Cannery applies for UNESCO status
The North Pacific Cannery is going to make another attempt to become a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heritage site.
Bob Payette, the district’s chief administrative officer who also chairs the Port Edward Historical Society Board asked council to support a letter to get help from other groups to achieve UNESCO status.
“The decision-making process for UNESCO could be a 10-year process,” Payette said. They have two more months to get the application in. The review process just to get on the list of candidates is approximately a year.
The cannery has made the attempt before but this time they’ve hired a professor to assist them with the application.
Egg odour coming from the mill
Coun. James Brown raised issue with the smell emanating from the pulp mill on Watson Island.
“It smells like H2S (hydrogen sulfide, colourless gas that has the odour of rotten eggs) every once in a while when I go by there,” Brown said.
Payette looked into the matter by visiting Watson Island. He couldn’t get any information from the demolition company or City of Prince Rupert other than they have a demolition permit and its confidential.
Payette then called the regional environmental authority and they said for residents to call the report-a-problem (RAP) at 877-952-7277.
They have a team of compliance officers that prioritize complaints and based on the severity of the complaint they will investigate.
Trailer park update
The property owner of Stonecliff Properties in Port Edward had a final court case on Nov. 25 and pending the outcome of the case, she will be able to move forward with dismantling the trailers on the land.
“Are we going to do something with this [land] once we get something done, or are they just going to sit on it and wait for the LNG or anything else?” Councillor Dan Franzen said.
Coucil discussed that for now they just want the trailer court cleaned up.
Bylaw for contingency fund
A rainy day fund was approved by council titled the 2017 Revenue Anticipation Borrowing Bylaw No. 676, 2016.
The total amount that council may borrow is $1,087,926 — or 75 per cent of the amount of taxes collected for 2016.