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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 61 No. 19
Temperaments calm as sides look again to mediation Cameron Orr When Martin McIlwrath and Jeremy Dos Santos presented the results of a community petition to Kitimat Council, the presentation did not come with any of the usual high tempers which had marked past encounters. The moment was in fact very low key, with McIlwrath reading a few comments — namely the words from a recent Unifor 2300 letter, which we reported on last week — before getting to the petition, circulated by the union. He said that as soon as a new collective agreement can be made, “we can start to rebuild our community.” For the petition, the question had signatories asking the mayor and council to return to the table any agreements or offers already reached in the bargaining process, and to leave only outstanding issues left to be negotiated. McIlwrath said that anything previously agreed to should not have to be re-bargained. As of Friday the sides were expected to resume mediation on Monday, which, if needed, could run to today. There was no council response at the May 4 meeting as the mayor said they are still bound by terms of mediation which provides strict confidentiality requirements. Speaking later in the week Mayor Phil Germuth did say that there has been no direction to the negotiating team to return any previous offers to the union, as requested through the petition. Germuth said to leave just the outstanding issues of the contract to be negotiated still wouldn’t put the sides any closer to an agreement. Continued on page 2
A look at how to plan for growth.
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KUTE calls in waste disposal experts.
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Wednesday, May 13, 2015
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1.30 INCLUDES TAX
Haisla thank you Massive pots of beef stew are dished out in the Kitamaat Village Recreation Centre during a special thankyou dinner hosted by the Haisla in honour of the people who provided assistance during the madness that was the February snow storm, which even led to an evacuation of the Village. Numerous volunteers offered help in those days, while the Riverlodge was opened up as well as a warming centre.
Housing society gets their grant After a recent request for support, Kitimat Council has come back with up to $20,000 towards the development of an affordable housing project in the Whitesail neighbourhood. Mountainview Housing Society will continue to work with industries and will potentially develop up to eight units out of 30 that will be used, on five year leases, towards industrial companies who may need the rooms in the future, if projects go ahead. The development, if it proceeds, would be built next to the Mountainview Alliance Church. Through debate, Claire Rattée did express some concern that town grant policies may not quite cover contributions to projects like this, and expressed some concern over the fact that some units would go towards industrial proponents. But Pastor Don Read with the housing society notes that creative partnerships such as with industry means they can build affordable housing units without breaking the bank. For instance he said to not lease out eight units would be the difference of the society asking Kitimat council for $1.25 million rather than $20,000. “We’re helping them meet a need but what they’re actually doing is funding up to one-third of the housing because that’s the amount of revenue that would be created,” said Read. As for the general policy implications, he said that housing
units like these aren’t just an issue for the non-profits but for the community at large. A community, he said, is gauged on how well it takes care of its vulnerable. “If it always lands to charities and non-profits, then as a community we should reflect on what it means to be a community.” Ultimately councillors decided that $20,000 was not a large amount of money given the potential return on providing affordable units. Read said at a later time they may come back during the construction phase for support — the money right now is to get through site engineering and evaluation — but that would come after a capital plan is developed and other partnerships are established. In the event the land proves unable to support a development the church said they’ll recommend to their head office in Surrey to sell the land, and the proceeds will go back to repaying the grants given, such as to the District. Rob Goffinet in moving the approval for up to $20,000 said the price would be a low cost against the possible need, while Mario Feldhoff added that this sort of housing has been identified as a need already. “I think it’s our job to help them, as opposed to hinder them,” he said. “Lets help keep the momentum going.”