Arrest Made In Connection with B.C. Pipeline Bombings

I just received the following media release which notes that there has been an arrest made in connection with the pipeline bombings in the Dawson Creek area. The Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune has more info here.

The RCMP release:

"Large Search Underway in Pipeline Bombing Investigation
Grande Prairie for E Division
Friday January 8, 2010

Hythe, Alberta: A significant development in the 15 month long investigation involving a series of bombings near Dawson Creek has lead to a search of a large rural farm and the arrest of one male.

RCMP members from E and K Divisions led by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) are currently conducting a criminal code search warrant on a large rural property located near Hythe, Alberta to search for evidence relating to the Dawson Creek bombings. It is not known how long investigators will remain on the property.

"We cannot say what we are looking for specifically, or what information led us to the location, but we have followed a trail of evidence that ultimately led to the execution of the search warrant," said Supt. Lloyd Plante, Assistant Criminal Operations Officer for the RCMP's National Security Program in British Columbia.

One male associated with the property has been taken into custody. His name cannot be released since he has not been formally charged.

This investigation is far from over. Criminal charges have not been laid, and investigators have a significant amount of work ahead of them.


The $1,000,000 reward being offered by EnCana has not been claimed. Anyone with additional information is asked to call the dedicated tip line at 1-866-994-7473

Inspector Tim Shields is available to answer media questions at the scene. He can be reached through the RCMP E Division media line at 604-264-2929. Please monitor www.bc.rcmp.ca closely for any updates."

Alberta at the IMCL Conference

As the IMCL conference as wound on it's been interesting to note some of the attendees here from Alberta and western Canada.

Some of the elected officials I've seen at the conference are; Red Deer Mayor, Morris Flewwelling, Strathcona County Councillors Linda Osinchuk & Vic Bidzinski and Medicine Hat Councillor, John Hammill, Kelowna Councillor Andre Blanleil.

There are also quite a few Canadian planners, parks department staff and other administrators coming from Victoria to Regina to Hamilton.

Quick Round Up

It's been a while since I've done a Quick Round Up post. Lately with council, work and the online course I'm taking up a pretty fair chunk of my time I've noticed that I'm not posting as much as I used to. So rather than feeling like I have to sit down for an extended period to write a full post I'll try to do these a little more often.

A few quick hits for your reading pleasure

Kelowna Looking At Sister Cities
The city of Kelowna is exploring opportunities to start sister city agreements, with the assistance of grants from the B.C. government.
full story

My Comment:Of course GP just signed a sister city agreement last weekend, with Mazatlan, Mexico. Interesting that the B.C. government sees these kind of connections as valuable enough to actually put $50,000 up to encourage cities to do it.

City Manager of Hamilton Resigns
full story

My Comment: Well, it looks like GP isn't the only city having to deal with changes at the top of the organization. We are currently recruiting to fill the vacancy that will be left by Dave Gourlay's impending retirement as of March 14th. This is probably a part of the shifting demographic of municipal employees, expect more and more top civic officials across the country to retire over the next few years. Anyone out there thinking about a career in municipal government?

City of GP Appoints New Fire Chief
Dan Lemieux is the new city Fire Chief, taking over from Bill Walker who will continue on as Protective Services Director.
full story

My Comment: Bill had been doing double duty for quite a while now and both the Protective Services Director and Fire Chief positions have grown in that time. It makes sense to have someone directly involved in the day to day operations assume the Fire Chief role and Dan is going to be great. He has probably one of the broadest ranges of experience with the city of any one I know having worked in everything from Parks to HR to Public Works.

Multiplex Action Around BC and AB

Some quick notes from other communities about the development of their multiplexes....

Kelowna
City of Kelowna considering community bonds to support financing for the Mission Recreation Park Aquatic Centre.
-full story here

My Comment: This is interesting, unfortunately I don't know if this is possible for AB municipalities, we'll have to check into it. Also of note - Kelowna is getting a Flow Rider.

Penhold
Town of Penhold receives $6 Million from the Province of AB and The Government of Canada for New Multiplex Facility.
-full story here

My Comment: Wow! Hmmmm, a $6 million dollar investment in our Aquatics Centre would be nice!

