More like overpay and deflect. I guess we have to wait for the forensic audit to take place, before we receive an answer as to why the 80 million dollar over payment on a fixed contract. I wonder if his worship in waiting, will step down and save the community a lot of embarrassment when it is tabled?

I would like to see a mayor take a hard stance on pay rates at the city. Municipal rates exceed the private, provincial and federal sector, yet have the lowest tax base to draw from… This isn’t fair for the city of PG who continuously see tax rate increases.

The Code says all communication must be to the City Manager only, he says he believes individual councillors need to be able to pick up the phone and talk to administrators “That is what they are elected to do.”

How about the code of conduct read “city administration communicate to council and keep them informed. Administration has had free run of this city for three years under Green. Don you are status quoi.

Cmon PG the writing is on the wall…take a good look at the full page ad in the citizen yesterday, Don is backed by a lot of the same group that pushed our previous mayor into the chair. Do we want another 4 years of the same? The choice is clear….

Editor’s note:
This comment has been edited to remove an inaccurate reference.

Zurowski mentioned the Airport Expansion as part of his growth strategy .

Don is a director of the Airport Authority. So lets look at their 5 year plan from 2014-2018.

The assumptions:

1. Forecasted revenues and expenses assume annual growth of 2% and modest cargo activity in 2014.

So basically no growth forecasted for the next 5 years, yet Zurowski uses the Airport as an example of growth. Hmmmmm.

I am disappointed that both Lynn Hall and Don Zurowski will not announce who contributed to their election campaigns until it becomes mandatory next year. That means the voters will not know who were the big supporters of the elected mayor until after the election when it’s too late to change your vote.

Jimmy Hughes, BC Place roof collapses… it gets fixed… Don joins PavCo. How is the guy who joined PavCo after the event happened responsible?

pgjohn says “I would like to see a mayor take a hard stance on pay rates at the city”

Then I would NOT vote for the candidate who is being promoted by the big unions ;)

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 10:13 AM by Foster_07

Jimmy Hughes, BC Place roof collapses… it gets fixed… Don joins PavCo. How is the guy who joined PavCo after the event happened responsible?

Did the other directors put a gag order on Don Foster?

people..take a good look at the full page ad in the Citizen yesterday, Don supported by a lot of the same folks who railed Shari into the Mayor’s chair. If you want 4 more years of the same agenda in city hall then I guess Don is your man. If you want change then lets get out and make sure that we send a clear message.

Editor’s note:
This comment has been edited as the last sentence made an inaccurate reference.

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 10:13 AM by Foster_07

Jimmy Hughes, BC Place roof collapses… it gets fixed… Don joins PavCo. How is the guy who joined PavCo after the event happened responsible?

Did the other directors put a gag order on Don Foster?

Opps: Did the other directors of PavCo put a gag order on Don Zurowski.

If Don Zurowski is not commenting on this $80 million dollar BC tax payer opps then maybe he does not need my vote and trust to lead this City. Simple

Interceptor then you are okay with big business then and screw the working man?

Don Zurowski will not get my vote , I don’t know that he could be trusted to lead a dog never mind a city . He lost the last time , and I hope he does again .

I’m still waiting for Don to answer the callers questions! For the final time Don, HOW are we going to get to 100,000? Its good to have a dream, but with no plan to achieve it, it will simply remain a dream!

An awful lot of “working men” make their living off big business seamut.

yea intercept..ask the wal mart or starbucks staff if they are making a living……organized labour is what gave you stat holidays, paid vacation, hours of work, benefit packages, workers rights etc etc etc….step away from the brainwashing campaign that would have believe organized labour is evil as those who would have you believe that are laughing all the way to the bank!

Did anyone hear the part where ZUROWSKI grew a business by 40% in 8 years. It’s the overly skeptical, can’t do attitude that gets us nowhere . Sad that a lot of you seem ooze that negativity.

I want to know the real reason he is running?
Who or what special interest group got his ear?
Who is he under promising to ….. US?
Over delivering….special interest group?

