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April 12th

1st look at Council meeting

Presentations are the (public) show

Meeting was practicllay over in little over than an hour --- no serious discussions other than the presentations --- and oh yah, mandated public budget discussions will be held (legal formality from Council perspective)

Enbridge comes to ‘calm the waters’

 

Port there too – but (almost) everyone left

 

City continues to do all its serious discussions in-camera (illegally?)

 

Update on ‘donations’ tax receipts

 

And Spring comes

 

 

About 30+ people come to hear Enbridge

Lots of people showed up – but no cheering, booing etc – only a few banners

 

I did not get the youngest person’s name ---just before picture taken, he was the one with the ‘No Tankers’ banner

 

Power Point presentation was ‘predictable’ --- seen/ heard this before

I will see how much of this is online later

 

Main message was about pipeline-- Marine aspects emphasized in Councillors questions

Again predictable --- things have changed --- pipeline spills safety etc --- and even Canadian rules (via international shipping regs – have been updated post Exxon Valdez spill

 

Trust us

Here is their slide how things have changed since 19189 Exxon Valdez spill --- (in passing it was human error that caused latter)

Comparing previous tanker traffic with projected Enbridge related traffic --- note the presentation began about 4 minutes into the meeting – and the questions from Council about 13 minutes into the meeting and lasted almost 30 minutes (to 7:44 by my watch --- in case anyone wants to review it using City Audio or Video

 

 

 

If anyone believes Joint Review Panel – ‘meaningful’ the material is online

Councillors good questions

·        Is there going to be any kind of public process in PR? Terrace, yes – but not so far in PR

·        Ashley probed the Tanker liability aspects: there is a generic fund for maritime accidents but once tanker filled ‘liability’ moves to carrier

·        If there is a spill—is there a dedicated ‘pocket’ of $$ to deal with it? --- Again the generic maritime fund etc

·        Good questions –probably best to review sing City recorded audio/ Video

·        Thorkelson on comparisons with Exxon Valdez spill
They were in Court for 20 years – and in the end the litigants only received 10 cents on the dollar

·        Garon: Pipeline passing through some of wildest country in the world --- leading to how detect respond to seeps / breaks/ spills etc

·        Garon – there are 733 water crossings – but pipeline underground except in 2 broad river crossings --- more on detections and response time

 

 

 

And predictable --- once the presentations/ questions were over—almost everyone left –t hogu some like MLA Gary Coons did stik it out throught the next presentation etc

And everyone leaves

 

 

Port presentation on MOU with City

Emphasis perhaps on ‘Section D’ where City responsibilities outlined --- Gordon-Payne wondered about the implicit funding --- Port claims to have put 50T$ into the present Task Force etc --- more later

 

 

 

See my previous

Update on Flow Through tax donations

I spoke with Tax people help line --- their position (as I understood their spokesperson) that as a ‘qualified donee’ the municipality could give tax receipts to donors --- and ‘spend’ the $$ as they saw fit --- in this case transferring it to selected charities --- Example given was someone could donate a valuable painting to the City – get a tax receipt – and the City could use $$ after its sale for anything they wished --- thus presumably the key becomes ‘budgeting’ --- how tracked in audits etc

 

 

And the spring is approaching crescendo locally

Here the Skunk Cabbage sending up its yellow flag to greet the spring sunshine – more later

Created by LG on 13/4/2011

Last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2011