Loved listening to Wilbur speaking of his economic development chops in making our runway the third longest in the country……there have been 2 planes FFS and one was bribed to land here.

With those kind of credentials will not get hopes up too high that anything will come out of this trip other than air miles.

maybe they could stay for the remainder of their term in office?

I am totally against this trip, but lonesome did you predict the downturn of the economy related to the runway

I see that Quesnel has a Japanese sister city, I don’t think they are feeling the economic benefits. I do see some value in the trip, but I don’t necessarily feel it will be felt at a municipal level. I can understand a bc liberal or federal conservative making such a trip, but city councillors? If they were able to get some major trade deal done then I’m all for it, but that’s not going to happen. Last I read our intentional student enrolment was already way up.

I hope it results in some economic benefit to our region or it is a waste of money.

Totally ridiculous that they would approve this trip with the dire straits they tell us that the city financies are in.

What else would you expect from this poor excuse of a city council.

have fun, make sure you max out the expense account.

I agree with Uppercanadian. What a joke… 35k for a holiday.

Too bad Sherry Green didnt say she was going to china as a politician for $35000.
When she was running for mayor.Our mayor
needs to stay home and take care of business. They just all came back from Vancouver last week from an all week visit.
If tax money is going to be wasted like this? we all should not pay them next summer.

I do think that politicians need to meet and greet to make buisness but, i dunno, kinda feels like when the auto group asked for a bailout and then all showed up in corprate jets. If she said timed are tight so they were going to share a suite at the sandman so they can cook some meals and fly coach i probably wouldnt have a problem with it. It wouldnt be costing no $35000 either.

So instead of everyone complaining, when is someone going to stand up and say enough is enough. If I knew what to do to stop this madness i would be there. Why are we not outside city hall taking it back, calling for resignations what to do? i would trust any of group to even look after my house without raiding my panty drawer.

oops i would not trust this group is what it should have said. My fingers were not as fast as my brain,

Well call me flabbergasted.

First, where is the business case for this? Dozens and dozens of cities in BC have twin/sister cities and some have several…by all accounts BC should be well off. I don’t see Campbell River taking off and in fact, several cities that have twins in other countries are depressed and have been cyclically for decades.

Second, if council was truly serious about making this all about the betterment for PG with regards to tourism, business, education then why are we sending the candle store lady, a retired lawyer, an INTERIM city manager and a retired school board member for school district #57. No offense to all these noble pursuits and I am sure they all excelled/excel in their own areas, but c’mon. Don’t we have well paid and experienced people our tax dollars are already paying for, at one level or another? Tourism? send Mr. Kelly or Mr. Everett or the designate of either; Education? We have big departments at our two post sec’s trained and established to connect with foreign post secondary potentials; Business? What about our own Chamber of Commerce – the Voice of …what? oh yes, Business for 100 years in PG. The CEO’s of the aforementioned are all remunerated in the 75K-150K areas, I am sure (a guess) and presumably are at the top of their game.

Third, did not a contingent from this Chinese province already visit us during Kinsley’s term…I believe the City, IPG and Barkerville Heritage trust began this twinning idea in 2008 or 2009. Followed by a visit of Mayor Rogers, Frizzel and Basserman, ‘et al in 2010 to China to follow up; a month later they came here…are we not at the point where we can scan and email signed documents back and forth? How many trips does it take? Yeah, all these “business minded” people on council really know how to streamline and take care of ‘bidness’. No wonder the whole world crashed and went broke, only to be bailed out by worker’s concessions and taxpayers.

Lastly, are we not BROKE? Isn’t this why Council turned down the Home Builder’s Assoc. and the Habitat for Humanity people with waiving a paltry amount in FEES and could not spring a few grand for the PG-X’s 100th?

Utterly disappointed. IMO, the majority of this group is out for broke and not planning on a re-run on Council.

Thank you Mr. Skakun for the only dissenting vote.

Regardless of whether they are going or not, why will the trip for a handful of people cost $35,000????

Are they buying themselves a plane first before they go????