Hey no Friday free for all this am. But I guess we don’t need it all the rants are full speed ahead with the election tomorrow.

Well her is my take from Abby. The chamber of commers will elect Zuroski and Pal will pull the remaining hairs from his head. I cant believe all the negativity this morning about the candidates that have put up their name for election to council. You appear to have no confidence in most of the candidates all you see is negativity so how do you expect to have good government.

How do you cut the budget for Fire department and any of the other protective services provided? Sure you can cut a few bucks at City Hall and then you will complain about poor service delivery.

Like Ben says “Get Out and Vote”. Show those candidates some numbers.
Cheers

It’s not negative to question how Zurowski plans to get the PG population to 100,000. I’ve heard the vision, but very little specifics beyond that.

Shari Green ran on a promise to cut spending in every dept. by 10% and we all know how that turned out.

Interesting how Don gets slagged for having a vision or call it a dream if you want of growing the city to 100,000!
At least he has a vision for something better on the horizon, something for all of us who live, work and pay taxes here to strive for!
There is probably no better way to reduce the burden on each of us taxpayers then to have the city grow by 20,000 over the next 10 years!
What vision is Hall promoting? That the city will stay status quo? That he will hold the odd council meeting out in the suburbs? That he will spin 100 times in his chair before he dares to make a decision on anything? Hall is Dan Rogers 2.0 and with him at the helm all you will get is more of the last 6 years!
Oh and by th way…who presided over the closing of all those schools in Prince George?
My vote is going to the only guy with any sort of vision to improve my city, and the intestinal fortitude to stand behind his vision with the rest of council, city administration, and us the tax payers!
I would encourage all of you to vote for Don Zurowski!

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 11:31 AM by NyteHawwk

I would encourage all of you to vote for Don Zurowski!

What will Don do if the population is less than 72000 next year this time. Be put himself under a gag order?

I have a vision of being a millionaire one day Nytehawwk, but without a actual plan to get there, that’s not likely to happen. At least Lyn was realistic! Don’s just a polished version of Green! Heard a pretty prominent business person say yesterday, it you want the next four years to look like the last three…..vote Don! I’m out!

Is just an empty campaign slogan. Telling us that he’s the guy to grow this city. Well, short of taking Quesnel hostage and forcing them all to move to PG, Don’s vision is as promising as the empty refueling apron at the airport. No business plan. Lyn Hall doesn’t have a plan either, but at leas he is not throwing BS at me.

Personally, I like the town the size that it is. 20,000 more people does not float my boat. I live here because of its size. Grow the city at what cost? 20,000 additional people doesn’t sound beneficial to me, in fact it pisses me off. Might sound good as a platform, but if realized, I think it just puts more strain on services, be it the police force, infrastructure or social services. More people does not equal more tax dollars spent in the right direction as we all well know. Not slagging Don, but not happy with his vision. There are quite a few things that need to be straightened out before we should even consider growing this town. I think it’s charm is its size and people that want bigger and better should go elsewhere.

Just because a guy puts his hand in the air and yells **Lets get growing** doesn’t make it a vision. At best it could be described as a foolish campaign slogan.

Anyone who thinks that Zurowski has a plan to grow this City had better get a head check. There is no plan. Phoning my kids, or some of my friends in other towns asking them to move to Prince George, is at best a joke. I know the answer long before I phone.

Every Major City in BC has people working in other area’s and living in different Cities. Courtnery, Parksville, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Kelowna, are just a few. What do we have to offer that these Cities cannot offer??

So, there is no plan. This of course will be proven over time, however in the meantime some people will be conned into believing the line of BS.

Junco: Reality is that if we grow at a sustained rate of just 2000 a year you will hardly notice the difference. Geographically Prince George is more than big enough to handle it and with all the sprawl that has already happened perhaps those areas will start got get some infill happening. I don’t see it as being a drain on services. It will spread the costs of what we already have in place.