Chetwynd
Province of BC and The Government of Canada Contribute $2 Million to Upgrade and Expand Chetwynd & District Multiplex.
-full story here

My Comment: Wow! Hmmm, a $2 million dollar investment in our Aquatics Centre would be nice! ; )

Don't Cross The Blue Line

Last time I was up here in Yellowknife I noticed the blue line at our hotel right as soon as I walked to the door. It didn't take long before I found out what it was. I thought this time around I'd grab my digital camera and snap a quick picture to share with you....

Here's the blue line at the door to the mulitplex where the conference is hosted. See it down there?



What's it for? Look closer at the sign next to the door.....



That blue line is the distance that smokers have to stay away from the door. Thats how smoking is handled in the NWT.

Now on Muniblogs.com

"Hi Bill,

I came across your site last night while searching for Municipal Blogs in Canada. I recently launched MuniBlogs.com to highlight blogging Municipal Councillors and officials from across Canada. I've added your feed to the site's main page, the Alberta section and have created a Grande Prairie page. I have also created a 2007 Alberta Municipal Elections section. Let me know if your current blog is also going to be your election site or whether you're going to have a different site. I'll add your feed to the Election section as well.

My main goal with MUNIBlogs is to help highlight people such as yourself who are using the internet and blogging to actively engage with their residents.

Regards,
Paul Synnott
MUNIBlogs.com

Hey Paul, thanks! I've added MuniBlogs.com to the Worthwhile Blogs section on the right hand side of the site. Pop by and have a look at some of the others taking about municipal politics in Canada.

Online Voting

I bank online. I shop online. I read the newspaper online. I vote online... that is, I would if I lived in Markham.

I've been excited about the possibility of online voting over the internet since I saw it at an FCM trade show a few years ago. I've brought the idea forwardto committee to see what we could do to make this available here in Grande Prairie. Unfortunately the Province of Alberta act that governs municipalities (the Municipal Government Act or MGA) doesn't allow online voting yet. There was a review of the act which recommended adding that ability but not until after the 2007 municipal elections.

Markham, Ontario had internet voting in their 2006 municipal election. The city even set up a special website that helped residents understand internet voting and explained the "how-to's". After people voted they were asked to complete a short survey about the experience, some of the key findings from the post vote survey:

"- 91 per cent of those who voted online said they would be "very likely" to vote online in the future.

- One in five (21 per cent) Markham online voters said they did not vote at all in the 2003 municipal election.

- 88 per cent of online voters in 2006 cite "convenience" as their primary reason for voting online

- Markham saw online voting jump 48 per cent from 7,210 in 2003 to 10,639 online ballots cast in 2006.

- This contributed to an overall 2006 voter turnout of 37.6 per cent, well above the typical turnout of 28 per cent for a municipal election.".

So until Alberta catches up, residents here can only read media releases like this one and wonder if it would improve voter turn out in our local elections.

Looking Into TILMA

I mentioned the TILMA in a post last week. At that time I finished by saying:

"There are lots of immediate issues facing GP and they’ll get continue to get my full attention but the impacts of TILMA could be so far reaching that I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t at the very least have a look at it."

I have done a little more "looking" tonight and I see that many municipalities are concerned about TILMA and the impacts it could have on local government. Just a little of the chatter out there:

SUMA - Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association,
President, Saskatchewan Federation of Labour - Larry Hubich'sBlog
BC Municipalities - From the Owls and Roosters Blog

Most relevant to Grande Prairie though is the position of the AUMA - Alberta Urban Municipalities Association. So, it looks like there might be something there. I'm glad to see that the association is paying attention and working to make sure that municipalities interests are protected. I'll keep up to date on the action they are taking and support them where it makes sense for GP.

Oh, and I found the report from Saskatoon.

Broad Issue, Big Impact?

During the flight to Calgary for the Affordable Housing Conference I had time to re-read a letter that I received at city hall a few weeks ago. It’s a letter from the Council of Canadians that refers to the new Trade Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) that recently came into effect between the provinces of Alberta & British Columbia.

You might not have heard much about TILMA (The acronym is kind of fun to say, but it doesn’t tell you much what the agreement actually does.) If you’ve heard anything about a “free-trade” agreement between AB & BC - that’s TILMA, it just came in to effect on April 1st.

