry comes our way,” he said.

That also included meetings with the competitiveness division in regards to skills training, said MacDonald.

“We’re just talking with them to see what can be done, especially with out grads,” he said.

Port Edward also looked at ways the municipality can find additional training for its volunteer fire department.

“Don’t get me wrong, they’re getting trained, but we‘re trying to make it easier for them,” he said.

In addition to specific Port Edward issues, council was also involved in the topic-du-jour: the current mess with EI and welfare, as well as sitting down for various meetings about health issues. “All the issues are the same,” said MacDonald.

Finally, Port Edward also had the chance to sit in along with Prince Rupert in a meeting with Gordon Campbell, about “what’s going on in the North.” he said.

“Port Edward mainly goes for the contact with the ministers,” said MacDonald.

“They’re not going to come to us, so we have to go to them.”

Port Edward on the fast track to high speed

Citywest is running a fibre network line into Port Edward, bringing the District a step closer to high speed internet access. Next up is an upgrade to the cable television lines into Port Ed that will enable the local plant there to process high speed data traffic. The third and final phase will be the installation of a state of the art Cable Modem Termination System at the Prince Rupert office that will run the high speed internet network.

Still a bit off yet, but perhaps not as far off it seems, as Citywest is accepting pre-orders for those who wish to access the service in Port Edward, the first 150 of which will receive free installation as well as a cable modem rental free for one year.

The Daily News featured all of the high speed plans in its Thursday paper.

PORT ED WIRED ABOUT SPEEDY HOOK-UPS
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Page One

CityWest has begun work that will one day see Port Edward fully integrated into the high-speed internet revolution.

“(We’ve) been fielding questions about when the residents can sign up for this service, so this announcement is welcome news,” said Mayor Dave MacDonald. “We would encourage all residents to sign up as soon as possible to take advantage of the free installation and cable modem.”

The first phase of the expansion plans is to run fibre-optic lines into Port Edward, On Sept. 25, CityWest began trying into their existing fibre network along Highway 16 and running a line into Port Edward. The second phase of the expansion plan is to upgrade the cable television lines in Port Edward in order to enable the local plant to carry high-speed data traffic. The final phase of the project will see the installation of a state-of-the-art Cable Modem Termination System in Prince Rupert that would run the high-speed cable internet network. Although no firm date has been set for the availability of service, CityWest is currently taking pre-orders from Port Ed residents who want to be among the first to access the service.

“High-speed internet over cable is an extremely fast internet service, perfect for downloading large files quickly or watching streaming video over the internet,” said Rob Brown, CityWest’s general manager. “CityWest’s general manager. “CityWest’s service offering in Port Edward will be the same as what they offer to cable internet customers in other communities.”

In July 2006, the District of Port Edward announced that they had awarded an infrastructure grant for $20,000 to CityWest for the purpose of bringing high-speed internet services to the town. CityWest and the District of Port Edward agreed that the grant would get dispersed back to Port Edward residents in the form of credits for those who signed up for High Speed Internet service. As a result, the first 150 customers who sign up for CityWest High-Speed internet in Port Edward will receive a free installation plus a cable modem rental free for one-year.