As usual no mention as to how these Cities got into this mess in the first place.

If we use Prince George as an example, then very simply put, we have no money for infrastructure because we have spent all our money on **Stupid** unneccessary projects. In addition we have borrowed to the hilt to pay for these projects.

This Council has to recognize, that this problem was created by past Councils, and City administration. Some of the present Council were here when these spending decisions were being made. Specifically Krause, Skakun, and Green.

Now that reality has set in, we go running to the Federal Government, hat in hand, whining and sniveling, that we are broke, but taking no responsibility for how we got into this situation.

What are we going to do, to fix the situation if the Feds dont come through with more money. That is the question. If all we can do is ask other levels of Government for money, then we are for all intents and purposes bankrupt of any ideas. If this is the best this Council can do, then they should be giving some serious consideration to resigning and we can elect some people who are more capable.

In other words. Let quit the BS. Lets look at some of our costs, for our operating budget.

General Government 13.92%
Protective Services 32.99%
Fiscal Services & Debt Charges 13.32%
Recreation & Culture 16.76%
Roads 15.20%
Public Transit 3.09%
Enviro&Public Health 3.20%
Planning & Development 1.52%.

These costs are all controlled by the City, and in my opinion they have not looked after things very well. Its now time to start to get realistic. Increasing our taxes is not a solution for the Citizens of Prince George, it is just a solution for the Council and Administration, once in, they will go back to sleep, or take a trip to China, or build another big project. We need a huge reduction in the Administration of this City.

We need to seriously look at reducing the size of this City. It is way to big for the number of taxpayers there are to support it. Lets keep in mind that when the City amalgamated in the sixties, the brainiacs of the day (City Staff) were forcasting a population of 200,000 people by the year 2000. This never happened. We now stand at 71000. So the amalgamation, and the urban sprawl within the City limits which is approx a 10 Mile radius, and about 315 sq kilometres is much to large for the taxpayers to support. We need the outlying areas to be returned to the Regional District, and they can be supported by the BC Government as they were in the past. These areas would be the Hart Highway, Pineview, North Nechako, West of Foothills, and anything West of Haldi Road.

The alternative is for a limited number of taxpayers, and a growing number of seniors on limited income to contine to keep this ship afloat.

If we must keep the City as is, then its time for the Provincial Government to recognize that they are also a part of the problem. We need to insist that the Province increase its share of funding for Citys like Prince George, who are overwhelmed by costs for plowing and paving roads, and supply water, and sewer to areas where very few people live.

This is just one of many things that we could look at, however at this point in time I dont expect anything from City hall, except for them to blame other levels of Government.

That “heating system” along George Street costs over $17 million bucks. I guess that was a priority. City of PGs vacant land for sale at fire sale prices? Might patch a few nasty stretches of street with that money. Then they can dig it up to fix the pipes underneath. Do the folks at city hall draw straws to see who drives the new electric car? Or is that based on seniority? Lotsa comments. As an aside, why not visit the city’s website to satisfy yer curiosity as to who and what don’t pay taxes in PG. You will be more than mildly amused.

“We need to seriously look at reducing the size of this City”

I am not sure what that would accomplish. In fact, given a scenario which would not see a reduction of services, the unit cost and total cost of providing them would rise.

What we need is for the City to do what it has been saying it will do, to provide infill development. Development along Tneer Blvd and the extension of streets such as Malaspina in CH is NOT infill. Who are they trying to kid?? They might be stupid, but some of us aren’t!!

Want to look at infill? Go to the City of Vancouver. addtion of small units in laneways, removal of older single housing stock in the city centre and replacement with higher density development.

We have some of that here, but too many that are very poor designs leaving people looking at each other across a 30 or so foot paved driveway to first level garages …. got to be the poorest designs for new buildings I have seen in my life.

This is not the way to get people to consider housing that is different from the sprawl of single family detached dwellings strung along miles of spaghetti roads which need to be maintained and driven along wasting more and more gasoline to get to a dwelling.

Tneer Blvd is a new street that many have probably not even heard of …. ;-)

Maybe Tyner is more familiar … :-)

“Planning & Development 1.52%.”

I think we just took care of getting that down to half ….. about time!! We do not need that department since Council consistently opposed OCP guidelines meant to reduce sprawl and concentration of like amenities.

“Recreation & Culture 16.76%”

I wish they would separate the two.

Recreation = 14.5%

Culture = 2.26%

Or somethng like that …..

Government expenditure on culture 2008/09

Sorted by which province has highest percentage of funding from the municipal government. The first number is total expenditure in thousands of $. Secnd is percetnage by feds, then % by prov and final is % by municipality.

Notice in BC the cities pay the highest amount anywhere. The province contribution is the third lowest in Canada and the feds is the third lowest in Canada.

Another example of very heavy downloading to municipalities going on in BC ……

BC$925,77424.2%29.4%46.4%
AB$890,34524.1%41.9%34.0%
ON$3,502,04841.5%25.3%33.2%
SK$284,37920.2%47.1%32.7%
MB$291,51131.0%48.1%20.9%
QC$2,897,95648.1%32.5%19.4%
NS$245,47444.7%37.5%17.8%
NB$164,71438.0%48.0%13.9%
NL$133,18335.8%52.8%11.4%
PEI$42,73949.0%40.1%10.9%