FAQs

Our intent is to meet Rupertites where you are - both online and via print in the local paper. We know not everyone has the internet - which is why we have retained the requirement to publish in the newspaper at least once, and of course, you can always pop into City Hall to have a look at our Notice Board. At the same time, having the website and social media used to meet our two week timeline for notification ensures that we are able to get our notices completed in between the usual two-week window between meetings - helping regulatory processes to move quicker.

So why this change now?

The Province recently changed Section 94 of the Community Charter - which lays out how public notifications are conducted. This change allows municipalities to use alternative means to the newspaper to notify the public, or to adopt an individual bylaw identifying alternative means of publication. Like we mentioned, previously, the minimum standard for statutory notification - for things like public hearings, road closures, budget, the annual report, and other matters that are subject to public feedback - was to publish twice in the local newspaper and post to our notice boards at City Hall. We have also used our website and social media to share these notices, but it was never a mandatory part of our notification process.

City staff encountered challenges to proceed with Bylaw and other regulatory consideration processes efficiently due to the fact that many notices have to be published for a minimum of 7 days to two weeks in the newspaper prior to being considered by Council. Given updated advertising deadlines of the local newspaper, this made it impossible for us to have a Bylaw read at one meeting, and then given Council consideration at the next.

Under the existing regulations, technically we could still use alternative methods of publication on an 'as needed' basis - but that doesn't give the community a lot of certainty about where and how often they can expect to see notices from us. Having a Public Notice Bylaw is recommended best practice from the Province about how municipalities should keep residents informed.

Rather than having a requirement to publish in the newspaper for two consecutive weeks as per the past standard, the proposed Bylaw requires publication in the newspaper for a minimum of 1 week, but with our primary methods of notification (where a minimum 2 weeks notice is required) being the City’s Notice section of our website at princerupert.ca and the City’s official Facebook page. This ensures that the City can meet all notification timing requirements under the Community Charter, while retaining a public notification process that is accessible, reliable, and clearly defined for the public.