Grande Prairie has lots of pressing issues right now; Affordable Housing, Road Improvements, the need for New Facilities, Relations with the County and even just general up keep and maintenance around the city. As an organization the city only has so much time and resources that it can dedicate to issues, and the same is true for the individuals that make up city council. We can only tackle so many things at once, so sometimes lower priority things have to take a back seat.
So it’s probably not surprise that before receiving this letter I hadn’t given the Alberta/B.C. “free-trade” agreement much thought.

As I understood it the agreement was going to harmonize lots of provincial regulations that stood in the way of businesses and people moving between the two. A trucking company would need to meet only one set of standards to work in both provinces or trades people could be certified to work on either side of the border. That makes a lot of sense when you live in Grande Prairie. We are, after all, only about an hour from B.C. - many businesses and people work on both sides of that line.

The letter from the Council of Canadians (which I imagine was sent to elected officials all over the province) brought up a prospect that I hadn’t heard about: that municipalities might be forced to change local regulations. Here’s the paragraph that got me interested:

“Research by the Council of Canadians shows that TILMA will dramatically impact a municipality’s ability to draft or maintain any regulations that are deemed by a corporation or private individual to “impair or restrict” their investment. Through TILMA such “investors” are granted the right to launch lawsuits for up to $5-million in compensation for an regulation that they feel hurts their bottom line. Since all regulations can be seen in this light, TILMA throws the whole definition of local government in to question, threatening to seriously undermine municipal autonomy and hand considerable power over to the private sector.”

That’s pretty heavy stuff. The basic gist of it is this: if a corporation thought that a local bylaw impaired their ability to make money they could sue the city.

The letter goes on to add additional information and references a report by the the city of Saskatoon which looked at the issue (*link not working*) as well as further information on the Council of Canadians website. I haven’t read the further information yet but I’m interested enough that I’m going to have a look. I recognize that there are always two sides to a story so I’m going to have to do some research and find out exactly what the facts are.

There are lots of immediate issues facing GP and they’ll get continue to get my full attention but the impacts of TILMA could be so far reaching that I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t at the very least have a look at it.

Catching Up with Fort St. John

I just got back from another council dinner meeting, pretty much the same as the one with Dawson Creek that I posted on before. This time it was with another council from the BC Peace; Fort St. John.

The last time we visited with the folks from 'The Fort' was way back in my first term. Both councils have been through elections since then so again, as with Dawson, it was good to meet the new folks. One of the new council members is Bruce Christensen who I've met many times through Rotaract, when he was District Governor Bruce.

I know it's kind of the wrong order to tell the story back to front, but when I left the meeting I have to admit that I had a little bit of a sinking feeling. It was another one of those meetings where I kind of get the sense that we are slipping behind. Let me tell you what's going on in Fort St. John, see if you get the same feeling.

They are building a new multipurpose recreation centre, the Enerplex . The Enerplex is a $36M twin ice arena with a olympic sized speed skating oval on the second level and a running/walking track on the third level.

This year they are putting $19M into roads and have just finished a major multi-year renovation to the city hall for about $3.5M. A couple of the things that passed by quickly in the conversation but were impressive none the less were the work that they'll be doing on a new RCMP detachment & a new Visitor Center.

They are even working on a walking trail system that will connect across the community.

Oh, and they are lowering residential property taxes!

Sounds great and it is, but the question is how are they doing it all?

Well, they are getting regular basic grants from the BC government, in fact they even got $1M to build the trail system. But the big difference is the Fair Share Program that I mentioned in the post on Dawson Creek.

It's a program that the B.C. government started up just for for communities in the North East. Basically the BC government gives a special grant to put some of the provincial revenue from oil and gas back in to the communities where the work is being done. That's a real simplification but you get the point.

I asked what Fort St. John's installment is this year - it's $10M. They figure that over the next ten or fifteen years they'll see over $200M.

To put that in perspective, with all the big announcements that the AB government has made recently about new money for municipalities Grande Prairie has received what? - an additional $4.5M this year.

It's great to hear that things are going well there and that they are growing. What's good for Fort St. John is good for Grande Prairie, I really believe that. I also believe that the Alberta advantage is still slipping.

