$23 Million Dollar PG Project Part of Transit Deal
MLA Sirley Bond and Mayor Lyn Hall announce new project for P.G. – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C.- Prince George will see a $23 million dollar maintenance facility and expanded operations centre built as part of the Federal -Provincial Transit funding announcement ( see previous story).
Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall says the site for the facility has yet to be chosen “No location yet, it’s something that we will be dealing with this fall in consultation with the Ministry of Transportation and BC Transit as to where they would like to see the facility. The intent is to create a new facility that will handle all the buses, much like we have in the ( BCR) industrial site, but a much more centralized location is what I think they’re after.”
The 4th Avenue yards, which used to be home to many City Works departments, is likely not on the list of possible sites says Mayor Hall “We have that area leased out, and there are water issues because the water table is too high, and we have flooding issues, so I don’t think that would be an option.”
The facility will support a fleet of cleaner burning compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. The City is expected to be responsible for about $3.9 million dollars of the total cost of this project. That contribution could come in a number of ways says Mayor Hall, including donation of land, dollars, or a combination of both “That’s something we will talk about this fall, as they may have an opportunity to use Crown Land for this. We need to look at, obviously 17% is our contribution to this project, so this fall we will be talking about that through the budget process to see where those dollars will come from.”
There will be new buses for Prince George as BC Transit renews its fleet across the province. Details on how many new buses will be coming to Prince George are not yet available. The new buses will have “smart technology” which will include closed circuit television, real time information, such as automatic vehicle location and automatic passenger counters.
The other part of the announcement will benefit handyDART service as two replacement handyDART buses will be coming to Prince George in 2017. The City and BCTransit will be working with the community and seniors groups to ensure all 13 thousand hours of handyDART service available in the City are fully used, right now, only about 900 hours are used. Mayor Hall says there will be discussions to see what the handyDART users need and what they would like to see in service.
Work on the new facility is expected to start later this fall, with completion in early 2019.
“That economic impact is certainly good for our city as well” said Mayor Hall.
Comments
Awesome, great to see that this facility is coming to the city and nice to see some new cleaner buses being added to the fleet (Y)
You know what would be nice. Painted lines on the highways. Not sexy I know, but kind of important.
Wonder how much all this vote buying is going to cost us?
is it really vote buying, if the NDP was in power they would be doing the same thing. Most of us are really not that naïve, it was a tactic done several decades ago, but most of the voters have reasonable level of education and can see thru most of this posturing.
I see it as vote buying..All in power parties do it..
If that’s the case why do they still inundate us with a dozen signs of the same candidate in a row? Because they think the average voter is stupid enough to vote for the candidate who is noticed the most.
So P Val, according to the previous story, this funding is part of the “Bilateral Agreement to Provide $160 Million for BC Transit Projects”.
Further it states that Premier Christy Clark and Liberal MP Stephen Fuhr (Kelowna-Lake Country) held a joint news conference this morning in Kelowna to announce almost $160 million dollars in federal and provincial funding for BC Transit projects across the province.
Vote buying?
It would appear that a very large portion of these funds are Federal funds, from the new Liberal Government, funds coming I might add from Justin’s massive deficit spending!
So, who’s buying the votes, Justin or Christy? I just know that the answer to that is really going to pi$$ you off and it’s going to make JGalt go ballistic!
Justin? The Federal Liberals? Vote buying? Vote buying with deficit spending? Say it isn’t so!
I’m not a fan of Justin or the Liberals but I must say that it’s finally nice to see some of his massive deficit spending actually being spent in Canada, instead of in Indonesia and numerous other foreign countries!
They all do it hart guy..it’s a cycle..when any party first gets into power they do a few things to start working on their promises..then the next two-three years they just cause kaos..gouging tax payers..cutting all over the place.. Then coming up to election time they spend all kinds of money trying to make us forget what they did the last few years…and yes I do see it as vote buying.. And it happens at all levels of government.. Even Trudeau will do it…because that’s how politics works now….
“Justin? The Federal Liberals? Vote buying? Vote buying with deficit spending? Say it isn’t so!”
Too late! The Liberals ran on a platform of deficit spending which included increased infrastructure spending! They were elected to form a majority government! That’s how it works in a democracy!
Prince George, nice that some of the deficit spending is actually happening within Canadian borders, wouldn’t you agree!
When Justin and crew ran on their deficit spending platform, I’ll bet that the vast majority of people didn’t think that it meant deficit spending all over the world and then hopefully within our borders! I’ll bet that they also believed in the “modest” budget platform that was promised, not the $10 Billion budget that we got this year and the projected $30 Billion over the term of this government!
Tell me PVal, in your opinion is it a bad thing that this facility is going to be built here?
Is the fact that some of our tax dollars are actually going to be invested in our area a bad thing?
Is this facility needed? Are the new buses needed?
I think we all know what the answers to those questions are!
