Bound for the Rock

Thursday, June 02, 2005 04:30 AM

This is George Street, and three P.G. Councilors, and the Mayor will likely see this street next week, only THIS George Street is in St John's Newfoundland!

Three councilors and Mayor Colin Kinsley have headed off to Newfoundland to attend the meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Attending the conference from the city are Councilor Don Basserman, Councilor Cliff Dezell, Councilor Murry Krause and Mayor Colin Kinsley. The conference runs from June 3rd until June 7th.

The Tourist and Convention Bureau of St. John’s reported recently that about 3000 delegates are expected at the convention, more than double the number of people who usually attend this type of meeting. The greeting from Mayor Andy Wells, of St John’s may be part of the reason. In his opening remarks he says “For over 500 years our culture has been inspired by the sea and during your visit the ocean is at its peak, whales migrating north. icebergs are floating free in Iceberg alley; seabirds in the thousands are visiting our shores”.

The city of Prince George is paying for the trip for all four delegates. When I asked of Bob Radloff , to tell me just how many city councilors were taking the trip he left me a message saying , that as of June 1st he didn’t know but would get back to me upon their return.

In Calgary there was uproar last week when it was learned a large contingent of that city's council was tending the conference on the city's tab. One councilor said, if the taxpayers weren’t paying for the trip I wonder just how many people would be attending from Calgary? In Calgary some of the councilors plan to stay on for a vacation following the meetings. It is not known what the Prince George contingent is planning to do. As a matter of interest if you would like to see the sea and the whales, you can do it if you book ahead for just under $2,000 per person. Of course the city gets cheaper air fares.

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Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 04:30 AM in News by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: Jake on June 2 2005 7:31 AM

With the sales of city properties in recent weeks, it appears Mayor Kinsley is on spending spree of his own.

Posted by: rock on June 2 2005 8:39 AM

keep up the good work boys,I know it's a tough job,you know all that time away from family and loved ones,the fine dining and probably in the evening after all the work is done you may even get to have a nightcap.I'm just glad that you guys are prepared to sacrafice yourselves for the good of us tax payers.So again boys try not to work too hard and we will all anticipate your coming back so we can here all that you learned.....thanx guys you are the best

Posted by: localman on June 2 2005 9:20 AM

Although this resembles the holiday I hope to take this summer, I do think it's important to dig a little deeper.

I've attended many a corporate conference and helped in their organizing.(non-govt) The organizers attempt to create as much of a "holiday" atmosphere as they can, to get attendees out in the first place.

The following conference outline/schedule (you can see it if you click my link), is on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities web site. I noticed a couple of things:

- First of all, Councilor Dezell is on the board of directors of the FCM. It makes sense he'd be one to drag along as many as he could.

- Second, If you check the schedule of events, you'll notice that mixed in with some "fun and games" are a series of courses I definately want our leaders to know. Ones that cover topics such as the offshore drilling efforts taken by Newfoundland. (titled: From fish to Oil).

In my opinion that's something that should have been started of our coast already. Recent technologies and standards provides for a good balance between profits and precaution.

well...IMO.

Posted by: flowerchild on June 2 2005 10:53 AM

Cliff Dezell has already announced he isn't running in the next election, so what good is all this "new knowledge"? As for the other three are they there to hold Dezell's pen. If fun and games is the only way to get people to attend "their work", then we need some new employees. The fact attendance for this event is twice the norm speaks volumes of the politicans. If we want to learn more about off shore oil, how about starting in our own province but that won't get the attendance out now will it? By the way are we hosting another taxpayer funded "hospitality suite" like we did last year? You know, pour them a drink and maybe they will remember you.

Posted by: shawnpetriw on June 2 2005 11:28 AM

Once again, the question is "are we getting value for our money?"

What amazes me is how little is ever done to ensure a reasonable cost-benefit ratio is achieved. While city management and council may talk up the perceived benefit of attending meetings like this, there seems to be a shortage of cost analysis, both before and after the event.

City council is constantly doing things without regard to the cost. How often does council pass a motion to direct administration to produce a report of one kind or another? No consideration is ever given to the cost of producing these reports, in terms of administration time and in terms of opportunity cost.

Junkets like this should be fully costed and justified by the expected value returned to the city. If the value isn't there, perhaps the value can be achieved by sending only 2 members of council, or perhaps by some other means.

The reason council is not more cost conscious, I presume, is because when they run out of money, they simply squeeze more from the taxpayer.

I suggest the taxpayers need to insist council and administration squeeze more value from their budget, and reduce the tax levy while improving service.

Cost consciousness can't just be a once-a-year budget meeting thing: cost consciousness must be present at every vote.

It is interesting to note that “efficiency” is not found in the city’s vision or mission or goals.

Shawn Petriw

Posted by: Chadermando on June 2 2005 2:33 PM

What is Cliff Dezell doing there?

Everytime I've talked to Cliff about an Eco-tourism 2010 initiative I would like to launch for the Prince George region he has told me he is not interested because he has other priorities. This conference is supposed to be on tourism and Cliff himself says that is not one of his priorities. Besides Cliff has said he will not be running again so what will this accomplish for the city if he is going away in 4 months anyways.

The cost of this trip would have paid for the data base web site I was promoting for local tourism operators. That would have been a powerfull tool in potential tourists accessing the services available from this region, but insteed the money goes to a paid holiday for some retiring poiticians.

Not the best use of our tax dollars IMO.

Posted by: Opatcho on June 3 2005 9:30 AM

Its nice to see that a number of people have seen fit to tell it like it is in this forum. Our City is in lala land when it comes to managing our money. In the first place why do we have such an organization " The Federation of Canadian Municipalities"? I think they are way out of their league. To me its another layer of uneeded duplication of Government. Like our Mayor making a trip to China. I always thought that the business comunity looks after our economy. Our Mayer has no respect for the hard earned tax dollars we pay out to keep the City functioning. He gets $70,000.00 bucks a year as Mayor and another $24,000.00 from the Regional District plus his pension income. This man has no idea of the value of money. Lets remember him in November.