Digitus: Are going to get into semantics now? Don has expressed his vision for growing the city, and has talked about some of the things that can be done to push that vision along. At least in his eyes the city has hope for a better future as opposed to the other side which essentially has promised to try to not make things worse!

Am by 8: You have been going on and on with this drivel about the roof at BC Place. First of all if it didn’t get repaired / replaced Vancouver would have a huge eyesore on their hands. Secondly Don was appointed to the board in 2012, after the roof work was done. Thirdly Don is / was but one member of the board, not the CEO and definitely not in any position to make decisions on behalf of PAVCO. If you care to read Don’s commitment to grow the city he does not PROMISE anything…what he has committed to is that he will work over his term as Mayor to grow the city to 100K.
That is a vision and a goal, not a promise that it will happen!

To bad there was not a way to poll the High school, CNC and University graduates this past 10 years to find out where they are located and how many have moved….The majority of my kid’s friends have moved out of PG. Makes one wonder….

So i did a comparison against the comments on this article vs the exact same for Mr. Hall posted today as well. Mr. Zurowski sure does generate a lot of retorts from his articles. Positive and negative and 100% percent always toxic from Palapu, but they get conversation going about what he intends to do. Two ways to look at this. 1) Don has defined goals and is not afraid to present them suffering the good and bad feedback. Lynn’s goals are circle round mechanisms which are vague and undefined. How do you critique something that doesn’t exist. 2)One can assume based off their tone, that Mr. Hall’s supporters sure like to throw mud at any chance they can get towards Mr.Zurowski. Why not focus on your candidates initiatives and fight for those? Is this an indication of the people backing Mr. Hall? I really hope not or we will be one miserable city if Mr. Hall is the winner tomorrow.

What kind of vision is growing the city’s population? Nothing like a generalization that means nothing and leaves nobody responsible. You can sure get a feel for the lemmings who lap this stuff up and then stoop to pass this fluff off as anything but pure drivel. It just makes his supporters seem so gullible.

So, anybody that questions the drivel spewing from “Don’s” groupies is akin to supporting Hall? Next.

Sorry Nytehawk, but even at an added 2,000 a year I would definitively notice the difference. As for spreading the costs, that is not always a given, we’ve had a very poor record in this town with money management and I’d like to see that rectified before we even entertain enticing people to this lovely town. Also, if there is a campaign to entice people to Prince George you will have people coming but, not enough jobs to come to. This is not Utopia.. A town should grow organically, at its own pace, encouraging people to come without a job to come to, is beyond ridiculous, dare I say that in the end, we’d just be attracting people that aren’t making it else where and will ultimately be a drain on our services. The land of milk and honey….we are not.

Don has defined goals ? “Lets Get Growing” ? Shari’s was “Lets Get Moving”. I wish just one candidate would shout “We need a professional football team”. LOL…..

I guess the failure of Auto-Magic can be attributed to the city not having a large enough population, rather than a poor business decision. Speaking of which; how did the owner of a rinky dink tire shop in PG and a failed mayoral candidate wind-up with a cushy Liberal sponsored position as a chief financial officer for a crown corp? Must be nice to have connections in the right places.

By “Let’s Get Moving”, Shari meant, moving to greener pastures if we didn’t like her style.

Wasn’t Dick Harris some kind of tire salesman before politics ?

Support pg81? hmmm what does that mean?

Jimmy, perhaps you should do some research and actually know what you are talking about before you make idiotic statements.
Don sold Auto-magic at least 10 years before it failed…that failure had nothing to do with him! So lack of clientele? Maybe! Poor business decisions? Probably!
What does that have to do with him? When he owned it and operated it Auto Magic was successful and thriving!
As for appointments to cushy positions…god forbid we ever ever elect an NDP government again you will see how they are handed out like candies and nuts at Christmas!

Hey Jimmy Hughes. Comment was “one can only assume they are Hall supporters” based on the tone of responses. Not definitely saying that. But judging by your last two posts,and how happy you sound, did Mr.Zurowski steal your thunder at some point? Absolutely no emotion at all governing your answers. Am I a Groupie no. Informed and intelligent yes. Should try it out. Much happier over here.

