Terrace council voted last night to write a letter of support to TransCanada endorsing both of its natural gas pipelines and all projects associated with those pipelines both upstream in Northeastern B.C. where the gas originates and downstream on Lelu Island and by Kitimat where it would be cooled into a liquefied state for export.
The letter is going to be modelled after one written already by Burns Lake council.
“It’s well worth it,” said TransCanada official Dave Kmet who returned to council after a first attempt at securing an endorsement was initially rejected.
“We will get that over to our clients to include in their package to go overseas.”
“It will be a wholesale endorsement,” said mayor Carol Leclerc after the meeting. “You can’t have a pipeline if you’re not going to have an upstream and downstream, it wouldn’t make sense to support just a pipeline.”
She said part of the letter will deal with provisions around the industry acting responsibly in building the coastal export facilities and developing the massive drilling and fracking operations in the Northeast.
The letter was originally withheld until a meeting with the provincial minster responsible for community development Peter Fassbender at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities annual convention held in Vancouver last week.
It was the city’s hope the meeting would advance the request of northwestern local governments that provincial tax money would be directed into a revenue sharing stream based on development in the area.
Though no promises were made of such an agreement, the meeting was called “successful” by city councillor Stacey Tyers who is also the chair of the Northwest BC Resource Benefits Alliance, the group of northwestern local governments formed to push for a share of provincial tax revenue from industrial development.
Council’s travel plans
City council also decided which conferences councillors would attend this fall and some of the special external committees they would sit on.
Councillor Michael Prevost would represent the city on the Rio Tinto Alcan Kitimat Public Advisory Committee. This group does one full day meeting every quarter of the year and will focus on the air monitoring and permitting for the increased sulfur dioxide emissions coming from the modernized smelter. Councillor James Cordiero is the alternate.
On the other hand, despite the potential to do so, no councillor will attend the Geoscience BC Day meeting because the city had already met extensively with the association during its recent visits and because of the unavailability of councillors.
However, at least one councillor will also be attending the Nation2Nation forum Nov. 5 at the Terrace Sportsplex. Being a local First Nations-led event, all of council will attend if they are available.
And two councillors will be attending an affordable housing conference Nov. 22-25 in Richmond.
Fireworks still allowed
The tradition continues: fireworks are allowed in the city between Oct. 24 and Halloween, however the use of them will be enforced according the nuisance bylaw.
Council voted not to change the bylaw despite noise and frightened animals coming up as an issue last year and a ban or curtailed hours considered.
Councillor Sean Bujtas said his dog broke a tooth when it panicked from the loud noises once.
The options were to ban the fireworks completely or to reduce the days when they are allowed. But the local minor hockey association sells fireworks at a successful fundraiser every year, and limiting their use only to Halloween was seen as too strict because of all the events happening on other days.
Council decided to take an educational approach, with responsible fireworks messages to be posted where the fireworks are being sold.
Huge construction numbers
Building stats for this summer were also included on the agenda and showed a big spike over last year, with the total value of new construction currently sitting at $47.336 million compared to $20.032 million at this time last year.