As the taxpayers footing the bill, is there any way we can get a cost breakdown of this trip to see what could possibly cost so much?

On the upside, none of them will be using city hall’s Nissan Leaf while they are gone. Maybe Brian can bring it to a couple of Tim’s to show us what we paid for. How about it, Bri?

When will our politicians and business people understand that China is still a communist country with one of the world’s worst human rights records?

There are some things more important than money – like civil and religious liberties.

Chamberlain went to Nazi Germany …. one has to learn to work with the “opposition” …. ;-)

BTW, the exchanges between Quesnel and the Japanese twinned city apparently provides or the hosts to host people in their homes …. no hotels, other than the travel to and from ….. and some optional side shopping trips to Korea.

The Quesnel twinning is primarily a cultural exchange and was started by Daishawa when they bought two mills in Quesnel …. plus a wonderful 5,000 sf. home on Dragon Lake for their visiting executives. They donated money towards starting up the twining.

Could probably all be dealt with on videoconference. Good old modern Technology…and a videoconference or 2 sure wouldn’t cost $35,000 worth of taxpayers money that could be put to better use elsewhere.

What a joke.
How many overseas trip do we need to foot the bill for?
A Twin City. Please.
Why don’t you use that $35K in to turning PG in to a place worth visiting. Sad day indeed.

The $35K trip to China would have saved some money for other projects. It could have been used toward the $100K roundabout repair for instance, which is itself stealing from other projects.

What a messed up set of priorities.

Is there any sort of recall that we can at the municipal level to get rid of these idiots.

It is becoming more and more apparent that they missed “Priority Setting” 101 in Kindergarten.

Wait until they have to deal with KPMG’s costcutting recommendations. I am afraid we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Chamberlain went to Nazi Germany …. one has to learn to work with the “opposition” …. ;-)

=======================================

Ok He did go th Nazie Germany but he also got stsbbed in the back. So be aware of whom you play with.

Brian is my man.
Cheers

Maybe we can bribe their travel agent into slipping these clowns one way tickets instead of return tickets to China and they will have to “work their way home”. Could be a lesson to them.

puff,puff,pass….another one TERM wonder.
Brian run for mayor…..ya got my vote!!

One would think that if twinning with one City would bring us all these benefits, then the thing to do would be to twin with say 10 or 20 Cities and all our problems would be solved.

This trip is nothing more than (BS) and the Mayor and Council are fully aware that it is. Interesting that Stoltz made a big turn around on this. Once your in the fold, you become part of the gang.

I anticipate, that within a year, we will have a huge rally in front of City Hall protesting all this (BS) and calling the Mayor and Council to account.

Start thinking and planning for it now.

Mr. Skakun you always had my vote. There should be recall for municipal mayors and councilors as demonstrated a secure financial base doesn’t take long to deflate and go into a deficit territory.

So the economic benefit is apparently international students. Could someone answer me the following questions about this benefit.

International students need healthcare when they are here. I understand they pay full price for healthcare, but does the government increase the healthcare capacity of our area with the additional funds from the students, or do the people who live and make their homes here just wait in line a little longer while the International students join the line (I’m not saying they get ahead of the line, but if we have same # of doctors, more patients, everyone waits a little longer)

International students – appear to live in groups. Four to an apartment. That’s all well and fine, but does the city get extra water and garbage revenue from the landlord when an apartment designed for two, houses 4. And what about illegal basement suites occupied by international students – does the city get compensation for the additional public works costs associated with those students.

International students pay full tuition, but is educational capacity increased, or do students who live and make their homes here miss out when a class is already filled with international students.

Do international students support local businesses, or do they live as cheaply as possible leaving little money in the local economy.

These are just a few of the questions I’d like answered – pity the core review didn’t think to do a cost/benefit analysis of international students, since that appears to be the mayor’s great idea for saving the city.

On another note – optics. When I confront someone who “works for cash” about not paying their fair share of taxes, they always point to some ridiculous expenditure the government has done – like Bev Oda and her infamous orange juice – and say, the government doesn’t need my revenue.