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 10:00 AM by 8

“The Code says all communication must be to the City Manager only, he says he believes individual councillors need to be able to pick up the phone and talk to administrators “That is what they are elected to do.”

How about the code of conduct read “city administration communicate to council and keep them informed. Administration has had free run of this city for three years under Green. Don you are status quoi.”

Does your brain do a disconnect while you are typing? He says time for the “code of conduct” to take a sabbatical, I am sorry you have no idea what that means. Allowing individual councillors (councilors) to once again talk to admin is not status quo. Hall’s plan IS status quo.

Also having a vision for the city and steering the ship in that direction is more brilliant instead of just running the city as status quo like Hall plans to do. NONE of the old council wanted to do any of the hard work required to bring in new business, INCLUDING Hall. They left that to IPG which just works on bringing in employees for existing business, not the actual businesses themselves. You need to attract new business to bring in more people, it’s not rocket science and also not impossible, you just have to WORK for the goal. They (businesses) aren’t going to relocate or locate here if they are not chased, why would they when they could stay in a much more hospitable climate and just send salesmen?

Maybe Hall’s plan is to close down parts of the city to balance the budget like he did at the school board. Yes low blow but follows the same line of thinking put forth by his supporters.

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 12:24 PM by supportpg81

Why not focus on your candidates initiatives and fight for those? Is this an indication of the people backing Mr. Hall? I really hope not or we will be one miserable city if Mr. Hall is the winner tomorrow.

Its easy to tell most of the posters are scared of another term of a Green type in the mayor seat. Could this be the reason?

Greens ambition was not to be a good Mayor. Just a step on everyone to move to a higher level of politics. She used my tax dollars to do it.

Don has been on Government payroll for a long time

Chair of the BC Passenger Transportation Board, Chair of the International Bioenergy Conference & Exhibition Society, I serve as a Director of the Prince George Airport Authority and I am a Director of BC Pavilion Corporation

I would hope his platform would be a little stronger than growing a population. Just saying looking at his resume.

Jimmy Hughes. Don sold out of Auto Magic at it’s peak, had a sizeable tire warehouse on the BcR industrial site and it only started its decline after he left. He was the only cfdc to own the building out right and rent the other part of the building out. I’d say he’s pretty clever at making the most out of a situation. I have been to his campaign office several times and it is packed with successful business people, nurses, doctors and local volunteers who are all positive that Dons vision can be made reality. Most successful people have goals, the first step in Zurowski’s plan is to get in the divers seat and start steering this city in a positive direction. It would probably safe to say that all the nay Sayers on this site are satisfied with the status quo in their personal and business lives and are jealous of people who actually hold themselves to a higher standard and have the courage to act on their goals.

Sincerely,

Future Millionare

In the past few weeks there has been more talk about civic pride, growing the community and how do we do it than we’ve heard in many years. It took Zurowski to create the vision of the possibilities. Imagine, a true leader who is asking the City Citizens to become engaged and join in. Classic vision and success; Martin Luther King’s words I have a dream…. but not a plan.

Why is it the Hall supporters seem so angry and frustrated? That suggests uncertainty and defense. I absolutely believe Zurowski will be elected. In any case, the losing Mayorial or Council candidates were willing to put themselves out there. Thanks for giving us choice and something to talk about.

8. Duly noted. But isn’t someone who grew a successful private business in PG and sold his stake prior to “it’s failure” as Happy Jimmy incorrectly puts it, and has a long tenure in government serve us well for our community? Not sure what we want in a candidate at all then? No track record in anything?

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 12:50 PM by slinky

Does your brain do a disconnect while you are typing? He says time for the “code of conduct” to take a sabbatical, I am sorry you have no idea what that means. Allowing individual councillors (councilors) to once again talk to admin is not status quo. Hall’s plan IS status quo.

