I would think that maybe Ms. Green is taking a page out of Cristy’s playbook. Oh well, it won’t matter anyway as they will do as they please after pretending to be listening to the people if it be 5 minutes or 5 hours.

I would be very surprised if CBC and BCTV haven’t already asked for time to set up TV cameras to record this event.
Mr. Stewart is excellent counsel, wish Haldi well.

To say this is unbelievable would be an understatement.

If the Mayor restricts the presentations to five minutes, and then they pass the changes to the OCP, one can rest assured that they will end up in court.

The other Councilors had better get off their asses and vote down these changes to the OCP.

We all know the story as to how this whole problem started, and its time for the Mayor to get the hell out of the picture.

If she wont back off on her own, then it is up to the Councilors to kill the amendment to the OCP, and thus finish the BS surrounding this application.

To do less, leaves City Council looking like a bunch of buffoons.

If the Mayor and Council think they have the support of the citizens of Prince George on this issue, they are sadly mistaken.

This is the type of attitude that the Liberals had with the HST. Basically, we will do what ever the hell we want, and you can take a hike.

We know what happened to the Liberals because of this attitude, and the same fate awaits the Mayor and any Council member who supports this process of impeding peoples right to a democratic hearing.

Too bad “Chief” Green wasn’t in charge of the pipeline to the west. Five minutes? Wow! That pipeline would have been started yesterday. Five minutes only? My guess is that Sherry knows what “variations on a theme” is. I do.

The Council Chamber will likely not be large enough. Setting up monitors outsiude or next door should not be acceptable.

I would not be surprised if they restrict it to people in the Chamber.

If there is an overflow crowd, I wonder what they will do to assure that people have access to the mike or a seat at the table, especially if they have overheads.

We have seen this lack of preparation at the pubic forums during the core process, as well as the associated time restrictions.

Total farce of what well conducted public hearings ought to be.

Gus “Total farce of what well conducted public hearings ought to be”

True Gus, however, we know that they know that they have no business of pushing this through anyway. This farce to go through the motions is just that. Mayor and Council, as I say, are well aware of how the general majority feel and are well aware that they look like total buffoons (good description, palopu) just as they are well aware of the true reasons behind the push and it sure as heck is not for the goodness of womenkind.

I know council members read this news blog so to be clear: Green and Stolz really are too arrogant and blinded with all that this brings, to realize what true leadership, integrity and ethics are, so they are beyond hope.

The rest of you, however, would do best to re-think/stand by your previous demonstrated assertions.

Do the Right Thing guys. This is the real deal.

bcnorth250 ….. I hope people can see the similarity between this and the requirement that First Nations be consulted in land use decisions when traditional territority is compromised.

This too, is just a formality and there is no requirement at all to justify the final outcome.

At least in a true administrative hearing the panel provides a reason for their decision. There is no such requirement here. There ought to be, in my opinion.

We have to remember that the residential land belongs to the owners which is not the City in most cases. The roads belong to the City, bit they are there to service the properties and are paid for by the land owners through development cost charges paid by the developer who got his/her money back when they sokd the property. All the City is doing is maintainig the roads (or so they think) which is paid for by taxes.

So, when it comes to who has the preponderous weight of opinion, it is the existing land owners, not the City.

That the City requires such a facility is not the issue the way I hear it.

The issue is where such a facility ought to be built. Yet there will be much “wasted” time by those who will speak about about how great such a facility will be.

If Council wants to speed things up, they may be able to get people to stipulate that is not under dispute. It is a land use issue, not an issue about the virtues of such a facility.

bcnorth250 …..

You may very well be right that by now they have to go through the motions to look like they have done their part to give the proponents a “fair” hearing.

However, in my view they could have stopped it after the appeal was won. But, they may have wanted to correct the “technical” error so that the proponents could not blame the City any further on that error.

Of course, in my view, the error was made by the City that this issue of identifying locations and conditions for locating such facilities was not handled during the 2 or so years of reviewing the OCP, the time when the issue would have been passed by all the nighbourhood community associations as well as any organizations which are associated with such facilities, including Northern Health.

THAT is the real lack of due diligence on the part of the City!!!

Hey Gus, here we go again …. time for another midterm exam for the current class of city council … now understand, this is a redo assignment … they failed the first time and were required to resubmit … been clearly given instructions again, even coaching on what to expect by special tutor, Roy Stewart (and others) … wonder if we should commission another poll in a while to determine the mark this time … based upon experience, students usually don’t do any better on second chance assignments unless they have buckled down and studied in the interim … Ms Green has been to busy talking to learn anything … maybe we need to re-instate the Dunce cap facing into the corner …

or would that be bullying

This last piece of advice from the Haldi Lawyer is not the only advice this city has been given. Stewart has on more than one occasion advised the city -free of charge- what is required by law. It is all on the city website

http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/mayorcouncil/councilagendasminutes/agendas/2013/2013_03_04/index.html

Just makes one wonder……………
It does make me wonder of say campaign donations, what type of land agreement the owners have with the centre, etc.

