Kauk Advocates Holding Off on Buying New Equipment
Prince George, B.C.- Council candidate 
He says there is no need to spend $700 thousand on new equipment when proper repairs could be done to existing equipment.
Kauk was speaking on the Meisner program this morning, and rated Council a “1” on a scale of 1-10 on how they do business.
He says it is “absolutely not” the responsibility of City Hall to find employees for local businesses. Kauk says in today’s world of media, there needs to be someone working on communications.
He says the Council over the past three years has been dysfunctional with Councillors fearing speaking up because they are afraid they will be punished.
He identified the Performing Arts centre as a “hot button” he says it is A great project and a lot of people want it, but advised the folks who want it should be prepared to get in line, “I support the concept of a Performing Arts Centre, but again, get in line, there are a lot of other projects ahead of you.” One of the projects he pushes for, is the Public Library, saying the upgrades are necessary for safety concerns. That project is estimated to cost $2.5 million dollars. Kauk sat on the Board for the Library for a few years. “We’ve got a facility that is the most used facility in Prince George, and yet, this is the very last place we are looking to spend any investment.”
On the issue of taxes, Kauk says “I’m saying we have to be more responsible with what we’re doing” He says the books at City Hall have to be re-examined because dollars spent on debt for past projects was moved to general revenue once those debts were paid.
On social issues, Kauk says it is not the City’s “civic responsibility” to look after the homeless. By definition the homeless are not taxpayers”, and says the City should be looking after it’s taxpayers. He says more needs to be done to get the provincial and federal governments to do their part in providing social services.
Comments
Greg … You are a good guy and have worked hard for many community projects and events for many years. However, Your stand regarding homeless as outlined in the last paragraph has a fundamental flaw. I will suggest that the City’s “civic responsibility” is to take attend to the needs and best interests of its “citizens”. By restricting your definition to “taxpayers”, you effectively eliminate anyone in the community not directly paying taxes for the service; children, stay at home parents, businesses with their head offices elsewhere for tax purposes, renters or other forms of non-home owners, etc.
I agree that the primary responsibility for the homeless lies with the provincial and federal gov’ts within their social services and health services mandate. However, the homeless live in our community, are our neighbors in a manner of speaking (when we walk past their ‘home’ in the street) and have an effect on many services that are provided by the City.
There is an old saying that if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away.
Well said
He’s probably right on the snow removal issue. If that equipment was used as efficiently as it could be, there would still be a need for extra equipment when needed but that could be filled by contractors.
A modification to the underbody plows on the trucks so they could be turned either way, would also be a big improvement in their usefulness.
I hope this guy was misquoted all over the place, because otherwise he’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer.
As to the snow equipment, well, a prudent person would assess that on a case by case basis. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to keep plowing money into a heavily depreciated machine. Sometimes it makes better fiscal sense to dispose of the old unit and buy another one, especially if downtime will cost you in lost productivity, and extra costs for a replacement unit. Run the numbers I say, sometimes what seems logical to laypeople really isn’t. and it happens a lot more than you might think.
The 1 out of 10 rating isn’t going to buy you any friends with some of the incumbents that will undoubtedly be re-elected and you’d have to subsequently work with if elected. Not a wise political move in my estimation. It might play with the rabble, but that kind of stuff will find you pretty isolated on Council fairly quickly. We don’t need another Skakun, in fact we don’t even need one of him in my opinion. We need people who can work collaboratively with others, even others who’re politically polar from yourself, to work towards a common goal of the good of this community. Partisan nonsense needs to hit the round file.
What does communications have to do with resource recruitment?
If Prince George is perceived (and in some circles it is already) as a place that’s tough to find and attract skilled labour to, then that may well dissuade companies, especially industry, from locating here. I think that’s City Hall’s business, don’t you? Should we invest a million dollars a year for it? Well, that’s a whole other question that I think is long overdue being addressed. I think we could save a lot of money if we bring some of the IPG into the city fold and get rid of that separate building and extraneous employees.
Well, you may be right Greg, they might not be paying property tax right now, but they weren’t born on the street and they have an impact on this community, the citizens and businesses. We need to advocate for their needs as well. This is kind of a surprising attitude for a guy that lists himself as the Board Chair of the Prince George Urban Aboriginal Justice Society. I guess the messages about what intergenerational poverty, lack of education and societal supports can lead to and the affect it can have on a community at large.
I think this guy makes a lot of sense and I would like to see him on council. He is right, government at the federal/provincial level can do a lot more than the city for the homeless and the city has enough on it’s plate to deal with.
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