I see you weren’t hit with a smart stick yesterday or tomorrow let alone today.

If you paid attention to the problem, it has always been aloud for a councilor to talk administration. Administration would not talk to councilors unless your name was Stoltz, Wilbur or Green.
get with it Slinky.

Why is no one talking about Lynn’s platform….. Oh, that’s right, because there is nothing to talk about.

Well its pretty obvious that people are set in their ways and are not likely to change their votes at this late date.

Suffice to say that the old adage **BS baffles brains** is alive and well.

Since 1976 to 2012. The City grew by some 20,000 people. Or approx. 700 people per year. To suggest that it could grow by 2000 per year considering the economic malaise we have here is foolish.

Furthermore I was at the meeting at the Library when Zurowski stated the population would grow by 20,000 in 6 years. He now states 8 to 10 years, and after the election I doubt if he would even bring the subject up.

We will have to wait until tomorrow night for the election results, and perhaps some 20 years for the population increase results.

I have listened to all the air shows on CFIS -mixcloud, read what others have said in other newspaper venues and attended 2 candidate forums. I was at the Library on Wed. night and just looked at the questions another paper asked all candidates.

I have crossed some people off of my voting list as their answers to some of the questions were completely different from what they told me in person at the library.
I also found a couple of comments on the other radio news sites that were not printed in the papers etc. changing my mind again.

I am so tired of being lied to by these people it is no wonder people do not want to vote. As with all the elections I have been able to vote in, I feel it is my right to vote as many countries do not allow regular citizen to have any votes.

One needs to be informed. I sure hope others have done their homework. What a flippin chore…..

I interviewed all the candidates for council at the library. I made my final decision for the mayor vote with this question. Would you work better with a CEO type of mayor or a council mayor? To avoid another dysfunctional council I will have to vote for a council mayor.

Al Hines (president of the rec hockey league) emailed all the rec hockey players this morning on who he supports and why players should vote the way he is.
If you remember, he was the one who proposed Sheri Green because of the new rink that got built… Oh, wait a minute… That one backfired…
He does have alot of pull though
Im going to have to agree with his picks this year though.

Card in the mail(paid by CUPE) – vote for these candidates recommended by CUPE – Hall as mayor and six councillors .. Merrick/Mcconnachie – already know they have received $$ from CUPE – wonder if the push is because the CUPE locals (city workers) have an contract expiring in 2016 and Hall (if mayor)will be wishy -washy. Check out Friday’s Citizen to see what Hall voted against – took no stand whatsoever on any item which affected all taxpayers in the city.

See guys this is why Prince George will never have nice things. Small minded thinking expressed on here is why we as a city will struggle to meet our potential. This city needs to grow. Lyn Hall is not the guy to make this happen. You want to stand around and sing campfire songs then he is your guy. You want someone that holds himself and those he works with accountable then Don is your guy. Lyn has been running against a ghost this whole campaign. Don is not Shari. Don also brings a different style of leadership than Shari.

“The best way to avoid criticism; say nothing, do nothing and be nothing.- Aristotle

Don isn’t afraid to make a decision and stand by it, can’t say the same about the other guy.

Maybe the stick struck you on the head “8”

Dec 16th meeting Code Of Conduct the city admin had worked on during “reign of terror” by the Green steamroller

By the way which was wholeheartedly endorsed by Hall who voted a “unanimous” YES includes part 15 which you should give a read along with 13 through 16. Maybe you missed the memo but all previous and future councilors must now sign that they have read AND agree with the “code of conduct”.

They can only talk to the City Manager through private correspondence, councilors must NOT interfere with administrative functions of the city, if they do they face censure. It has NOT been “always allowed”

Maybe read Hall’s assertion that he was not in the loop and he cannot be tagged with the decisions of the administration during the last term. Yet the code of conduct will do more of the same. Sure, he will be the “go between” admin and council but we all know how that worked out.

