In late December Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond and Council declared a local state of emergency, as several major water mains broke during a cold snap in the coastal town off B.C.\u2019s north coast.<\/p>\n
Two of the water mains that broke were more than 100 years old and, although water to residential homes were not affected, one of the business districts of Prince Rupert was with out water for several days.<\/p>\n
After nearly half a dozen water mains broke during the -15 temperature drop, mayor and council deemed it necessary to deal with the situation and bring in more local contractors to rectify the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to alarm the community, and are working to manage the situation as best we can to ensure continuity in our water service,\u201d said Mayor Herb Pond. \u201cCalling a State of Local Emergency allows the City to call in the additional capacity and resources required to manage this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state of emergency has since been suspended, however the issue has once again focused the community\u2019s attention on their aging infrastructure needs and has now prompted Skeena MP Taylor Bachrach to seem the federal government\u2019s help in filling those gaps to help replace critical infrastructure in Canada\u2019s third largest port, Prince Rupert.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the city and province already at the table, a significant federal contribution is now essential to addressing Prince Rupert\u2019s most critical infrastructure needs,\u201d said Bachrach, who serves as both the NDP\u2019s transport critic and deputy infrastructure critic. \u201cMy office is fully engaged in ensuring a successful outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
In advance of the return to Parliament, Bachrach has written federal Infrastructure Minister, Dominic LeBlanc urging him to provide funding to address Prince Rupert\u2019s ongoing infrastructure crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the Port of Prince Rupert has grown into a nationally significant trade gateway, the City of Prince Rupert has faced serious challenges maintaining the municipal infrastructure necessary to support this growth,\u201d Bachrach wrote in the letter. \u201cThere is now a very real risk of catastrophic failure of the city\u2019s drinking water distribution system, which would profoundly affect its 12,000 residents and the operation of the port.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to the full interview with Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In late December Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond and Council declared a local state of emergency, as several major water mains broke during a cold snap in the coastal town off B.C.\u2019s north coast. Two of the water mains that broke were more than 100 years old and, although water to residential homes were not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":137611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57,225],"tags":[10443,1537,4615,22752,3456],"radio":[245],"origine":[280,263,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137613,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137599\/revisions\/137613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137599"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=137599"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=137599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}