if she stayed at home and spent her travel money fixing problems in her city, advertise on the net then maybe the people would probably like to come here. with city streets, pothles, crime, air polution the way they are who wants to come here let alone live here. make those people that come here want to stay not just take an education or short term job and then leave
just some early mornin thoughts

“Oland was a late addition to the delegation said to have been added to discuss economic development with Chinese officials.”

Ah, yes, our city’s economic development expert …… pretty sad state of affairs I would say.

Then again, what would a Chinese official from a city which has a population that is about the same as the population of BC know about economic development…. I mean PG is Canada’s model economic development city, isn’t it?

Really, what does PG have in common with a city like Toronto when it comes to economic development?

I know a few kids that are on a long waiting list and can’t get in to cnc, one of them had to go to vancouver. They go to china looking for students? These people are very out of touch with reality

You are so right, classes are full BC students turned away. I know we will put BC on welfare and hire chininese students.
Maybe us the public should be requesting that wait list numbers be posted In the paper at the beginning of every semester, because maybe I am missing the big picture.

UNBC has a shortage of students and has had for the past five or more years. In addition they have been taking in foriegn students from all over the world, Russia, China, USA, etc; etc;.

Seems the Chinese already know how to come to UNBC if they choose to. Will there be a measureable increase in Chinese students in the next five years??? If so will we get an udate from Council, along with the a report listing the nature of the increase and where the students came from. (Specifically Jiangmen) and if there is a decrease in students will Council take any responsibility for the decrease, or just the kudo’s for the increase??

Same applies to the Tourist Bureau. Will we be getting any stats as to the increase in tourists from Jiangmen to Barkerville, and when can we expect these stats??

Would also appreciate a report from Council as to how the Twinning Arrangement went, and what specific benefits can we expect from this twinning.

As I have stated before this trip was on councils list of “2012-2014 Projects and Initiatives” so right or wrong they are actually completing something on their to-do list. What’s say we look at the rest of the list and see how they are doing?

* Complete a Core Service Review -half-assed

* Establish a 3 Year Operating Budget Guideline – not even close

*Identify New Revenue Streams – Not much to see here unless the part time dog license cops have struck gold

*Develop an Asset Management Strategy- the way they are maintained we can kiss our assets good-bye.

*Road Rehabilitation Program – no need for comment

*Commission and Operate the District Energy System – Big fail on cost and green with price of NG and loss of Lakeland

*Build Strategic Partnerships -Meanless

*Support the development of the Prince George Air Logistics Park – Another fail since focus of IPG has been changed to the downtown core and headhunting for Canfor

*Advocate for the Northern Gateway Corridor  Develop 2015 Canada Winter Games Facilities and Opportunities – Half marks at best

*Finalize the Twinning Agreement Between the City of Prince George and the City of Jiangmen – Junket complete but any tangible benefits yet to be seen.

* Plan the City of Prince George’ 100th Anniversary Celebration – party time!

If they are going to live up to the Mission statement they had better roll up their sleeves. “Council’s Mission To provide high quality services and good governance for the City of Prince George within available resources. “

As for Council’s vision statement, must have been out in the desert with Carlos Castenada and a head full of mescaline when they came up with this dream as it has no link to reality “To be a high functioning, focused, effective, efficient, responsive, productive and accountable Council.”

http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/mayorcouncil/visionprioritiesmission/Pages/Default.aspx

Sounds like real Liberal ideology and actions to me.

We should organize a welcome home party for them.
Cheers

If this was about driving students to the university and college, did those institutions have officials on the trip? Last time I checked, UNBC and CNC were both provincial responsibilities and beyond the “core” responsibilities of municipalities.

If this was about tourism, did those organizations send someone on the trip? And BTW, do the fine folks from Jiangman get to go on holidays anytime and anywhere they want? How many direct flights from Jiangman to PG anyway?

Oh well, we all know what the next chapter will be – the group of five arrives home, waves a signed piece of paper that says the Chinese want to have a relationship and everybody will call it a critical success.

“How many direct flights from Jiangman to PG anyway?”

None from Vancouver ….. so there is an opportunity for PG …. ;-)

Seems to me KPMG missed that on their list of opportunities. That one is much more realistic than most of the others on their list. We all know by now that that is not saying very much.

I wonder how common it is for City staff and/or Councillors outside the City of Toronto to advocate for their favourite charity on City letterhead?

Could be worse: we could Rob Ford as mayor!

And for the record, CNC does not maintain waiting list for programs, only individual academic and business courses, which are easily accessible for anyone who wants in (and has the prerequisite, if one is needed) assuming they come in before the end of August for September courses. Oh, and CNC’s attendence is down considerably this fall, as is pretty much every post-secondary institution’s attendence.