Hall should set up a task force to counter the Zurowski Get Growing called Get Going! Take the negative and skeptics and form, I’ll use the term loosely, a think tank. Hall is willing to meet on your turf, anywhere in the City but please allow some time for City Crews to work overtime in loading up council chambers and hauling it out to you.

In the short weeks of campaigning, we have heard more civic pride and about possibility of growing the city than discussed over past 3 years. Imagine that! I work with immigrants and ask why they’d come to the dusty stinky cold place like Prince George? Because their friends invited them. They kept saying Prince George is a City of job opportunity, affordable and the friendliest place they have been to. We have attracted Doctors, Engineers, Accountants, equipment operators etc through word of mouth and friend’s recommendation. So folks if you think growing the city has to be a pipe dream, please apply for the Hall think tank. If you want to be part of the solution instead of problem, offer solutions instead of problems! Have a wonderful and fun weekend!!

happy13 you misunderstand CEO mayor and council mayor, purposefully for this discussion I think but that is just me.

Loaded question when presented to the mayor hopefuls

When running the city we want a SEO mayor who has a vision and gets things rolling not a council mayor who can’t get things moving in any meaningful direction and is only good for the odd photo op.

When sitting in council chambers we want a council mayor who will work with all members and admin towards a goal while still LISTENING to those who put them in that chair

Maybe the stick struck you on the head “8”

Ouch: that must of hurt Slinky. Hit 8 times and never learnt a thing. LOL

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 1:54 PM by Zena

Hall should set up a task force to counter the Zurowski Get Growing called Get Going! Take the negative and skeptics and form, I’ll use the term loosely, a think tank. Hall is willing to meet on your turf, anywhere in the City but please allow some time for City Crews to work overtime in loading up council chambers and hauling it out to you.

In the short weeks of campaigning, we have heard more civic pride and about possibility of growing the city than discussed over past 3 years. Imagine that! I work with immigrants and ask why they’d come to the dusty stinky cold place like Prince George? Because their friends invited them. They kept saying Prince George is a City of job opportunity, affordable and the friendliest place they have been to. We have attracted Doctors, Engineers, Accountants, equipment operators etc through word of mouth and friend’s recommendation. So folks if you think growing the city has to be a pipe dream, please apply for the Hall think tank. If you want to be part of the solution instead of problem, offer solutions instead of problems! Have a wonderful and fun weekend!!

You dam right we have civic pride. People boost that we need to be an informed voter. Well we got informed. Then when people inform themselves then its bashing their decision. LOL love this S*it

This time both mayoral candidates are from the town and both have lived here enough in the town to know its problems and its problem areas. You know what I mean. Considering their past work in the city council, the difference is between Don the business minded CEO type and the school minded CEO council Hall type personalities.

The city has a bad rep and the city downtown has been infested with crime, drug, prostitution and we are on the murder highway of the region. It doesn’t help that the shining temple on the hill (the university) is also infested by harassment of students and faculty members that we have read all about it in the local newspapers.

The city with its fully funded 1000 empty seats in UNBC and CNC has potential for some growth, and the airport and city infrastructure can accommodate newcomers considering all the gas and oil boom regions in the vicinity. The problem is mainly bad management.

Which of these two is a better manager who can run a clean city Hall and who can tell the RCMP to clean the ‘city hall’ neighborhood from the riffraffs and who has the confidence to tell the university to deal with the harassment by a few bad apples on the ‘city Hill’ to attract new students?

Vancouver tried moving some council meetings out into the community. Praised by the citizens who attended. Quite successful from my understanding.

For those who live outside the core area here and want to attend a council meeting, public transit is a problem. Having council meetings in their areas may help.

I’ll bet the people in Haldi Rd and the Hart who are getting a new sewer would like council to go there and met with them.

Good idea to do this from Lyn Hall.

I do not know why anyone would want to run for Council, like Sharri said you have to have thick skin,she is a young woman and I think she did the Mayors job the best she could and I wish her well and I hope she stays in P.G. Everyone in this City is not focused on the no income people , some of us would would like to see a normal downtown, we all want SAFE healthy neighbourhoods.

