After All Those Years, Still Waiting For Someone to Train In PG

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 03:45 AM

As The Olympics edge ever so closer, you may want to take a moment to remember back in 2006 how the City of Prince George spotted $38,000 to a group (which included Mayor Colin Kinsley, Leisure Services manager Tom Madden and Prince George Initiatives boss Gerry Offet) for a junket to the Olympics in Torino Italy to sell ,“Train In PG”. None of members of the group is still connected with the city. Did I forget to mention, the seven delegates also put up $5,000 each for the trip, never did check to see if that came from city taxpayers as well.

So Mayor Kinsley said at the time, “If we do nothing and spend nothing we will get nothing”.

The group did something, it spent something and got.....nothing.

Gerry Offet at the time said, “We have done our homework, and we will come back with expressions of interest”.

You may remember that the group said it may have landed a hook on the team from Kenya. Kenya high on sand, low on snow, to "Train in PG".

In spite of all this, back here at home, you still see the "Train in PG" ads running.

My God it’s been four years and we still haven’t got a bite, time to leave it alone.

Kenya, Kinsley said at the time, might send upwards of 20 people to train here.

Now that would have been a coup given the fact that in Kenya they have about 11 million people who are suffering from malnutrition, but then the games are more important than food.

Wait a minute in PG, we have been waiting for years to have those pot holes filled, Kenya needs food, and we need some asphalt.

As former Mayor Colin Kinsley said at the time, “one team training in Prince George would pump 1 million bucks into the economy”.

Can you just imagine what a million bucks would do with those pesky potholes?

Just can’t wait for that team to arrive.

I'm Meisner, and that's one man's opinion.

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Posted on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: Denaljo on October 13 2009 7:14 AM

That is soooo "Nasty".......but true!

Posted by: gus on October 13 2009 7:25 AM

We are not supposed to remember the BS that is spewed out at us.

I always like to learn from things.

So what do we do about similar situations now and into the future?

How can we TRAIN the locals to be more selective in the projects they "invest" our money in?

We should be keeping a score card.

Posted by: Resident on October 13 2009 7:54 AM

What would the Kenyans use for moguls if the pot holes were fixed? Hats off to the visionaries at city hall who leave the roads in disrepair in anticipation of attracting a cross country ski team of one.
Maybe IPG could send out a brochure to other municipalities and try to attract their city crews to come to PG for pot hole repair training. It could fatten the city coffers and we all know the supply of pot holes would never be depleted.
But just wait, how about a pot hole ambassador travelling the major cities of the world like Rome , Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, New York, expounding the virtues sending their pot hole repairs crews to PG for training.

Posted by: CaringSoul on October 13 2009 8:03 AM

I actually saw pot holes worse than ours on Global news last week. They were showing the roads in Montreal. I could have laid down in some of those and not been hurt if someone ran over me. LOL So long story short "We do not have the worst roads!" :}~

Posted by: yellow shovel on October 13 2009 8:46 AM

Ya I shook my head then and I shake it now.....just too funny what these guys spew....whats even more unbelievable is people keep on buyin this bunk! What can be done??

Posted by: MrPG on October 13 2009 8:53 AM

That's only $38K. We're going to spend close to $100 million on a road, logistics park and runway expansion, and we have zilch to show for it.

Posted by: caranmacil on October 13 2009 10:35 AM

Other than the road, logistics park and runway expansion that is.

Posted by: Palopu on October 13 2009 10:39 AM

The dudes at City Hall are always spewing garbage, however most of their **projects** are based over a period of time, and therefore people tend to forget. The City then moves on to another project;

Remember when they were going to widen Queensway through South Fort George, and build a road on lower Patricia that would connect to an overpass on 1st Avenue???, to connect with River Road.

Well when they found out that they couldnt get any money from the Federal Government for the project they dropped it like a hot potatoe. So we went from a project that was needed to a complete cancellation.

FLASH FORWARD. The City gets funding from the Federal Government $4 Million dollars to upgrade River Road, under the Ports Inrastructure Fund. Using the CN Intermodal Facility as the excuse for the money, even though there is little if any tonnage being sent to Prince Rupert from Prince George. The City threw in an additional $4Million on the project, and we will now have a fancy upgrade on this road, that noboday asked for, and that will hardly be used.

Of course a few years from now no one will remember any of this, and by then we will be into the big bypass from 16East to 97South behind the Airport.

Thats why you never get, any pot holes filled, and why your taxes go up every year. There are many many more fiasco's going on that cost huge dollars and get no return.

Posted by: Bridget on October 13 2009 10:40 AM

Prince George should have any direct involvement with the Olympics. Bad karma.

Posted by: Bridget on October 13 2009 10:42 AM

Previous post to read "should NOT have any direct involvement with the Olympics".

Posted by: Dirtyrottenresearcher on October 13 2009 10:55 AM

Olympic divers to train in Prince George
Written by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff
Sunday, 14 October 2007
From Colombia, to Prince George, to Beijing.
That’s the path three Colombian divers hope to take later this month when they’re scheduled to arrive in Prince George to begin a nine-month stint training with Prince George Mantas Diving Club coach Fu Qiang.

The three divers are Juan Guillermo Uran Sallazar, 24, Victor Ortega Serna, 19, and Diana Pineda Zuleta, 21, all of whom represented Colombia in the Pan Am Games two months ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The divers hope to use their training here as a springboard to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in China.

Posted by: billm on October 13 2009 1:49 PM

Saw mills- why do we need them, 4 swimmers training at 1 million each... 4 million bucks for a few hours swimming time at the pool. Yes , we sure have been missing the boat.
By the way did they ever show ?

Posted by: taxinapothole on October 13 2009 8:59 PM

"CaringSoul",I don't give a royal rats a$$ about the potholes in Montreal. I care about the potholes in Prince George. My tax dollars should be spent here, not in Quebec! Are roads are horrilble, end of STORY. Don't try to defend these losers we have, making these ridiculous decisions

Posted by: taxinapothole on October 13 2009 9:00 PM

Sorry, "our roads"

Posted by: gus on October 14 2009 12:30 AM

I remember all the follow up stories on those divers from Columbia. There were several stories about their peceptions of PG. I remembr they were really supportive of the friendly people who live here.

One report showed the various dives they did. Their coach even had some advice for our divers.

I don't understand how people could have missed that. I think one of them even got engaged to a local gal. :-)

Posted by: Shellshadow on October 14 2009 9:05 AM

I do not see Caringsoul defending anyone in the post?? It looks like just a statement to me. You should take a chill pill taxiinapothole so that your passengers are safe.