Hall Sworn In As Mayor
Mayor Lyn Hall wears chain of Office as he presides over brief Council meeting – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. -Lyn Hall has now officially been sworn in as the Mayor of Prince George.
He, and the eight councillors elected on November 15th, took their oath of office in front of a packed gallery at the Prince George Council Chamber.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ron Tindale administered the oaths, after which each Councillor and Mayor Hall made brief comments.
It was an emotional Hall who stopped to regain composure as he thanked his wife and daughters for their support not only in this campaign, but in his 13 years in public life. Prior to first being elected to City Council in 2011, Hall had been a School Board Trustee and Board Chair for School District 57.
He praised the Councillors who were successful in the campaign, and looked at the issues which helped propel them all to office 
Hall says there will be a planning session early in the New Year to set some strategic goals . He says those discussions will include ( but not be limited to) strengthening community partnerships with stakeholders such as CNC, School District 57, UNBC, DBIA, Northern Health, Chamber of Commerce and IPG.
He says there will be discussions about setting a “sound financial framework which will see our City thrive. Ensuring roads are maintained to the highest quality, that includes road rehabilitation and snow clearing which we heard loud and clear, and have heard for a number of years that this is important to the community.”
The role Council plays in creating a strong foundation to attract business to the City will be “A focal point during the strategy discussions” says Hall, who adds infrastructure needs, both above and below ground, and developing a strong financial plan to deal with those issues will be discussed.
Housing for seniors and affordable housing for the disadvantaged, downtown revitalization and community safety are on the radar as well. Committees will be restructured to meet the needs of the community. He announced there will be new committees struck to have a greater connection with students at UNBC CNC and School District 57 “It’s important to reconnect with them” says Hall.
He says the overarching theme will be about reconnecting council with the community. “It has been talked about many, many times during the campaign. It’s about inclusion around this table, and within the City. It’s also about creating strong partnerships, because without those partnerships we will not fulfill the needs of our City.”
Hall says there will be many things to celebrate in Prince George, the 2015 Games and the City’s centennial. He thanked City Staff for their work in the past and the work they will do in the future. Hall closed his remarks saying “I am humbled and privilege to be sitting in this chair. and I look forward to the journey we are going to take over the next four years, thank you very, very much.”
Comments
I wonder when he will stop the fluoride from going into our water.
Having to address any mayor as ‘Your Worship’ is just stomach turning.
I think we are going to see lots of great new changes having this newly elected council. It’s really too bad these negative comments have to start before they have been sworne in four hours!
About time.
The green era is over!
Good riddance.
Pretty soon her political career will be curtains.
I remember when Shari was sworn in as mayor people were saying that she was a breath of fresh air and a sign of change at city hall and her tough talk had a lot of people hoping for the best midway through her term we discovered that she was all talk and no bite.
The difference this time around is if you include Frank Everet in the numbers 2/3rds of city council has been changed out with fresh eyes and insight and all I can say is I am hoping for the best but won’t be surprised if there is all bark but no bite again.
We will know what our new city council and mayor will shape up to be by the start of the new school year next sept in that time they will of had time to adjust to their new roles and responsibilities and will of had time to enact certain changes.
Best of luck to our new mayor and council. Remember the citizens of PG are relying on you to do a good job and so in 4 years we can look back proudly at the progress we have seen. And in return be finally happy about who we voted for :)
Lynn Hall calls all the tax burdens stake holders. IPG, DBIA,CHamber
of Commerce, Colledge, UNBC, Northern Health. There not stake holders,
There all huge tax burdens. One thing is for sure, taxes wont be going down. I would like to see the DBIA and the IPG go, why should businesses downtown pay 2 taxes.? Especialy with the environment we have downtown.
” One thing is for sure, taxes wont be going down.”
——
Hall’s been sucking at the taxpayer teat for most of his life; he relies on taxes to make his living.
I’m not really understanding why everyone always gets so excited when there’s a change to the mayor position. The mayor really has little say in the day to day operation of the bureaucracy that is City Hall.
Shari Green had a honeymoon phase with the people of PG, and Lyn Hall is no different.
I too am not holding my breath that the line will be held on taxes or the City’s debt will be dealt with in any way, but we’ll see.
Lyn Hall was very good at closing schools when he was chair of the SD#57. Now he can do the same thing for IPG etc. which only draw money(taxes) but produces nothing. Let’s hope that he doesn’t give the exempt staff who are laid off or leave a goodbye kiss of $25,000 each to a tune of half million like he did when he was chair of SD#57.
Well a very good speech. I wish the people of Prince George all the best and that there will be a turn around from the past experiences that you have had with Green. And give Mayor hall the opportunity to get started as Mayor before you bury
Cheers
And remember being Mayor of the City is different then the chair of the school board. The school board is controlled by the Province through the School Superintendent. The school board had on choice in closing of schools it was just which ones.
Cheers
oldman: “Lyn Hall was very good at closing schools when he was chair of the SD#57.”
You can blame declining entrollments for that, not Lyn Hall. Give credit where it’s due.
Retired02/Johnny Belt – no the school board is not controlled by the Supt. if you are a board that has guts which Hall as chair did not have. Declining enrolments – really? Austin Road with a student population of over 300+ students and Springwood – 140+ closed.. the main reason was that Hall was part of the group and in favour to build Heather Park as a middle school (6/7/8) which was the probelm . Today Heather Park is a K-7 , it never worked as a middle school and Hart Highlands and Glenview are at a max.
I heard that the schools were going to be shutdown during the winter games. Is that true?
Retired02/Johnny Belt – no the school board is not controlled by the Supt. if you are a board that has guts which Hall as chair did not have.
========================================================================
You just dont seem to get it do you Oldman, Th school board would not nhave the authority to close even a Kinder garden class let alone a school. Check it out and leave the speculation to others.
Cheers
Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 @ 1:23 PM by onemansthoughts
I heard that the schools were going to be shutdown during the winter games. Is that true?
——-
You heard right! Spring Break is two weeks in February this year.
oldman: “Declining enrolments – really? Austin Road with a student population of over 300+ students and Springwood – 140+ closed.. the main reason was that Hall was part of the group and in favour to build Heather Park as a middle school (6/7/8) which was the probelm .”
Politics aside, you can’t argue with the numbers. We have lost half of the students in this district since 2000. To understand why one school was closed over another, you have to take into account capacity and other factors. The problem is that nobody wants to see a school closed in their neighborhood, but the reality needs to dictate otherwise when you are losing so many students in the district and the trend isn’t turning around.
Future looks bright!
Feel sorry for all the negativie people on here.
Nothing else better to spend your time??
Poor souls…
They JUST got in…
Maybe wait for a reason first?? Lol, just a suggestion
Comments for this article are closed.