Seems to me that IPG has now hired 3 people to replace McEwen. And of course IPG is on the mayors do not touch list for the core review.

Is this how she runs her down town shop? I bet not!! When its tax payer money, Mrs Green feels she does not need to be smart or pay any attention to tax payers. She can not even show up for community conversation event Along with a few Councillors I.E. Wilbur, Koehler, Stolz, Krause. Start a recall petion on a few of these elected city politicians Ben. I bet if nothing else, it might send a message.

Why is there only one parking stall shoveled out at City Hall?????? Could it be Mrs Green’s private parking stall. And who has to shovel that out? When is this done? And why? Is she giving extra service for being the Mayor? What for, she hasn’t done anything yet, but layoff 28 people. Oh and her own No Parking Sign. Wonder if any other Mayors around BC get this service.

Bring your shovel to work.

aside from the shots at the new mayor above, I think the real issue here is public accountability. And the lack of it.

There is a real case to say IPG is violating the provincial regulations by not releasing the salaries paid to those working for this publicly funded agency.

Isn’t the City required to publicly release annually the names of all those making over 75 or 80 thousand (not sure of the exact figure) so why isn’t IPG required to do the same? It is completely owned by the City (taxpayers) and therefore the same disclosure requirements should apply? Ben you should be asking the Minister responsible for municipalities if the same rules that apply to municipalities also apply to the entities they own.

I found the link to the city’s disclosure form for 2011. It lists all those paid (or paid out as in the case of retirements) for those earning more than 75 thousand. Couldn’t seen anyone from IPG listed.
http://princegeorge.ca/cityservices/finance/Statements%20of%20Financial%20Information/2011.PDF

It also lists the companies and organizations that received taxpayer dollars in 2011 and there certainly are a few who are making big bucks feasting on our tax dollars.

Mayor Greene wanted the previous CEO to give back severance pay? Pfffft! The outgoing CEO got the severance because under labour laws it is due!! She is a real piece if work. I agree, Ben. Why hire a OR person and add more weight to the purse when the Mayor was just complaining about the CEO’s salary? Assinine.

PR person, I meant

Over 47 million dollars in salaries for a city of 80,000? Wow.

Kamloops has a payroll total of $49.8 million in 2011. So, it looks likethe two cities are very close.

Where the key differnce is, there are 55 people in PG who made more than $100,000 while Kamloops has only 35.

The interesting thing is that in 2009 there were 49 in Kamloops who collected $100,000 or more.

http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/161863785.html

Thanks gus but that’s still an insane amount of money for cities of that size. In PG almost 1 out of every 80 people is an employee of the city?

No wonder they’re shaking in their boots over the core review.

In Nainaimo, 53 employees made $100 thousand plus.

But, it appears that their total payroll is $28.2 million going by the newspaper report linked below. I am wondering whether something is wrong with that figure. Perhaps they already contract a lot of things out.

Of the 53, 24 were firefighters. I think we would see the same thing in PG. It is easy to see one of the reasons firefighters are concerned about the core review.

http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=6025df5f-edf6-4d5e-8964-64b04d4946cb

It’s clear that our Mayor does not have possess the business management skills she claims to have. Running a municipality is a lot different than vending trinkets. Her fiscal performance is nothing to brag about so far, and her human resource management is a disaster. Let’s just hope she can keep the City out of any major lawsuits during her tenure.

“Let’s just hope she can keep the City out of any major lawsuits during her tenure.”

There have already been lawsuits this year and some we may not hear about. I think there will be more to come, unless the OCP is followed and city starts listening to the taxpayers there will probably more to come.

Under Heather Oland’s leadership IPG has become nothing more than a taxpayer funded headhunting firm to the benefit of companies like the one the chair of IPG board works at in his day job.
Quick search of their website shows about 40 vacancies in various trades and mechanical supervision in the northern operations. Why should the taxpayers of PG pay for trips to Ireland to find candidates to fill these positions?

Could be that removing interim from Heather’s title might have been the easiest way to fill Tim’s shoes but not necessarily the best.

My biggest fear is that the city is heading down the same path in the hunt for new city manager at a time when we need a strong experienced person in that office.

One of the local trucking firms will be hiring truck drivers from Ireland…

I guess that Kamloops and Naniamo choose to enrich the lives of taxpayers by building a PAC whereas PG chooses to enrich the pocketbooks of those employed by the city:P

IPG? What is city hall’s return on investment after funding this “whatever it is”. Be specific. Does IPG make money for us the taxpayers? Wasted money in my opinion. Back in November I said it too. Always ahead of my time, alas. They sure have a swell website. No need for rose coloured glasses there.

One cannot figure out what the return is if we do not know what part they played in promoting the City to keep businesses here when they were looking elsewhere and ion getting businesses here which otherwise would never have come here.

I know at the time of the call centres they played a relatively visible part in getting them here rather than elsewhere. I also know that it cost money to do that above the effort of time and people. I also know that it cost money for owners of property who rented space to them.

They stayed here for a very short period, so they did not contribute much, it seems, after the incentives were eaten up.

I am saying that without full knowledge because we are not given reasonable full knowledge of the bottom line. I do not need details. However, as a citizen, I expect to see total dollars in, which includes staff time and dollars provided by the City, and total benefits to local businesses and employees, plus some estimate of net property tax return and net income tax return to at least the province.

At the moment I have no comfort level that we even have such a measuring stick for internal use. However, I would think that if we had it, and it showed a net return on investment, that it would be all over the media.

It is for that reason, that I do not think it exists, or we are losing money through IPG. The thing is, that if the functions of IPG (I am really not even sure what they all are) were brought back in the house, we would be no better off.

So, keep it where it is to use as a lightnig rod to take some of the hits for City Hall, and make it provide improved reporting.

Forget it. With a core review needed we send a huge beacon of a red light to the business world that this city can not control its budget on its own… that we are broke and don’t know how to fix things… that we need to take drastic measures that citizens will not like and that the property tax payers will pay for it.

IPG cost the city near $30 million in recent years to promote business and yet the city is stagnant with new business for the reasons listed above. Sure resource industries outside of the city tax collection base have had some roll over and changes as should be expected in a time of higher commodity prices, but this is not the role of a city funded agency and does not pay their bills.

Facts are if the IPG budget alone was used to maintain our city infrastructure and keep the taxes in line, than this alone would provide more incentive for business and people to locate in PG… far more so than any payroll to IPG executives ever will.

We wouldn’t need a core review to cut services to city residents forcing many to opt to move if the IPG budget was spent on city issues.

IPG should be shut down and if business wants to locate to PG then they should know they will have responsible government and little in the way of city waste… being incentive enough for most businesses to locate here if they see the opportunities. I’m sure city staff could help them with any inquiries should they arise.

The way I see it IPG is here so insiders can use it to subsidize their agendas in the political arena, and the core review process was brought about for the very same reason. The City of PG would be so much better to have things done at city hall and community meetings out in the open in a transparent manor at no cost to the city, rather than providing the venue for corrupting individuals to influence our civic government from behind false facades.

The waste of our political elites and the acceptance of this waste by the citizens of PG is disgusting.

IPG like the tourism boards and other such quasi governmental agencies is not about providing better services, but rather about removing transparency.

These agencies are considered private corporations even though they are funded by governments and government enabled levies. As such they have no responsibility to report their fiscal budgets, nor their financial transactions or payroll payouts.

This is how our democracy is undermined by the insider political elites. Whether it be municipal, provincial, or federal.