"Roads, police and fire protection, water and sewer are the basic reasons that a group of citizens get together to form a municipality in order to share the cost of those projects."

And when does quality of life become part of the mandate?

That is the problem, isn't it? Those back to the basics people are going to be spending tons of money to get the rural properties within the city onto water and sewer.

We'll get rid of gas and electricity and a few others, and everyone can get back to wood burning furnaces, and asphalt plants can operate anywhere.

To Keep our roads in repair we have been hit with a 4% levey. For police they are talking about 6 more cantables. Fire protection is a none issueas the populatiomn growth is stagnent. So why would we need more policeman when they also tell us that the crime rate in the city has dropped.

Quality of life. At city hall that is a strange word and they have probably never herd of it. The medical profession has recently released figures on how many people die in PG from poor air quality. And those deaths are not attributed to weiner rosts and fireplace use. Its the tons of polution dumped into the air shed by heavy industry.

PASHA has released a picture as to who is runing for council and what their grade is for each candidate runing for civic office and my question was are their any candidates out there that would support in creased taxation for industry untill they start to clean up the air quality in the city. There was not one responce to that question from the posters on this site or a candidate

We are just spinning our wheels and letting council build their empire as they see it. And dollars to donuts there probably will not be much of a change after the election. Those with a vested interest will get out vote and the other 53% will just keep on whining about poor government.

Cheers

These comments are a little off the mark.

Let's think about this for a minute...

Good roads, reliable sewer & water, police & fire protection, clean parks and public spaces, modern recreation facilities, proper urban planning, building inspection, and bylaw enforcement IS WHAT CREATES OUR QUALITY OF LIFE!!

When you ignore these things to pursue other initiatives, quality of life within a community actually begins to break down.

Don't believe it?? Go without fresh water for a few days. Go to work without taking a bath for a week and see what your co-workers think. Ever had a sewer back up into your house??

I could go on, but there is no need.

I agree but what about our air? I was here when Canfor opened. The day before it opened we had clear northern air; the day it opened you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. I would think our quality of life disappeared on that day.

All the incumbents want residential housing downtown but to date not one of them has declared he/she has their home for sale and is getting ready to move. The average citizen is more concerned about the out of control spending by the present council than the condition of downtown. The money wasted supporting doomed PG - Seattle airline flights would have been far better spent elsewhere for the benefit of all PG citizens. What did we get from the existing council when the airline pulled the plug and had their hand out for a check. We got a "well nothing ventured.....nothing gained". If it was such a good deal in the mind of the consultants why did the city have to support it at all.
We had the little pipe dumping water into the Nechako on the Cameron street bridge. When the ice built up close to the water outlet of the pipe that dumb idea was quietly retired.
The boulevard in front of the CN Center is jammed with signs from incumbents wanting your vote. I sure hope they did not trip in the pot holes and fall as they crossed the Ospika to pound there signs in the turf.
As for the poor quality of air and the mega health problems resulting from this issue technology is readily available to remove the damaging particluate matter. It is time to quit worrying about a few jobs and start being concerned about a very damaging health issue affecting thousands in PG. If the businesses are viable they will spend the money to reduce air pollution.
It is time to give a new group a chance to see if they can do what the present city council has miserably failed at. As citizens we have nothing to lose by voting in 8 new councillors given the performance of the present council.

Let's think about this for a minute...

Yes many of us have thought about it and come to the conclution there is more to quality of life then clean water, garbage and sewage collection because that is all we get for our tax dollars. And this is supposed to be covered by utility costs. So where do our tax dollars actualy go?

And Resident makes a good point when the cost is taken into consideration and is absolutley correct that we have nothing to loose should we decide to elect a completley new council

We waste our tax dollars on trying to enhance the economy. It should be the first priority of council to provide a city where people want to live and the economuy will look after itself. We live in a free enterprise society. When the city uses tax dollars to boost the economy we are looking a socialism.

Cheers

I don't know about that definition of socialism but that is a whole other discssion.
What I am hearing from some voters is that they want to keep some members of Council for continuity. By the time we hit the polls some voters may vote for one half of the present Council and other voters will vote for the other half so we will have the same Council again.
Of all the new ones running there will only probably be two new ones and everyone will be so divided that heaven knows who will get in.
I don't know anything about ratepayers' associations but perhaps we need to have some type of organization that rates the new candidates much as PACHA has done with the clean air questionnaire and then publishes it so we can have some control where our City is heading. Right now, I think we are all over the place.

Hey Gus, I live in a rural area inside the city limits. My taxes went up 34% this year and I have no city services except garbage which I pay utilities for. I don't really care if the city supplies water, sewers, curbs, storm sewers and streetlighting or not. If I receive all the same services as those in town then I don't mind paying for it. But when I'm charged the same taxes as those in the city and I don't receive the same services, then I'm pissed. Turf the whole lot on city council and lets start over. New people on council sure couldn't do any worse.