From Grand Prairie's budget deliberations.
http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2186301

RCMP one of the chief culprits again.

"One of the biggest increases proposed for 2010 came from the RCMP which wanted to add six new officers at a cost of $712,000.

"In previous years, council has strongly supported hiring additional officers, but that ended yesterday. In a 7-2 vote, the RCMP request was rejected..."

"One other major savings on the day was the elimination of $300,000 in administration costs for a data typing pool for the RCMP."

$1million for the RCMP. When will that drain stop?

When people stop breaking the law?

Hmm, how is grand prairies budget relevant? Because it involved the RCMP? As culprits? I see a trend.

Let me see ... how is Grand Prairie's budget relevant?

Hey, I know. How about because they too run a city, not a health region, not a school district, not a province, not a country.

They can speak the "how to run a city" language. I have heard tell that neither PG or Grand Prairie are good at operating a forest license. An airline? .. HA, forget it!!!

Don't play that innocent "how is their budget relevant" stuff on me. There are enough city budgets that we are being compared to. Do you want to stop all that comparison by playing the "how are they relevant"? If so, then do it fairly for all other such cases!!!! I'll stand back and watch. :-)

Here is another totally irrelevant city budget article - Nanaimo.

http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=43af3888-2adf-4e3c-9ffe-4105a4468913

Some parts for those who do not like to click through to another site.
---------------------------------
1. The first glimpse of Nanaimo's budget indicates that taxpayers could see a 4.6% increase in residential property taxes thanks to decreasing revenue streams and the need for more firefighters and police officers.

2. Nanaimo's firefighters are scheduled to receive 10 new firefighters at a cost of $434,000. (That is $43,000/person at that price, that's a fire sale)

3. the RCMP will get an extra five officers and two support staff positions at a cost of $758,000 (108,000/person .. can we haggle here? drop two of those and get 5 of the others.)

4. The city expects to receive $300,000 less from casino revenue (remember, the province is taking a bigger and possibly illegal bite)

5. $400,000 less from the city's investments (gambling with their investments. Is that like our Terasen deal?)

6. Development costs are also expected to be lower this year, costing the city about $703,000

Finally look at this redistribution of who gets to pay.

2010 BUDGET STATUS
- 3.4% overall tax increase
Residential taxpayers 4.6%
Commercial taxpayers 3.4%
Industrial taxpayers -14.3%

Those who are laid off get to pay more to pay to keep the industry alive that laid them off.

Of course, we have none of those problems. Can't learn a thing form this. We are an island onto ourselves .....

..........as the scene ends with the sun going down over the snowy Cranbrook Hill.

Actually gus, i was getting at the point that you were using a story about Dawson creek to jump on your soapbox and rant against the RCMP. Were you not doing that?

Yup, read the link, thats pretty much what your first post was doing.

When it suits their purposes the various Citys use each other to promote their agendas.

If Prince George wants to raise the rates for ice in the arena's they compare our rates to Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, etc; If Nanaimo wants more police, they use Prince George as an example of a City with similiar population but more Police, and on and on it goes.

Bottom line is, as Ive said many times before. Prince George has a huge tax base, Industrial,Commercial, Residential. They have no intention of every reducing taxes and giving us some of our money back, so they must always find projects to spend the money on.

These guys are more into Job Security, than anything else. It seems the order of the day is to increase our taxes, increase the number of police, fireman, and city staff. Dream up a bunch of new Capital Projects to spend money on, and keep us in debt over our heads. Then increase the taxes to service the debt.

You dont have to be a genius to understand that what is taking place at City Hall is pure unadulerated BS. Anyone who seriously thinks that we need a $48 Million Police Station, or a $50 Million Performing Arts Centre, needs to get their head examined.

Another project that defies beleif is the upgrade to River Road. The upgrade cost approx $8 Million of which $4 Million was paid by the City. Who benefits from this upgrade, and who the hell asked for it. It certainly wasnt the business's on River Road. You could say that it is part of the flood control, but that doesnt fly because the Federal money was supplied out of the Pacific Gateway budget.

The Provincial Government last year gave the City money to raise river road and put in some flood piping etc; Guess what?? The City buried the pavement on River Road with tonnes of gravel. Then the following year when they received the Federal Money, they dug up the road and removed the pavement, and then re-did the road, plus paving.

The Federal money for the road ostensibly was to upgrade it because of the CN Intermodal Terminal, which was to handle all the traffic to Prince Rupert. Problem is there is no traffic for Prince Rupert, and although there are some containers being loaded at this facility, they are in fact going to Delta Port, in Vancouver, at least thats what I heard. In any event there are not enough truck or containers using this road to warrant any upgrade to the road. If fact with Winton Global shutting down, and some decreases from other business's there is less traffic on this road, than in previous years.

Another project that will cost us $8 Million dollars is the Boundry Road cut off from Highway 16 to 97. This road will cost $28 Million dollars, $7.5 from the Feds $7.5 from the Province, $8 from the City and (WOW) $5 Million from private industry.

Why is it that private industry who stands to make the most on this project, get to invest the least. What the hell will taxpayers get out of the project. A few jobs during construction, and then they will relocate a bunch of business from the other Industrial Parks, and there will be very little if any additional jobs.

If anyone thinks that there will be jobs created because of the Runway Expansion, dont hold your breath. Even the Airport Authority themselves dont expect any jobs to be created within the next 10 years, and the so called tech stop program is based over a 20 year period, and would only generate a few people to fuel planes.

Therefore the people who took the property out of the ALR and now will have property fronting the Boundry Road Cutoff are probably the only ones to benefit. Hmmmmm.

"Therefore the people who took the property out of the ALR and now will have property fronting the Boundry Road Cutoff are probably the only ones to benefit."

You forget one thing, they will not benefit unless they can sell the land to people who will use the land to build what is projected to be built there.

Given your scenario, they will be waiting for a long time and, if they can't wait for a long time, the land will become cheaper and cheaper since no one wants it. Sort of like another downtown.

However, if they are right, and they prosper, the City too will prosper since the value will go up and the tax base will go up.

It's called an investment. Some work out well, others will sour. The City has about a 30% share in that. They were ablw to attract the other 70% from other investors.

Can you do as well on your ventures?

If you read my posts past and present Gus you would see that I expect commercial enterprises that are already located in the BC Rail, Danson, Ongman, Carter light, industrial areas to relocate in a new industrial park that will be located on the Private Land fronting the Boundry Connection.

Some that would make sense to relocate would be DHL Courier, Purolator Courier, Fed-Ex etc; these companies alreay fly in some of their cargo, and it would make sense to locate near the Airport.

I also expect a huge truck stop to be located, there along with possibly a motel, hotel, etc; This is all speculation on my part, but it would make a hell of a lot more sense than to invest money and then wait for the day Cargo starts to arrive in Prince George on wide body jets.

Now if we can **assume** that the real intent is to build a new **industrial park** and relocate business's that are already located here, then we are again into **Churning**. So empty buildings in the present industrial parks, and new buildings in the new industrial park.

Relocating will create short term construction jobs, and some permanent jobs, but nothing on a grand scale, and I suspect nothing that would justify spending $22 Million for the cut off, and $36 Million for the Runway Expansion.

Keep in mind that we already have a bypass from Highway 16 to 97 by using the Old Cariboo Hiway, so there really is no need to build another one except to service this land.

Whether they sell the land, or lease it remains to be seen. The Airport Authority on the other hand, would have to lease it, as their land is owned by the Federal Government.