Petronas put their LNG project on hold indefinetly yesterday. Apache Resources pulled out of their project with Chevron during the summer. Other than mining , it’s not looking to promising in the Northwest region. There is the ferry terminal in Prince Rupert that will be built with American materials. Hopefully Canadian tradesmen will be supplying the labour.

Yes grabbing a piece of the taxpayers’ dollars should be the title – if businesses want information I am sure that each of them are quite capable of obtaining it without this expensive IPG.

IPG should be relabelled calling it PIG as its a waste of money and it’s just more people eating from tax payers trough

For those who believe IPG doesn’t serve a purpose, I would like you to open a business and run it without marketing…

The City of PG is a business, and IPG is the marketing division… expensive, but necessary.

pgjohn: “For those who believe IPG doesn’t serve a purpose, I would like you to open a business and run it without marketing… ”

Shouldn’t the business be responsible for marketing itself? That’s a crazy thought, I know.

“The City of PG is a business,…”

With a captive customer base it is the best kind of “business” to be in! No competition. Nobody else any dissatisfied “customers” can give their loyalty to. The ability to raise “prices” and fees without having to pay any attention to “customer” complaints! It does not get any better than this.

The idea that a City is a business is bogus. This idea was floated years ago and bought into by those who want to believe such garbage.

The City is exactly what is says it is as outlined in the Community Charter, it is supported by taxes from business, citizens, and other levels of Government, and provides services to those taxpayers. Under no circumstances is it remotely like a business.

These sidelines, like IPG, Trips to China by elected Municipal people,
twinning with remote Chinese Cities, etc; etc; are nothing more than thinly disguised projects, that allow Municipal Employee’s to travel the world on tax dollars.

“Shouldn’t the business be responsible for marketing itself? That’s a crazy thought, I know.”

They are… Their approach is funding IPG.

Some pretty naive thoughts here. It is a business, and its competition are other cities. They have revenue, they have expenses, they have services they deliver (sometimes not all that well).

The problem with our city is that they haven’t looked at it as a business enough. Businesses trim the fat, and try to get the most out of their revenue. But ALL successful businesses give a significant amount of revenue to marketing. We all know Dairy Queen serves Blizzards, but they still advertise them, don’t they? It keeps their business and products top of mind.

IPG’s will help us jump over the hurdle of those believing PG has nothing, and is a simple mill town. We’ve got plenty to be proud of, and we need to get the message out, and they have.

And if people believe IPG is unique to Prince George, you’re living under a rock. Most cities have an economic development agency as well.

IPG – They are probably already planning their next trip out of this country to look for highly skilled labour for opportunities (jobs)we don’t have for them when they get here. And what better opportunity for IPG to get airmiles on taxpayers’ dollars!

Palopu- do you really think this new mayor and councillors will give up their chance to travel on taxpayer’s dollars? Highly doubt it!

Let’s close off our borders like North Korea… that will show them. No traveling on tax payer dollars…

Prince George grew and expanded at a huge rate from 1945 to the 1970’s, without any such thing as IPG, or other such foolish entities.

Give us some examples of how IPG has helped PG Grow, or has attracted any business in this town. If you want to be honest there have been more business’s that have closed down than have opened up in the past 20 years.

Most business that is here to-day, has been here for 40/50 years, with the exception of some newer commercial big box stores, and chain stores that have taken the place of other smaller business’s that have shut down.

So IPG goes through the motion of doing something, year after year, at an expense of some $1.5 Million per annum, and gives us basically nothing in return.

Has anyone even used IPG for any reason to try and expand their business?? If so please elucidate.

pgjohn Better yet freeze their bank account.

“Prince George grew and expanded at a huge rate from 1945 to the 1970’s, without any such thing as IPG, or other such foolish entities. ”

This was b/c of major projects, like the pulpmills.
We can’t sit around and wait for big business to save us. This mentality is what hurts us.

The quickest way to failure is to think, it worked before, so it should work again. The world isn’t what it was in the 40-70’s. We need to market globally.

At it’s root, a city is not a business, but rather a non-profit organization, whom we make “donations” to in the form of taxes. A business does not allow the general public (or members) to vote in/out leadership.

Like Palopu says, give us some examples of how IPG helped PG grow.

As far as I can tell, they mostly commission promotional websites, make youtube videos (that have almost no viewers), and print promotional materials. Oh yeah, they also fly to such places like India and Ireland to attend work and recruitment trade shows, but there has been no documented case that I can find of anyone moving here due to their attendance. Not exactly a sparkling record for the money spent.

And to build upon pgjohn’s post, ,in the 60s, the big pulp mills came to PG because of access to economical hydro power (WAC Bennett dam) ,cheap fibre (at the expense of all the very small 50’s style mills) and accessible rail transport (including BCR).

Don’t think IPG is in the position to recreate that scenario. Those were all provincial gov’t lead initiatives. The city should/could take leadership on small business issues like effective community planning, zoning and infrastructure development; however, that has escaped their attention for the past few decades.

The most effective example of community lead development in recent times is UNBC. The only reason PG’s number haven’t sunk to 40 year lows is that the UNBC base has added numbers as the rest of the major groups in town continue to dwindle.

And IPG was not a part of that. (Although they might like to claim different.)

The City is not a business! Businesses are in business to make a profit for the owners and/or the shareholders whose capital is invested in the business. If a business would be run like the City it would soon be extinct. Running out of credit and operating capital, running out of money to re-invest and failure to successfully market a product or service for which customers are willing to pay spell doom for a business.

The City is NOT a business. Show me the after tax annual profits that the City has made during its existence! It is NOT required to make any profit! Let’s get real!

It aggrieves me no end to have to agree with JB, but he’s stone right on this one. Let IPG demonstrate the return-on-investment and if it can be shown that there actually has been a decent return or any return at all, maybe we keep them. If not, cut them loose.

Come over to the dark side, Krusty. We have cookies. :-)

Some good points on both sides, I happen to land on the municipality is not a business side.

This article is mainly about the contribution by business to the success of the Canada Winter Games 2015 with a small mention of IPG. Yet, even though the mention in the article is small, the discussion quickly became the value add that IPG brings at its annual tax payer funding rate.

The problem with this discussion is the lack of facts presented by the various commentors. It is because IPG is not part of the municipal government that they are able to maintain discretion on what they do. There is no reporting requirement that I am aware of, so they can do as they please to continue collecting their wages.

I move that 250news.com investigate IPG, even invite them to provide the data our citizens want to know.

Interview the primary stakeholders or invite them to present their mandate and accomplishments to Mr Miesner for review and publication. Then we would ave facts to evaluate. If they refuse, that would confirm the suspicions of the detractors and so lose more credibility.

oops, confused articles, apologies.

Maybe IPG could look into why the high cost of diesel fuel in this town. Not to good for tourism. After all we want to make PG the best place in the world to live.

IPG has nothing to do with the cost of diesel, nor do they have any influence over its price.

“Shouldn’t the business be responsible for marketing itself? That’s a crazy thought, I know.”
I’m still laughing! So true Johnny, so true!.

@oldman: If we didn’t have so many diesel sucking vehicles around, the price might drop. Just a thought.

pgjohn. If you can list the businesses that have come to Prince George as a direct result of IPG’s involvement it should silence the naysayers.

So established businesses pay city taxes which help fund IPG which in turns uses that money to help market the new business which in turn will cut into the established business profits. Yet the established business pays taxes even though making less because IPG used their tax dollars to promote competition.. How stupid is that..

JB- are you saying that Abbotsford has less diesel sucking vehicles than Prince George? Check out the prices down south or some of the other provinces.