Two more studies? Does that mean fresh air is just over the horizon? (sarcasm)

$37,000 to study air? I'd sure like to see those receipts.

East of Salmon Valley... lets get it done now.. that was the plan 30-years ago, but the city of PG planners will have non of it because for them its not about air quality but taxation authority and empire building their tax base.

The real issue that needs to be resolved is how do we locate plants outside the city air shed while still allowing the local communities ie Prince George to property tax the plant. That is the issue here why we have bad air quality IMO.

The land east of Salmon Valley has all the required infrastructure already in place and the only thing holding it up is jurisdictional bureaucracy. When all is said and done we will have paid someone a $1000 an hour to tell us this.

Very good points Eagleone. Regarding the property taxes, the optimist in me would suggest that by moving the industry out of PG, we would clean up the air enough that we could actually ATTRACT more people to town, INCREASE infill within the bowl and develop MORE commercial and light industrial land that would't be as polluting. With time, this could offset the lost property taxes and maybe even exceed them.

I still think the primary barrier to the long-term growth of the city is the air quality and until that gets resolved, nothing will really change. Get rid of that issue and all of a sudden you have a city that offers people an extremely affordable and modern lifestyle at a price that is more competitive (or cheaper) than anywhere in Canada. Those are highly attractive traits to have and you can really start to sell the City then.

Thats how I see it too NMG. I'm all for heavy industrial, because that is what made PG and that is what will continue to make PG, but we have to get the location right so that we can not only promote heavy industrial development, but also the potential to have a city that has some of the best quality of life in Canada. It is doable... we have everything we need save for that planners that would allow for this.

IMO in this economic downturn heavy industrial expansion will be hard to come by so the city really at this time should be focused on quality of life improvements... things like pot holes, parks, trail systems, river frontage developments, and maximizing existing civic facilities... while keeping expenditures down so that we have a competitive tax situation when things recover... already mills down south are threatening closure if their industrial property taxes don't go down. So why we would think we can attract those kinds of industry with a high municipal tax rate... the concept of adding debt like the city of PG does seems kind of ludicrous to me for future economic development....

IMO PG has huge potential as a place that provides countless quality of life benefits that would attract and create an economic engine all on its own... we just have a few bottleneck issues to get out of the way and one is definitely the air quality... the closer you get to the downtown the worse it is....