The city’s partnership with the provincial government in the Community First agreement is coming to a close.
Mayor Brian Taylor said the agreement is pretty much wrapped up at this point.
“We’ve been involved in this for a couple years and we sat down on a number of priorities and things that we wanted to get done in the city,” Taylor said. “A number of them have been accomplished already.”
Taylor said the project has been beneficial for the city.
“It brought attention to some of the issues,” he said.
These issues included the fibre optics network, which is a joint project between the city and School District 51. The network is currently up and running, as well as being tested.
Another priority is in the social area.
“We were looking at supported housing and looking at the housing problem for street people,” Taylor said. “We’ve gotten along somewhat around there; we do have an emergency shelter set up, but we haven’t really addressed the housing issue there.”
Taylor said there is more work to be done in that area.
Downtown revitalization was another focus of the agreement.
“We’ve been concerned about that and working on it,” Taylor said. “It’s been a tough one, but again that’s a long-term plan that’s bringing attention to the need that we have for developing the downtown. We did an Imagine Grand Forks phase one plan on that and it’s a first step in that direction to do something.”
The agreement also covers water conservation, renewable and clean energy development and local and regional tourism development.