home page of new website, click on image to visit the website

Prince George, B.C. –A new website and advertising campaign are being launched by Initiatives Prince George to  try and attract new people to move to Prince George.

“Move Up Prince George” promotes  ten  points about Prince George:

1. Affordable housing
2. Jobs
3. Central Location
4. Distinct seasons
5. No traffic
6. Healthcare amenities
7. Accessibility
8. Education opportunities
9. Family fun
10. Urban

The website offers stories of people who have made the move,  maps out neighbourhoods and their  amenities,  businesses can post  job openings, and  people can share their positive stories about  moving to Prince George.

Advertising  will be done locally  to  encourage businesses to add their employment opportunities on the website.  Nationally, the  site will be promoted in Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton,  Toronto and Windsor.  These are the cities a recent study indicated would be the best in which to launch efforts to attract new residents.

It is no secret that Prince George suffers from an image problem  “Most of the negative comments  come from people who have never ever been here” says Prince George Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris “They are basing their opinions on  what someone has told them about  what the city was like in the 60’s and what not, so we do have a marketing challenge ahead of us.”   He says this marketing tool will help put Prince George  on the map nationally.

“Since  2010 we’ve seen an employment growth in all categories of 14%” says IPG’s CEO Heather Oland  “ Our unemployment  rate hovers around  5% so that’s functionally fully employed.  All of our discussions with employers , one of their number one constraints is access to  employees that they  need across all sectors of the economy  So there are  underemployed people locally, there are underemployed people regionally  and those  people need the same  opportunities that all people deserve.”

She says  if businesses are going to capitalize on the  growth  this region is expecting,  the City of Prince George will have to grow “ We need new residents, the population needs to be bigger  than  approximately 80 thousand  people  if we are going to capitalize and business is going to be able to grow, so the only way to do that  isn’t to sit back  and hope that people discover the opportunities,  the way to  do that is to be strategic, be targeted and go and  get them.”