An interesting book from 2 years ago which is applicable to why our institutions, such as cities, countries, etc. are no longer functioning as we expect them to …. i.e. as they used to or as we think they used to

The Age of the Unthinkable
http://christopherrichards.com/age-of-the-unthinkable.html

From that linked article:

In order to survive and prosper in our dynamic environment we must be agile, and flexible. WE MUST GIVE UP WANTING SIMPLISTIC ANSWERS TO COMPLEX QUESTIONS. This involves a new kind of education, one that encompasses other ways of perceiving and understanding.

Our ways of seeing are culturally determined.
•Some Asian cultures see holistically, while
•in the West we focus on what is dominant. We are less aware of context.
•The Japanese value empathy or harmony.
•In America we value the exceptional. We focus attention on winners as if life were a competition.

Seeing life as a competition is just one internalized perspective. As George Lakoff said, a metaphor for life could just as well be a dance.

Stepping out of our cultural conditioning is perhaps harder for people for whom the current system is working (for now.)

Quitting while ahead is not easy. But in order to take on new perspectives, we have to end seeing in the old way.

So let’s forget that Palapou is one of thousands who is beating the odds and instead focus on those who are not built like a horse and need some help to survive.

I think if we want to see what is actually killing people we should look at things like

1. Fast and bad food.
2. Canned goods
3. Liquor
4. Obesity
5. Lack of excercise
6. Refined food
7. Prescription drugs, and over the counter drugs.
8. Soft drinks.

The old way did not work to badly (depending on how far back you go). The new way, which is basically using consumers as human machines do devour whatever is produced by the multi national corporations, for the **big bucks** with no concern about how this type of consumer stuffing effects society as a whole is where the problem lies.

The big Goverment and big Business so called concern for the health of the nation is an illusion and cant be supported by facts on any level. Take a walk through any mall or big city in Canada and you will see the results of how we live to-day. Hospital and medical facts will tell you the rest of the story.

At the end of the day, people have to take responsibility for thier own lives and thier own health.

Its sort of begs the question as to why we need a brand new cancer clinic to look after cancer patients, but cant seem to find out why so many people have cancer???

Krusty – CNC does have waiting lists. I have a son that is waiting to return to the electrical program and he was given a number on the wait list for next upcoming electrical course. CNC suggested he attend the recent start date of Sept., which was not good enough as an apprentice needs to attain hours working……

“Its sort of begs the question as to why we need a brand new cancer clinic to look after cancer patients, but cant seem to find out why so many people have cancer”

We know why many people get cancer, we just aren’t willing to change our way of living to try and rectify the situation. In many cases, cancer has become an acceptable tradeoff for the society of convenience that we have created.

I know this sounds a little terse, but when the government allows cigarettes to be sold, environments to be poisoned and food supplies to be full of unnatural crap, what else could the conclusion be?

I agree NMG. I also forgot to mention that we are breathing exhaust fumes 24/7/365, plus other toxic s… released into the air.

Wood smoke is a very small part of a huge problem

Rob Ford for PG mayor. He would clean up the budget. The liberal left in this town would go nuts including the media.

They will feel right at home..same kind of bad air pollution.

They will land in vancouver, vancouver island, perhaps go to the okanagan. They are not interested in PG nor its universities. To chinese families and their student children, its SFU, UBC or University of Toronto. Forget the rest. That is the way they are.

Speaking of air pollution, here is the “news” making the rounds today

Autism and early exposure to traffic pollution linked
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-autism-traffic-pollution-20121126,0,970458.story

The study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found that early exposure to high levels of air pollution in general was linked to an increased likelihood of autism in a group of more than 500 children followed for several years from birth. The researchers gathered regional air quality data and used detailed calculations to estimate the air quality around the residence in which a child’s mother spent her pregnancy and the resulting child spent his or her first year.

Their findings suggest that the link between air pollution and autism is evident largely at the highest levels of exposure, and slightly higher when the exposure comes later in a woman’s pregnancy.

The strongest link was found between exposure to nitrogen dioxide — a pollutant found plentifully around freeways — and autism, while exposure to particulates was less strongly linked to autism.

The study refines earlier findings by the same authors that linked autism to a child’s living near a freeway.

There we go, seamutt ….. another one for your list of disputable studies. ;-)

The only thing the group of five brought back to Prince George was probably a hang over, you know too much “Maotai” ;)

Say Gus no warming for 16 years. That is longer than the so called warming. You just have to get beyond your bias.

So our efforts are paying off, eh seamutt …. you just have to get beyond your bias ….

;-)

So Gus you seem to have knowlege on using the internet, why not put it to some use to how efforts are paying off. There is no proof that man effects climate. Can you find the proof, lots of money making scams but no proof.

I am not going on a wild goose chase.

There are too many variables, from my point of view, to determine the cause of global warming. Now we are even getting into the age old question which any researchers who base their studies in a large part on trend line analysis must face – what is the indicator time frame which should be used to make a determination whether there is an actual change happening.

