Prince George, B.C. – As the People’s Action Committee wrapped up it’s annual general meeting, it celebrated some of the success of  over the past year. President Dave Fuller talked about the efforts of the North Nechako residents which resulted in Columbia Bitulithic in developing a “green” asphalt plant and improvements at Pitman Asphalt which have   resulted in significant reductions in emissions. He also thanked the Ministry of the Environment for its work to make changes at Carrier Lumber which reduced emissions.

Addressing air quality is front and centre says Mayor Dan Rogers, “Clearly there are challenges, and it will take some time, but the issue is important to us all.” He says if Prince George is to attract professionals, there has to be a focus on quality of life and air quality is front and centre . He says the focus right now is on the bylaw, and while the intent is not to stamp out the back yard wiener roast, there has to be some discussion about what should be done, the second issue is land use, and how applications for new industry should be examined and their impact to the airshed there are things within the City’s operations that can address some of the issues such as street sweeping, and the e3 fleet program that will right-size the fleet and encourage the use of bio fuels.

Dave Fuller says many of the problems are systemic and will take a long time to change “PACHA is going to be around for a long time” says Fuller as he   issued PACHA’s commitment to seeing that the best technologies available will be used here. “ I talked with an expert recently who said if the best technologies were implemented in Prince George emissions could be reduced by more than 90%.”