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 2:40 PM by HAS

For those who live outside the core area here and want to attend a council meeting, public transit is a problem. Having council meetings in their areas may help.

I will say this much. If City does not bring water and sewer out to Haldi, why would I want to stay. For their great garbage pick up and snow removal. Duh, bye bye high taxes.

I have no problem with an aspiring politician telling me that a vote for him could attract 25, 000 people to move here within a decade. I would just find him more believable if he was holding a magic wand.

I think you are missing the point and the many other platforms Don Zurowski is presenting. Why are you so focused on this growth plan Digitus Impudicus? Let it go…..

Lmao – there’s a guy spewing ra ra Hall stuff all over social media and lo and behold he is a fireman. So ole Lynn Hall sure has all of the unions backing him it appears. We’d better get ready to bend over come contract time if Hall gets in.

positivethinker……so you admit it is a line of BS. What am I missing ?

Don, you’re a nice fellow.
Having said that, I do believe Lynn will do more for the citizens of Prince George.

Well Digitus, you have obviously made up your mind…or should I say your union bosses made up your mind for you!
At any rate, I would rather have Don share his vision and his dream of a better PG than have Hall who’s main planks in his campaign seem to be holding council meetings in the suburbs…and more of status quo..Hall will be licking the city manager’s boot straps for an entire 4 year term if he’s elected!
Hall has ZERO vision for PG, ZERO plan for improving our city and will be a big ZERO as mayor!

In case you missed it slighthawk, I have in no way promoted either candidate. I just like to call blatant BS is for what it is.

ZEROWSKI…..see, now that would be funny.

69 comments, wow! Well, let me be number 70. Don’t you guys have jobs or something better to do? Good grief, for some of you, it looks like you spend your entire day writing crap on this site and I do mean crap. Put down the keyboard and go outside and talk to another human being for a change.

Cheers.

I think it’s absolutely fair game to question Zurowski and his focus on growing the population to 100,000, especially when he says he’s going to do it by:

“getting friends and family to encourage their friends and family to relocate to Prince George” and to “let out the secret that Prince George is a great place to live and work”

Use your heads folks, this is absolute bafflegab! It means absolutely nothing. People don’t relocate to a city because their friend told them to or because someone told them it’s a nice place.

People relocate to a city because they have employment opportunities, because they like the amenities, because they want a change in lifestyle, because they think it’s a good place to invest, because they’ve spent some time there before and like what it has to offer, because it has the type of cultural scene they enjoy, because they think it provides opportunities for their children, etc.

It has very little to do with what the friends and family say and more to do with how people connect to the city. To do that, the city has to pull people in.

If population growth is Zurowski’s big platform item, then he should have said how he was going to change the city in order to accomplish that. THAT could be the basis for a plan. Virtually every city in Canada has citizens who are proud ambassadors for where they live. So Zurowski’s plan is that PG’s ambassadors will somehow win out over those from every other city, despite the reality of past growth trends and other things that have held PG back?

That isn’t leadership. It’s a lack of vision and it’s an unwillingness to address the issues that are genuinely limiting the growth of PG.

Quoting Slinky at 2:06 today: “When running the city we want a CEO mayor who has a vision and gets things rolling not a council mayor who can’t get things moving in any meaningful direction and is only good for the odd photo op.

When sitting in council chambers we want a council mayor who will work with all members and admin towards a goal while still LISTENING to those who put them in that chair.”

I have been on the fence for the mayor vote until I read your comment and everything fell into place. While both candidates are to be applauded for stepping up to the plate, I think one of the candidates in particular would be too easily influenced by the city manager due to inexperience. And that is too scary to consider.

Please go and vote Saturday everyone!

Sine Nomine – so you are suggesting that we should not be involved with the municipal elections and just go chat with our neighbours?

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2014 @ 1:14 PM by Palopu
“Suffice to say that the old adage **BS baffles brains** is alive and well.
Since 1976 to 2012. The City grew by some 20,000 people. Or approx. 700 people per year. To suggest that it could grow by 2000 per year considering the economic malaise we have here is foolish.”