I have not found anything which convinces me that the apparent current trend to global warming is caused in any significant part by the magnitude of modern human activities.

Therefore I am only concerned about dealing with the effects of any climate change, especially those which are measurable and have some effects on our environment which are readily observable.

I believe the most obvious one to those of us who live in the northern half of BC is that the local climate has resulted in warmer winters and cooler summers. The former seems to have been a major factor in the unprecedented Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic based on longer breeding season as well as reduction on the frequency of killer frosts. Colorado, Wyoming and Montana have also been hit, as has parts of Alberta. So far I have not seen any other hypothesis of why this sudden large outbreak.

Please open up more classroom space for the Canadian apprentice. They are on a timeline to complete levels, but need to wait for classroom time.

Mayors across Canada are running into all sorts of corruption allegations ranging from conflict of interest to fraud effecting more than 5.6 million Canadians. How long until Prince George hits the media? Not soon enough in my opinion.

In fact, even the judge acknowledged there was no evidence of corruption or that the mayor benefitted personally from the transaction. Nor was there a problem with transparency — there was no attempt at a coverup or any denial of the transaction.

But Mayor Ford, the judge ruled, displayed “wilful blindness” about the importance of rules and decorum that are intended to ensure voters the system has integrity and that public officials can be trusted to act appropriately.

The judge added that “the suggestion of a conflict runs to the core of the process of government decision-making. It challenges the integrity of the process.”

Mr. Ford’s actual offence was relatively minor, and his troubles could have been avoided if he had heeded the advice of the city’s ethics commissioner and repaid the money. He chose instead to be guided by hubris.

The worst part of the entire affair is the negative attention the mayor has generated for Toronto and the expense of holding an election over an issue that could easily have been avoided. It also means the democratic will of the people has been undermined by an act of reckless stupidity.

The Ford affair is a useful lesson for elected officials everywhere.

This sounds like a Holiday for some council members ,did their partners go with them?? I could see a lot better ways to spend my tax dollars.

I thought that it was time to take a look at what was happening in JiangMen while our gang of 5 was in the Chinese city.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Guangdong promotes Financial High-tech service zone to U.S. investors
http://english.jiangmen.gov.cn/jmxw/201211/t20121122_353205.htm

The government of Guangdong province in south China held a conference here in New York on Tuesday, promoting Guangdong Financial High-tech Service Zone to U. S. investors.

Zhou Gaoxiong, chief director of the Finance Affairs Office of Guangdong Province, said Guangdong has unique advantage to become the financial service center for the whole Asia-Pacific region because it has rich financial resources as it ranks No.1 in GDP among all Chinese provinces and is next-door neighbour to the Asian financial center of Hongkong.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Zhuhai air show, impetus to Guangdong’s airline industry development
http://english.jiangmen.gov.cn/jmxw/201211/t20121122_353224.htm

The 9th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai achieved a huge success, with 30 deals worth a record of 11.8 billion U.S. dollars being signed, sales of 202 aircraft of various types clinched, an attendance of nearly 650 aviation and aerospace manufacturers from 39 countries and regions, and an audience of about 338,000 people over the past six days. This year’s air fair hit the record high both on the scale and level.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Rabies outbreak may lead to cull of 30,000 dogs in Chinese city
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022036/Rabies-outbreak-lead-cull-30-000-dogs-Jiangmen-China.html
Concern over rabies cases means that 30,000 dogs in a southern-Chinese city could be put down.

Authorities in Jiangmen have banned the ownership of pet dogs and have given residents until August 26 to rehouse them, or they will be killed.

However, animal rights are becoming increasingly important in China and the move has led to vocal criticism, with one disease expert describing it as inhumane and unnecessary.

Newspaper The Jiangmen Daily reminded readers that 42 residents had died from rabies in the past three years and Li Wantong, technology director at an animal disease control centre in Jiangmen, reassured animal lovers that the dogs would be euthanised humanely.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.jmnews.com.cn
http://www.jmnews.com.cn/bw/Votes/Sort325/
New Sport Centre vote of which of 5 designs the community prefers.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I did a search for the word Canada and got nothing. May be because database is Chinese and searches in another language do not work. Pages can, however, be roughly translated through Google page tranlate function.

So, was the PG gang of 5 on the public radar at all? I would love to know from the Gang of 5 … ;-)

Judging from the Jiangmen Daily Newspaper, I think the PG group of five might need to be quarantined :(

LOL Cheetos. That might actually help matters at City Hall!

Riverside Calif; twinned with Jiangmen City a number of years ago. Maybe the group of five can get some information from Riverside as to how this twinning as worked for them.

Screams holiday! Why doesn’t the media follow and take pics of the situation. At least we would know for sure that they were actually “At work” for the citizen’s of PG.