This should come as good news to the Haldi area residents as it will all but guarantee that the outcome will be overturned in court. The city is handing reasons to have the decision overturned in court to Roy Stewart on a silver platter be it this one, only having one public meeting on a OCP plan that will affect the entire city, etc.

The local government act is pretty clear that people have the right to have their say.As Manager of Legislative Services Walter Babicz should know this. Mayor and council choosing to ignore his advice?

Where does the (bad) acting City Manager stand?

In all my years here I have never seen anything like this where all the stops are pulled out trying to ram something down the throats or a neighbourhood.

Gonna show up at city hall Monday morning so I can can get a front row seat to Shari’s little dog and pony show.

Roy Stewart pointing out the proper procedures to the city just makes it a lot easier for the judge to rule in his favor when the time comes:)

^^^of a neighbourhood

Wow, just when you can think this council can stoop no lower, they go ahead and stoop down a little lower. I am not involved in the Haldi Road fiasco, but support the communities efforts and am appalled at how poorly democracy is run in this city.

This entire plan for Haldi Road should have been stopped at the court case, and the Mayor should have been out of the room in all discussions due to her confessed conflict of interest. It is a pity we don’t have some councillors on this city council who don’t just stand up and say ” enough, we have really messed this up while destroying the confidence of our citizens”. I feel it’s a shame we don’t have a Cliff Dezell type councillor who always seemed to put the whole community first.

This just adds to the bush league perception others have about Prince George. This and having liberal insiders making claims about inside deals that they feel turned against them. Really Prince George, can we not do better?

Well if each Haldi road resident gets 5 minutes to speak when its time up for the lawyer the next speaker could just pass their 5 minutes to him. If the city doesn’t give them or anyone else the time, be prepared to go to court again Tax Payers of PG.

The last 3rd reading was a farce also. The Haldi residents were told to stick to land use issues only and the proponents, who were represented Marshall Smith talked about recovery. He must have borrowed the DSM 4 because he spewed psycho babble for what seemed an eternity.

When it came time for the residents time to speak they were told to stick to land issues only. One of the presenters who ran the Nechako Treatment Centre for many, many years. He was also the Executive Director of Aboriginal Health up until a few years ago. He was told to stick to land use issues only. Cameron Stoltz however did ask one question. Did the Nechako Centre use the abstinence model or harm reduction. The reply was harm reduction as per provincial mandate. So much for dealing with addiction issues for the last 25 years. Dismissed.

The real issue is the OCP. I highly doubt that the proponents will stick to land use issues and they won’t be asked to qualify any statements they make. They will make their arguments based on a emotional level. It doesn’t work in a court of law and it shouldn’t be applicable here.

The proponents invest in a property, sink more money to begin renovations without proper zoning etc in place all in the hopes that certain elected officials will come through and then they can laugh all the way to the bank. Fehr…..seems to me I heard that name mention in a similar matter earlier this week:P

If this mayor and council spent half as much time trying to uphold democracy as they do trying to undermine it, maybe this city could move ahead a bit.
I cannot believe that these people consider themselves leaders.
That, they definitely are not.

Democracy….don’t recall seeing that name on any of the campaign contribution lists. Could be why it is low on priority list,paying piper… calling tune is more how they roll.

Fuhrer Green needs a reality check..i heard we live in a democracy..everywhere in the country except PG..council needs to jump ship on this proposal while they still can or they will pay for it at the next election..our 1 term wonder mayor will be proof of this…apparently she hasn’t heard of freedom of speech!

This last piece of advice from the Haldi Lawyer is not the only advice this city has been given. Stewart has on more than one occasion advised the city -free of charge- what is required by law. It is all on the city website

http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/mayorcouncil/councilagendasminutes/agendas/2013/2013_03_04/index.html

Just makes one wonder……………
It does make me wonder of say campaign donations, what type of land agreement the owners have with the centre, etc.

If this does go to court, let me know where I can donate….. I have friends that live outside of the Haldi area that would love to donate, as it will affect their neighborhood if this OCP goes through.

Does any one know if it can be a class action lawsuit?

By the sound of some of the posters these past few years it appears that there may be others in the city to jump on the Haldi wagon…LOL

I bet there are citizens out there that can donate $20.00 or more to see this obstruction of justice overturned. In any case the city pays it’s screwups through our tax dollars. Too bad gang green can’t be made more accountable.

I think that there should be time limits imposed on the length of time that the people of Prince George have to endure the current mayor staying in office.

If that’s how she wants to play, lets get 200 people (from all areas of the city) opposed to this stupidity to each talk for 5 minutes as to why they oppose this – all while keeping to land use because that’s what this is all about. I’m willing to stay all night if that’s how long this thing takes.
Maybe they should have held the public hearing on a separate night from third reading. They know how controversial this issue is and how many people are affected, why would they even think that combining it with a regular council meeting is a good idea?

I know that I’ll be there and I am planning on speaking. I don’t live in Haldi Road area but am definitely opposed to this OCP change.

