PRINCE RUPERT VOL. 10 NO. 17
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
FREE
Brain takes LNG Go Plan to Parliament Hill
BRITISH INVASION
Mayor, city manager spend four days in Ottawa
Feature Heart of our city: Andrée Fawcett Page A5
BY SHAUN THOMAS PRINCE RUPERT / The Northern View
From the chambers of City Hall to the halls of Parliament, Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain is working to ensure leaders at all levels of government buy-in to council’s LNG Go Plan. Brain and city manager Robert Long spent four days - Lee Brain in Ottawa last week to speak with various officials about the plan, which will be released in draft form in the coming weeks, and seek support for Prince Rupert’s plan to manage the growth related to the liquefied natural gas industry. “We went there because Prince Rupert is becoming Canada’s trade gateway,” he said. See BRAIN on Page A2
“Our area really needs some laser focused attention.”
Community Tyre relays for her childhood friends Page A11 Kevin Campbell / The Northern View
Jewel Jerstad of Mermaid Cafe lends her vocal talents to the music of the British Invasion during Saturday night’s Completely Plugged concert at the Lester Centre. For more on the show, see Page A26.
Figures show spike in eviction-related hearings Caseload climb from three to 56 in one year
Sports Youth soccer players learn from the best Page A17
Arts BC Annual Dance starts Sunday Pages A19-21
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BY MARTINA PERRY PRINCE RUPERT / The Northern View
Figures produced by the Prince Rupert Unemployment Action Centre show just how much the rental market changed from 2013 to 2014. In 2013 advocate Ulf Kristiansen handled 38 cases with only three related to housing issues. Fast forward one year and the centre handled 189 cases that included 56 hearings related to tenants trying to fight eviction notices from landlords. Of those 56 hearings, 35 stemmed from eviction notices served to those living in the Port Edward trailer court while another 21 hearings were notices served for those living in apartments and houses in Prince Rupert. Kristiansen noted there was an array of reasons behind these evictions, including
Porpoise Harbour View Property
“The current rent in Prince Rupert has gone up by oneand-a-half to two times.” - Ulf Christiansen unpaid rent, “renovictions”, evictions where the landlord wanted a relative to move in instead, evictions stemming from disturbing a neighbour or damaging property and more. He said the most common case the centre dealt with in 2014 was a tenant not paying rent. Kristiansen said one major catalyst for the increase in his caseload was the economic activity in the community related to industry. “The workers that came to town to work in 2014 were renting every available apartment,
house and sometimes motel or hotel room. My usual clientele were facing much greater difficulty in finding housing or retaining housing than they did in previous years,” he said, noting many low income renters feel left behind when it comes to housing options. “I would like to see an increase in subsidized housing or what’s sometimes called social housing through any means possible. I’m hoping one day the federal government or provincial government will see fit will to put that item in their budget.” As for talk of renoviction, which sees a landlord evict a tenant in order to improve the unit before putting it back on the market at an increased price in order to skirt the 2.5 per cent maximum annual rent increase allowed by the province, Kristiansen said it is a real problem now and may be a bigger one going forward. See RENT on Page A2
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