I'm glad we got together with the folks from 'the Fort'.

Crumbling Infrastructure - Update

Things went from bad to worse for Fort Nelson. In a previous post I mentioned that a portion of the roof at the community areana had collapsed.

Since then the whole thing has come down.

You can see updated pictures here and read the pdf media release here.

Crumbling Infrastructure

Municipalities have been talking about the infrastructure deficit for quite a while now. I kind of have a suspicion that the term might only mean something to politicians. What it means in real day to day terms is that local governments like cities don't have the money to build, fix, or maintain the "stuff" that you expect in a community.

If you imagine the suff you or your family use on a day to day basis as you go about your life you're probably thinking about municipal infrastructure. You know, things like the roads you drive on, the arenas your kids play hockey in, the water lines that flow to your house or even the parks you take the dog to. That's all municipal infrastructure.

Combine all the taxes you pay in life, property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, everything. Only about 7% of that total goes to local governments. To put it a different way, out of every dollar collected in taxes in Canada only 7¢ goes to municipalities to provide the things you use daily.

Surprised?

It's no wonder that cities are having a tough time keeping up. The picture above is from Fort Nelson in the Northern Rockies Regional District in BC. I'm sure their arena was well maintained and this was a freak thing but I haven't ever seen a better example of crumbling infrastructure. Oh, wait a minute ... yes I have, here.

So, now both of these municipalities have to figure out how to pay to rebuild and repair their crumbled facilities, using just 7¢ of your tax dollars. That's the infrastructure deficit.

Catching up with Dawson Creek

Last night some members of council met with our Dawson Creek counterparts from just over the border in British Columbia. Not everyone from each council was able to make it. Mayor Ayling, Alderman Eckhardt, Alderman Heath, Alderman Logan and Mazer where there along with our City Manager (Dave Gourlay), Treasurer (Ken Anderson) and Public Works Director (Frank Daskewech) and my self.

We've been doing these kind of meetings with other councils or groups since my first term. Most of the meetings don't have a set agenda and there isn't any press. It gives us a chance to meet other local councils in a relaxed atmosphere where we can both catch up and compare notes on what is going on in our respective communities.

The last time we met like this with Dawson Creek was back in that first term, it has to be at least 4 years ago now. One of the interesting things we found out about through these meetings is the Fair Share program that the B.C. government started up for communities in the North East. I'm going to have to do a whole post about that program but just to give you an idea of what it is - Basically the BC government gives a special grant to put back a little of the revenue from oil and gas in to the communities that support the people and businesses doing the work. That's a real simplification but the point is of course in the $$.

So, how much is it? Dawson Creek, population of about 12 000, will receive a special grant of $6M this year on top of any other money they are getting from the province, it's paid per person in the community. So if a similar thing happened in Alberta, Grande Prairie would see approximately $23M extra from the province every year!

Hmmmm... no wonder the community can build their Multiplex.

Anyways, it was good to catch up with Dawson and meet their new mayor, Calvin Kruk. We heard about, their efforts to land a Junior Hockey team like the GP Storm, how the construction of the Multiplex was going, how the federal census might have under counted, how the planning commissions in BC are protecting farmland from development and a bunch of other odds 'n ends.

It's interesting to think that Dawson Creek used to be the big community in the Peace Country. Sure, times have changed but they have a lot going for them now and you never know what could happen if we don't keep on our toes.

Paper or ... well, paper I guess.

Ok, this isn't in GP but I do think it's a cool idea. Leaf Rapids, Manitoba has banned "one time use" plastic bags in the community.

"As of April 2nd, By-Law 462 states that retailers will no longer be permitted to give away or sell plastic shopping bags that are intended for single use; only multi-use, reusable bags will be accepted. Anyone who contravenes this By-Law is guilty of an offence and could face a fine of not more than $1000.00."

If you're like me you have a bunch of these stuffed under the sink or in a drawer somewhere. I take them out to the recycling bins when they pile up but I still find them annoying. It's especially sad to see them stuck up in a tree blowing in the wind - yep that's what we're adding to the planet. You're welcome.

So, could an idea like this work in a city like Grande Prairie?

It's already happening in California.