City Press release heralds Port Support for Hays 2.0 plan
A late Friday afternoon media release from the City of Prince Rupert, found the City making note of a letter from the Port Authority Board Chair Bud Smith and declaring it an endorsement of the City's Hays 2.0 vision plan.
The media release from Friday provided a few snippets of information of the correspondence from the Chairman, helpful it would seem for the City when it comes to the delivery of their ongoing message when it comes to the Hays 2.0 plan.
Definitions are always in the eye of the beholder (or those issuing media releases), however after reading through the twin themes of both the Port Chair and Mayor Lee Brain from the media release (see here), some might observe that the nature of the comments from the Port Board Chair seem to offer something more along the lines of an expression of curiosity at the City's view of the future.
Rather than a full scale endorsement of the Mayor's far reaching document, the notes culled from the letter appear to be more along the lines of a salute to the City's initiative of looking ahead and the prospect of engagement that the Hays 2.0 document offers area residents.
A Media release from the City of Prince Rupert from Friday
heralding the support from the Prince Rupert Port Authority
for the Hays 2.0 Vision document
Still kind words are no doubt always welcome and Mayor Brain was quick to make use of the correspondence and share it with the public, with the Mayor making sure to note that he and Mr. Smith have had conversations regarding the components of Hays 2.0 vision before its release, hailing the prospect of his hope for more collaboration between the Port Board and City Council.
That theme of better relations would be something many in the community will welcome, considering the importance of the Port Authority to the local economy and some of the hostility from past City Council's when it came to issues between the two sides.
It should be noted however, that while some selected quotes from Mr. Smith were used in the City's media release, there was no copy of, or link to the Port Board Chairman's letter provided by the City, so the full text and tone of the correspondence with the Mayor is still rather unknown.
While we do have the city's media release for reference, to this point, there is no copy of the correspondence of support provided through the Prince Rupert Port Authority website, nor is there any form of advisory from the Port Authority portal that outlines an endorsement of the Hays 2.0 plan.
For that matter, so far there has been no indication provided as to what the Port Authority may even think about the document and whether it offers any contribution of note, as they move forward with their own long term planning for port development.
The Friday media release however did seem to give the Mayor an opportunity to make another positive push for his Hays 2.0 vision, offering him the chance to once again highlight some of his main talking points from the plan and reclaiming some of the conversation on the theme perhaps from a Wednesday article in the weekly paper.
That article suggested the Hays 2.0 vision had received some mixed reviews in some areas, with MP Nathan Cullen and Chamber of Commerce President Rosa Miller fairly enthusiastic on the plan, while a much more cautious tone was taken when it came to the focus on the transportation concepts that were reviewed as part of the Hays 2.0 plan, particularly those that involved Port operations and future direction.
Also of interest from that aspect of the review, is the idea that while the Mayor may have apparently had discussions with the Chair of the Port Authority Board about his plan. When it came to the actual crafting of the City Hays 2.0 vision document, there does not appear to have been any consultations involved with those currently working on the Port's own future plans.
Something which makes for a puzzling approach to the City's Hays 2.0 document research, considering the focus that the City placed on the Port and its importance to the region.
For the most part, Friday's media release once again offered the Mayor a chance to make use of the city's website the social media options of his Facebook page and twitter feed to reinforce his vision plan.
The nature of that information flow from Friday, follows a blue print that has been used in the past to herald the Mayor's release of the LNG Go Plan and some of the other initiatives that have tended to dominate the City's focus over the last few months.
The Hays 2.0 vision plan was released in late November, our notes from the archive from that release can be found here.
For other items related to City Council Discussions see our Council archive here.
Labels: City Press release heralds Port Support for Hays 2.0