Councillor Frizzell Stresses IPG’s Importance To The North
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 @ 10:26 AM
Prince George, B.C. – Prince George city councillor Garth Frizzell is touting the attributes of Initiatives Prince George as the local development agency goes through changes at the upper levels.
IPG CEO Tim McEwan announced Monday that he is leaving to pursue other opportunities. Heather Oland, IPG’s Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives, has accepted an offer to take over as acting CEO.
Speaking on the Meisner program on CFIS-FM this morning, Frizzell says Initiatives is very important to the region in that it provides a place where people can land when they have an economic development project in mind. He also says IPG’s arms-length distance from the city allows it to apply for grants and funding from other agencies and organizations that would not be available if it was just run out of the city.
The councilor says IPG, the Prince George Chamber of Commerce and the Immigrant Multicultural Services Society have been working on various projects over the years to narrow it down to the one big issue that we’re going to be facing over the next five years….recruitment and retention in our labour force. Frizzell says “If we get those 34-billion-dollars worth of projects that are set to go in northern B.C., how are we ever going to get the people to fill those jobs, because as jobs start appearing on the horizon, we’re still in the space where the baby boomers are retiring so where do those people come from?” Frizzell says with a 1 to 2 percent increase in our population each year, how do you ensure that people come north to fill those jobs? He says that’s a big issue that those organizations have identified.
Councillor Frizzell says a group from Kelowna and Kamloops was here last week and commented that “they can believe how much opportunity there is up here. If we were in Kelowna or Kamloops the jobs and the pay for those jobs would be a fraction of what you’ve got going here.” Frizzell says they’re now talking of setting up offices here to take advantage of the opportunities.
Frizzell says lumber inroads into China, CN’s intermodal facility sending goods west, and natural resource movement through the port of Prince Rupert are all examples of IPG’s promotion of sales to the booming Asian market which are providing jobs and wide-ranging economic activity in north-central B.C.
Comments
The $34 Billion in project that are slated for Northern BC will have very little to do with Prince George.
The communities that will benefit will be
1. Kitimat
2. Pr Rupert
3. Terrace
4. Tumbler Ridge
5. Ft St John
6. Dawson Creek
7. Fort Nelson
I have not yet heard of any significant money being spent in the Prince George area, that would generate any jobs, or growth. There will be some warehousing and distribution business, however most of that can and will be handled by the present infrastructure.
In fact, Prince George is going to be in a bad postion, because those outlying areas will need all the skilled labour they can get, and people from Pr George will move to these areas to get the high paying jobs, so in effect we could lose a lot of skilled people.
Its time for people like Frizzell etc; to be more specific in what they are talking about. For starters lets have a list of what IPG was actually responsible for in the last 10 years in Prince George, along with the economic benefits, and relate it to the cost of having these people on the payroll.
I can tell you that when you get to the actual provable specifics, you will end up with a very short list.
The little bit of work generated by the CN Intermodal operation in Prince George, hardly replaces the lost jobs when BC Rail was shut down. In additon the containers being loaded to Pr Rupert contain lumber that used to be railed or trucked to Vancouver, so one could argue going through the Port of Prince Rupert actually costs us some jobs.
These politicians should do more research on what is happening in this City before they make these condescending comments.
I don’t think the comments were condescending, Palopu, but rather just what he actually believes. These people live in a glad-handing self-congratulatory world and after a while, they start to believe their own rhetoric. The great thing about making these statements is that they’re so hard to prove or disprove, without serious amounts of study by well qualified unbiased individuals. So they often get away with it.
There are some flaws in your logic though. It stands to reason, that if Prince George workers take jobs elsewhere, that they will be replaced by other skilled workers. This process in and of itself creates extra economic activity and it has a domino effect. Home sales, real estate agent fees, laywer fees, moving costs, etc…
Does this guy actually believe people will leave Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, and Kamloops to move to PG? Maybe our council person should take his head out of the sand and look at the population growth of each of those 4 cities in comparison to PG over the past 10 years. If not for UNBC and the huge contribution it makes to the economy of PG where would the city be today?
Resident – The population in the 4 cities you mention is largely “retired” and wouldn’t move to PG for career opportunities.
Still waiting to hear Mr.Frizzell tell us a big Star-Trek convention is coming to town. This will happen because of the hard work of IPG and Tourism PG. :)
Sine Nomine: “These people live in a glad-handing self-congratulatory world and after a while, they start to believe their own rhetoric.”
I couldn’t agree more! In Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton and Kamloops people are enjoying much cleaner air and cleaner water.
Of course, if those in the ivory towers don’t remember any of that and believe that everything is just fine…I would say that a large amount of reality therapy may be required asap.
Unless we do something about potholes, crime, dirty air and impure water and also clean up the overall general appearance of Prince George very few people are going to choose to live here.
“Unless we do something about potholes, crime, dirty air and impure water and also clean up the overall general appearance of Prince George very few people are going to choose to live here.”
You hit the nail on the head.
You know, much of that has beceom becuase we have been “open to business” and “open for business”
What those councillors who ran on the “open for business” platform forgot about is that we have to be “open for people” first. Without people, business simply does not stand a chance.
A mine does not have to be open for people, although sometimes I have the feeling that some mining camps are in much better shape than parts of this city.
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