“””also entering into the mix will be the possibility of contracting out,”””

When you lack the ability to manage a job, or perhaps are too lazy, contracting out the work makes your job easier.

Contracting out of road sweeping and pot hole repair would be 2 natural options.
The pot hole repair machine that was featured on the 250 website a few weeks ago is a no brainer for efficient and cost effective repairs rather than the shovel, and tamp method.
Downtown on Sunday morning the contractors were busy painting cross walk lines on the road.
What a novel concept working when traffic is at a minimum.

Contracting out does not make your job easier, it makes your job disappear. Shifting the responsibility to an entity that is a business is selling tax dollars.

Too mnay people these days think that the city and the people who work for the city, are inefficient. This is imply not true. They work within the budget the Mayor and council vote on yearly. The budgetary process is a monster, with the different department seeking funding for their budgets to care for the city.

The people here who say the infrastructure is one of the worst should do some research. This problem is not unique to Prince George and by far Prince George is not the worst.

If you want everything from recreation to roads then people are going to have to get use to the fact taxes will have to rise to accommodate it.

Lastly the city has crews that work irregular hours. You saw a private crew working, there were city workers out at the same time caring for this city of ours.

As related by a Y employee.
Friday a city employee shows up in a pickup truck to clean up the city owned property close by. 1/2 hour later a second city employee shows up with a pickup truck to help the 1st person clean up.
2 people with 2 trucks can hardly be considered an efficient use of city owned equipment.
Not the employees fault but one of supervisory staff not being organized or cost conscious.

The city should contract out all managerial positions!

Jim13135 wrote: “When you lack the ability to manage a job, or perhaps are too lazy, contracting out the work makes your job easier.”

There is a lot of truth to that statement.

The problem is, of course, that if you do not know how to do a job, you also are less likely to know when someone else has done a good job. One needs quality people to certify that a job is done properly and payment can be made. Looking at the roads here, THAT is lacking.

I commented about the Sports Centre at UNBC when it ws first built. The qulity of the concrete work on the floors and the stairs is the worst I have seen in my life. I would never have accepted that. One does some test panel, including normal joints and abutments around columns and when it is done properly, that becomes the standard. Anything that does not meet the standard get jackhammered and repoured. Simple. Prices go up, yes. But contractors learn fast. And the client is not stuck with substandard quality of work which will cost more in the long run for maintenance.