Pass your 5 minutes to the lawyer peegee!

If they stick with the time restriction, I definitely will be

So you can have your say under strict rules, then shut up and we will do what we want.. Green is astounding with her continued incompetence, and ignorance

“I think that there should be time limits imposed on the length of time that the people of Prince George have to endure the current mayor staying in office.”

There are 8 Councillors who have the opportunity to address an ineffective, belligerent mayor concerned more about the length of meetings than the content of meetings.

It is one thing to be a team player, another to understand the duty to the people and represent the people of this City to the best of their ability beyond election day.

Make that 7 councillors and one lap dog:P

Good Boy!!!

“There are 8 Councillors who have the opportunity to address an ineffective, belligerent mayor concerned more about the length of meetings than the content of meetings.”

The majority of the eight councilors are not interested in the content of the meetings.

This has been shown time and time again that only the opponents were mandated to stick to the land use issues form day one and not the proponents. This is visible on the city’s website videos and at any other public meeting such as the most recent – Vanway. The city instructed only the opponents and not the proponents to stick to the land use issues.

Discussions will be limited to land use issues only (rezoning and amendments to the OCP) at the public hearing. An opportunity I speak of now is in regards to the written submissions in support of a Recovery Center at the Haldi location. Most in support do not speak to land issues at all but to recovery. The list of names is startling when you look into their backgrounds. Many are Drs, nurses, Northern health,social workers, health consultants, geotechnical engineers,Sinclair forest group,account manager Jim Pattison Broadcast group, Scotia Bank and Trust, UNBC, Realestate agents, Ceo, Presidents, resoration company, construction company and some are on the board PG community Foundation along with our mayor etc. etc.. That could be perceived to be stakeholders..just maybe a little bit. Unfortunately, I do not see average taxpaying citizens of PG submitting anything in regards to the land issues other than the Haldi neighbourhood. Which in my mind, in regards to the OCP, many residents have absolutely no idea this could also happen in every residential and rural neighbourhood they live in ,should this be permitted by Council. Were residents in all of Prince George properly informed? No ..I don’t think so. Most of Haldi Rd neighbors have supported the importance of recovery but continually had questions / concerns regarding a large institutional business with water/sewer/traffic/safety and issues surrounding the character of a rural neighborhood. Simply spelling it out.. in order for the Institutional Facility with 30 persons to set up on Leslie Rd Haldi Area and making the changes to the OCP..it will then allow for an Institutional Facility to set up in anyones residential neighborhood. House maybe Institution Facility NO!

Sure hope the changes in the “new and improved” OCP doesn’t allow them to build an oil refinery at the end of my street. Maybe a brewery would be OK, but not a refinery.

Thanks Happyinmyworld for pointing out who the many non-landuse letters for 3rd reading consideration were from, supporting the proponents of the treatment centre. I sure hope the proponents are not allowed to go on and on with non-land use issues at the 3rd reading as happened last time. When it came time for the Haldi Road residents to speak on land use, they were cut off!! Green’s idea of fairplay?
I guess it didn’t really matter what the Haldi opponents said, Council would do as they wished anyway….hearing was only a formality (neighborhood input only a nuisance.)

I sure hope the message is getting out to all neighborhoods in Prince George that this OCP amendment will affect them and they could end up with the same problems in future as Haldi Road is facing now.

I think people should recognize that we have one Councillor who does represent the people. He has repeatedly spoken in support of the Haldi neighborhood and in fact at the “rescinding” 2nd reading suggested that this whole OCP amendment process be scrapped….that was BRIAN SKAKUN. Brian has a conscience and believes in doing the right thing …too bad his good qualities and ideas don’t rub off on the other council members.

Remember the RCMP deal he exposed and then the invoices info he requested — he was performing a service to the people for which he was criticized ….he acted on morals….where were the others????
Things are getting worse all the time as far as our Council’s handling of city business….so sad, what a waste of taxpayers money! The Free Press survey on performance of the Mayor and Council should be an eyeopener…you’d think they would start being a little more mindful of their dictatorial tactics! Go for it Haldi Road….maybe the silver lining in all this OCP backdoor tactic to rezone Haldi so the investor doesn’t lose on his investment will result in not only Haldi Road separating from the city and joining the regional district but many neighborhoods who are not getting much for their taxes paid either…..could be very interesting. Queen Green’s queendom and tax base could be greatly reduced!

An application put into the City to put a storage facility into HWY 16 Frontage RD and Marleau Rd. The City Department was challenged to support the application due to the OCP and made recomendations to DENY it.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CD8QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprincegeorge.ca%2Fcityhall%2Fmayorcouncil%2Fcouncilagendasminutes%2Fagendas%2F2012%2F2012_04_16%2Fdocuments%2FBL8403_8404_rpt_MERGED.pdf&ei=tnIzUcOgNuaaiALDuoCwCA&usg=AFQjCNHLDbp1q3JkakXDW42czvHMYsKCfg&sig2=_aYJ5pTrUetCkZy-M4sZoA