When political leaders appear to waste money flagrantly, the message is sent that there is no need to pay taxes, no need to give a crap about your city by picking up your own trash, cleaning up after your own dog, etc., because we must be rolling in the dough – how else could they afford the trip to China.

CNC and UNBC do a wonderful job of informing international students without the city’s advice and the help of Lyn Hall.
Remember school closures under his reign as a trustee..
While the “group of four” are venturing maybe they should go to North Korea – another country which violates human rights and yes how about flying to Syria .. there must be some students willing to come to Canada.. after all , is this not a “sight-seeing trip?” What a waste of $$$$!!! Absolutely shameful!!

palopu: Why can’t we have a protest NOW? this would be the ideal time, right before they set off, to let them know that we are not in favour of this atrocious waste of money that we cannot afford. We could send the ‘news of it’ story ahead of them so the Chinese can see what the PEOPLE think of it.

How many would show up outside city hall during a council meeting.Say I.

I

The job of Mayor and Council, to be self serving and spend spend spend your tax dollars and then whine and cry that we have no money for snow removal and then come up with the grand idea of putting 3,5 or even 10 cents on the local gas to pay for it all.

That’s how it looks me! Sucker Tax Payer.;[
Don’t forget to bring back a plane full of Chinese, after all you’ve got a pipeline to build.

The people on council are a true example of the “Peter Principal” at work.

This group of frequent fliers is the reason the airport passenger numbers have been the best in years.

Nothing I can really add that hasn’t already been said. With the exception of councillor Skakun, PG City Council is officially brain dead and comatose.

LOL…hard to beleive that PG could attract a “sister city”.

This is a mistake. People won’t forget. I know I won’t.

Givemore. You cant have a rally or protest on the spur of the moment because its hard to get people out.

What we need to do is to document the failings of the Mayor and Council,ie; Trips to China, short funding road repair, working behind the scenes to establish a PAC, working with the Provincial Goverment to build a Wood Innovation Building using our tax dollars as seed money, keeping mum on the Community Energy System, in light of the drastic reduction in the cost of natural gas, and the fire at Lakeland Mills, rising taxes, having the money from the sale of City Property go to the Capital Funds Project, to look after thier favourite programs, while looking to increase the tax on the road levy by 1% a year. Last but not least, the Core Reveiw and its cost. What will be the actual beneficeries; Who benefits the most. Do we get a tax decrease because of the review or is the money saved spent on some other goofy project.

So. We need to get the message out, get a significant number of people interested, find a place to hold a rally, and then go for it.

The last thing you want to do is hold a rally where only 5 people show up, because then the Mayor and Council would consider the low turnout as support for their policies.

If we could get 5000 people downtown, it would be a strong message. Doesn’t anyone here use facebook? That’s how most things get done nowadays.

I hear ya Palopu and I often agree with your sentiments ( but not always, lol).

Big Bore, the trouble is, we have been inundated with so much crap in such a veritable short amount of time, IMO a rally with a laundry list of grievances that may or may not be related is not focused enough to deliver a message.

IMO the core review is the next target effecting the greatest number of people.

I went to the core review meeting at CNC tonight with a speaker regarding the same review process delivered by the same company, in Toronto, and it was an eye-opener and at the same time justified many of my hunches about this whole b.s. exercise.

It was organized by CUPE; however, was not limited to CUPE members specifically or labour generally and I am neither. I just grew up in PG, raised my family here and care about keeping my city a nice place to live, work and raise a family and ultimately retire. I value the services we currently receive and the amenities we have because with raising a large family here, I have used and benefited (or continue to) from most of them.

Best of all, I can’t stand being “one over-d” by people elected to represent me and I smell a big giant rat.

There will be another open forum in early November and everyone, from all walks of life, is invited to voice how the core services review cuts will effect them and their families.

Updates will be on I Heart PG page on FB.

You don’t have to love everything about the labour movement, but the way the world is going, they best represent my views for quality of life. I am appreciative to CUPE for getting things going and taking a lead; to sit back and do nothing will have drastic consequences and ‘they’ will win. And it will NOT stop here.

Good one BCnorth.
cheers