Mayoral candidates  Lyn Hall and Don Zurowski  wait for their turn to address the Downtown Rotary – photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. – The Downtown Rotary Club in Prince George welcomed  Mayoral candidates Lyn Hall and Don Zurowski to  answer their questions.

Zurowski  continues to promote his “Let’s Grow Prince George” platform,  which he says can be done through  building civic pride, and  having all  citizens  promoting  the community.

Lyn Hall says  growing the community  is about  everyone working together to  spread the positive news about the amenities Prince George has  to offer. But ,  Hall has been on Council  for the past three years, and was asked what  he has done to  grow the community  through that time.  He says  his work with a number of organizations, including the hospital and the university, have  shown him the positive  amenities  the  City has    and they are a real plus for the community.

Zurowski  served on Council for 9 years,  and says he was a strong proponent of the Prince Rupert Port and  advocated for the airport expansion and industrial  development of the Hart North  site to open the  doors to more business.

Prince George has suffered from a poor image  with  criticisms over crime and  air quality.  The candidates were asked   how they would improve that image and if it has  hurt the city.”It’s not just council that creates a better image (of the city)” says Lyn Hall,  while Don Zurowski says  when there are  things like poor snow removal and  it gets a lot of media attention, that can hurt “My expectation  is that we defend this community the way we would  defend our families.”

Downtown revitalization is another issue which  has been on the table for  many years.  Don Zurowski advocates having more people living in the downtown core “We need to get rresidential living down there so its a 24 hour  community there.”

Lyn Hall says  while there has been  positive  moves to get people to move closer to Victoria street, there needs to be more done to get people into the  downtown proper.  He  envisions an entertainment precinct, “We need people in the area  all day long, to create a revitalized downtown.”

Zurowski says he is not in favour of providing city  dollars to  support low income housing in the downtown core. “There are tools in the municipal tool box,   we can make land  available, but cold hard tax money, no.”

Hall  would also not  use  tax dollars for  affordable housing but says  BC Housing  has been  working hard on this issue. “We have a tremendous  amount of (land) holdings, and that is a piece we would apply for”.

Is zoning  a reason why the downtown  is in  difficult times “I don’t think that has impeded development” says Hall who  adds  rezoning can be  done “We have the tools available to make changes”.

Zurowski “I don’t believe land issues downtown make it more difficult to attract new development. The problem is clear, the solution  will take some hard work.”

There have been a number of media comments that the current council is ineffective and dysfunctional  Hall says he wants to create  council liaison  positions to  work  with  groups in the community “This will create a  greater tightness and flow of information , this hasn’t been done in the past and I think it would work very well. : He also advocates for  Council  heading out to communities to  better connect with  neighbourhoods.

Zurowski  says “Leaders know where their going and people follow that vision.  where you meet  is less important than  having goals.” He says  with 9 people on council,  his hope is that when those Council members are in the community  they will  be interacting with the community.  He says  to move the meetings outside the Council Chambers would be inefficient.

Hall says the current Council  was not  ineffective or  dysfunction, “This is about  personalities, it’s about debate and it’s about disagreement and at the end of the day there will be a decision.”

The ten year tax break for new investment in downtown  is something Zurowski says he would  continue to support, but would like to see more “uptake”.

Hall says he would continue to support the  tax break,  but would change some of the “layers” which he says can be difficult to  work through.

Beautification is part of the “Entire image and we need to clean that up no question” says Hall. He says the intersection of 16 and 97 should be the best it can be, and that includes a “pie in the sky” want for a  tourism  centre at that  intersection.

Zurowski says Quesnel does a pretty good job of adding ” lipstick  around that city, but if you go deeper,  it has issues”.  He says  the city of Prince George needs to cut the lawns and reduce the weeds.

On the matter of urban sprawl,  Hall says the zoning piece that is in place now “serves us well”. He says overall, the OCP and zoning has been “pretty good.” Zurowski  says from an OCP  point of view, “I think it is a tool it needs to be well communicated that the City will consider  changes to the OCP.”  He pointed  out that the development cost charges are lower in the core than in the periphery.

Each candidate was asked to explain how they have demonstrated leadership during their time on Council.

Zurowski pointed to the  situation with the Cameron  Street Bridge,  where the  original replacement cost was  more than $20 million dollars, but Zurowski presented a case for  redoing the  bridge on the existing  pillars.

Hall says the  permissive tax exemption was  on the verge of  losing their tax break but he worked with council to  increase the threshold.  He also  took credit  for  road rehab work being  increased.

Transparency,  what will  the candidates  do to increase transparency.

Zurowski passed out his cell phone number,  saying he would want to hear  concerns .

Hall  passed  along his  number as well, saying  he was proud to  say he was one of the people who called on administration to bring forth  a detailed  report on  the failure of the City to handle the snow fall of last  winter.