Excuse me but we did not grow 20,000 people larger. Here are the census numbers:
1971 = 33,179
1976 = 59,929 amalgamation – extended land base
1981 = 67,559 7,630 or 1,526 per year
1986 = 67,621 62 or 12 per year
1991 = 69,653 2,032 or 406 per year
1996 = 75,150 5,497 or 1,099 per year
2001 = 72,406 -2,744 or we lost 549 per year
2006 = 70,981 -1,425 or we again lost 285 per year
2011 = 71,974 993 or we gained 199 per year

1976 to 2011 we gained 12,045 population in 35 years or 344 per year not even close to 700 – but what happened between 1996 and 2001 to drop our population so drastically? Up to that point we had been increasing population by an average of 761 people per year (15,221 / 20).

Since I have been living here (1981 to present) I have not seen any real difference in this town (unfortunately). Downtown was as desolate then as it is now aside from the loss of a LOT of nightlife. We have to attract new businesses to town and we can’t put bars in their way AFTER they decide to move here (Rona a prime example) That is the only way to increase the population, get rid of IPG or change their mandate to stop trying to attract PEOPLE and in fact try and attract BUSINESS to move to town. Like Don says, he has worked hard to increase his BUSINESS 40% in the last 8-10 years and he wants to work just as hard for us.
If there is employment, and good employment in PG the people will follow. The lesson is when NDP drove many BUSINESSES out of PG to Alberta the people followed. It was worse than the recession of 1981. It has taken a long time to bring the population back to where it was at the start of the millenium when all of our computers and cars were going to crash, planes were going to fall out of the sky and banks were going to lose all our deposits.

Forward thinking citizens, we want to get PG moving, not the people. Williams lake is just starting to lose jobs and probably population, we don’t want to be next. We can’t afford another 4 years of tax increases. Quesnel – a city of what… 10,000 can hold the line on taxes yet we somehow can’t – or won’t. If Hall gets in and we have another 4 years of this BS our population will not be going up I can tell you that for a fact.

So who backed Green. It wasn’t union workers thats for sure. How well did that turn out?

Not well. Funny how those who say they are results focused forget when they get in management who creates the results. It is those that do the work.

Want results, help those that create them. Shari like Don are results focused. Works in a shop, not as much in a bigger operation where your workers are your results. If they don’t work or create an environment where they prevent others from working then remove them but stay focused on your team so they know why. If you do that they will support these changes. If not you get our current mess. I am still voting for Lyn.

The only results Shari was focused on was working for her funders, don’t kid yourself. She worked out so well for them that they now want to place her somewhere she can get them into the federal bankroll; seeing as how Bell failed them. And that is my opinion. She was in no way results focused to improve PG in any way shape or form. Her best line was that people expect to see tax increases on the same level as inflation yet not once has it even been close to that, never mind user fees on top of that.

Two CUPE members in the ranks of council will further elevate annual increases as a norm, and trusting an employee of Wood Wheaton on council – another party to our current mayor – is also a red flag.

I don’t always agree with you slinky, but I do today. I think everything Shari talks about and tries to take credit for the planning was done in Dan’s Mayor time. Let me think.

WIDC Building – oh right that was set up when Dan was mayor
Negotiating a reduced wage – Oh, city had just come out of 3-3-3-3-3 when others were lucky to get 1-1-1-1-1. So the union knew they would have a tough time getting a raise, but she did manage to get them all angry. Excellent – good job Shari???
Downtown heating system – Oh right that was under Dan too. Now we will get massive carbon credits. It was mostly paid for with grants. Turns out is was a great idea. Dan should have sold it more.
Boundary Road – oh right that was under Dan too
Canada Games – Oh shoot, that was under Dan too
Police station – not everyone was happy about that one but it got done – Oh that was under Dan too.

Hmm what did she accomplish? I can’t think of anything good so I will just not say anything.