Prince George, B.C. – The Mayor’s Task Force for a Better Downtown is moving towards the implementation stage of its recommendations recently put before City Council.  There are two things that are at the top of the “to do” list:

1.      A governance model  for the work will have to be selected,

2.      Budget approval for some of the items will have to be achieved.

When it comes to governance, H.B. Lanark Consultants suggests the City   adopt  either a multi stakeholder partnership or a municipal redevelopment corporation. Which ever model City Council approves, there will be a cash requirement for projects.   

That’s where the budget approval comes in. The City is rapidly moving forward to its budget development and requests for enhancements will have to be submitted no later than today. Council has already indicated this will be a very difficult year financially and despite the efforts of staff to reduce expenses by about $2 million dollars, it is likely taxes will still have to increase by 3 to 4 percent.

One of the enhancements that will be put before Council is a call for   $150 thousand dollars for a Clean and Safe program for Downtown. Then there is the business plan and prospectus that need to be developed to market the area. That work can’t be done without financial support.   Although members of the Task force would like to see the Downtown Business Improvement Association share in the cost, the DBIA is months away from having a new bylaw that would allow it to collect a special tax from C1 property owners in the core.