I know exactly what your issue is….it might make the governing liberals look good!
Tough to take for supporters of the Dippers that have ZERO hope of winning the next election unless our economy goes to hell in a hand basket like Alberta’s!
I think this is a good idea as well, but the timing, of course, makes it look like vote buying.
Since public transportation is now being considered along the Highway of Tears from Prince Rupert to Prince George, and perhaps from the North Eastern BC region to Prince George, it makes sense that there be this kind of Public Transit maintenance facility up here and located in a strategic place like Prince George. Of course there will be those of you who will not like the idea now that I have linked it to “public transit” on our northern highways.
“Is the fact that some of our tax dollars are actually going to be invested in public transport up here in the north a bad idea?” Is public transportation up here and this public transit maintenance facility needed up here?
I think we know the answer to those questions!!!
I know exactly why some are opposed to public transportation up here, but not opposed to the idea of a maintenance facility for public transit being located here in PG. Any guesses?
If the NDP were in power and spending money like this, all of us would have to listen to the incessant whining from Cons like you about the “Dippers” putting our po’ grandchildren into debt slavery.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. Pacific Western Transportation (PWT) has had a monopoly on transit in PG for the past few decades because there were no other properties in town that could handle a bus fleet. Further, the cost of making a new building would rule out other parties that might have been interested in operating transit in PG. With a new building that is not owned by the company (PWT), I wonder if this means we’re on the verge of having a new transit company as well?
Instead of the City spending 3.9 million on buses why don’t they just buy everyone in PG a bike? It would be a lot cheaper and even more environmentally friendly!
’cause the bikes would get stolen.
:D
Yes, try telling a 80 year old they just have to ride a bike. You are brilliant, you really should be running for top office. Really, smh.
Are these the same 80 year olds that can’t walk to a community mailbox? How are they supposed to walk to a bus stop?
Well peter north, it probably is the same 80 year old, difference being, the bus stops are clear of snow banks, where as the mail boxes are covered in a snow bank, but I don’t get your point, you still think it is ok for an 80 year old to ride a bike to the Dr or shopping? You must be one “special little snow flake” Things must really be hard in your world, but then again, you probably drive a pick up and think rules are for others and they just get in your way. It’s all about you!
Do we want to be leaders in saving the planet or not? People need to think outside the box, I am glad you are not in office or our vehicles would still be running on leaded gas and carburetors.
The old City yard is most certainly NOT in the flood-prone area, the area of issue is further down the street (it can be easily remedied).
The property was quietly handed over to a certain business owner who seems to get whatever they want out of City hall. No mention has previously been made of whether it was a lease, or a sale or otherwise. I would like to see the Ivory tower make the info on this taxpayer owned property be made public…(AHE…..this is a callout to those councillors who read this site).
This property would in fact be a perfect fit for building a new bus facility. If giving this property up for a bus facility covers the City’s (in-kind) contribution for the project, then our elected council should seriously consider doing so. The current tennant owns MANY unused properties in which they could relocate to.
As far as the project itself goes… It will bring some funds into our city to be spent locally (local companies ONLY to be used?), and if we dont grab it some other community will happily do so. Maybe it will help lower the annual operating cost, at the very least it is more appealing than spending money on the LEAF.
I wonder why now, after all the natural gas pumping stations were pulled out, they’re thinking of going back to natural gas for these vehicles? The big push a few years ago was natural gas. There were a lot of taxis on it but they had to convert back to gas later on when the NG vehicles were no longer available.
Just makes me wonder, that’s all.
Give more, it’s all about following the trends you know.
For me, a hydrogen fuel cell equipped fleet would be money well spent and no pollution.
metalman.
Amazing where the Liberals find all this money when it’s close to an election.
Governments spend money, its a big part of what they do, It is important we get our share of that spending, We all benifit from economic activity a project this size brings to PG.
If having local MLAs sitting on the government side of the house translates to more money landing in the riding, who are we to argue? PG voted the right way. To the winners go the spoils. Think about that the next time you head to the polls.
“If having local MLAs sitting on the government side of the house translates to more money landing in the riding, who are we to argue?”
Does that apply federally with our MPs as well? PG voted the wrong way. To us losers go NO spoils… guess we should think about that the next time we head to the polls… right?
That kind of thinking might apply to a Conservative majority government, but we voted in a Liberal Majority Government who operated in a much more fair and democratic manner. The majority of this public transportation funding comes a Federal Liberal majority government even though we were stupid enough to have voted for Conservative MPs.
..or some might think that “we” were stupid enough to have voted for the Liberal Party of Canada! ;-)
Our total property tax hit is going to be over 5 million for transit on top of the regular increases, maybe long term finance it… thats the ticket
I rode my Bike everyday to Work , on Snow and Ice I walked but not in PG,it has all this Circus talent on Ice , go ahead and slide, who know what under!
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