$6.00 now to go to the transfer station??? come on man that is rediculous. I thought $4.00 was alot..........

Without a doubt, taxed to death in BC and Canada because we have no choice. Welcome to democratic governemnets we have here. "But we don't want it" Tough sh*t, your getting it anyway like it or not"

I wonder if I can refuse to pay an increase to MSP payments? After all I cannot find a doctor and my service has declined significantly since Gordon Campbell took over.

"Sewer and Water rates are up .... the increases for those .... will be put towards the cost of replacing and repairing the aging infrastructure."

We are discovering more and more that the City does not seem to have planned for repair and replacement of infrastructure. Does the provincial law governing municipalities not allow this?

If that is not the case, then we have not been paying our way as we put something in palce. We have not been paying for the true cost of providing services to the population. We have not been operating sustainably.

What else is there like that? If we were to truly operate sustainably in infrastructure and equipment repair and replacement, how much more would we have to pay in taxes?

"I wonder if I can refuse to pay an increase to MSP payments."

Try it. Remember, we have free will. We have choices. Paying or not paying MSP is one of the many choices we have. :-)

If you move to almost any other province, you do not have to pay.

http://www.straight.com/article-277563/vancouver/prof-refers-bc-msp-fee-head-tax

"Starting today, visitors staying at a hotel in Prince George will pay an extra 2% Hotel tax that will go towards marketing Prince George as a tourism destination."

Ah yes! A tourist destination. You could remove all taxes and have an incentive by the provincial government to pay for anyones hotel if they will make Prince George their holiday destination and the only takers would possibly be a family from Hixon. It is a fuel stop. A place to get a meal while on the road and an industry town. It is a great place to grow up, raise a family and enjoy the outdoors and not have to deal with all the crap of a big city but tourist destination it is not.

Regarding Gus posting, I went to the link he showed, very interesting. The author is economist Jon Kesselman, he states that BC is one of the only provinces to charge MSP rates, he calls it a head tax and says BC medical Premiums are "regressive" He is so right.

More changes to cover the City Administration's inefficiency and poor planning. The new garbage collection system was supposed to save us money. More lies!

Provincially, don't forget that on July 1st the carbon tax is increased and the HST comes into effect.

Next week you will receive you property assessment notice from the PG office of BC Assessment. They will try to tell you that the value stated was as of July 01, 2009, which is a lie. If you believe that I have a bridge I will sell you! It is actually November 30, 2009(read the fine print). If it was July 01, why don't they mail out the assessments then. I tried to get my assessment in July (verbally or in writing) and they refused to give it to me.

Hello 2010....goodbye dollars!

"We are discovering more and more that the City does not seem to have planned for repair and replacement of infrastructure"

Gus, you hit the nail on the head. There was a presentation at the last council meeting where they were talking about that very thing. Basically we have been living off of our children's future.

How do we fix it?

Don't forget the upcoming increase in the carbon tax. Anyone hear of climategate?

"How do we fix it?"

I would propose we calculate what that cost would be on an annual basis, calculate what the increase in tax would be and, based on the percentage that would be, implement it over a 5 or 10 year basis.

I think that not all costs belong to the population at large.

For instance, services such water, sewer and even roads are covered in a large part by Development Cost Charges. The question is, should the continuing repair and maintenance charges by covered by by them as well? If so, then they should be increased and the excess should be put into a repair and replacement account for future use.

My thinking, for a long time, has been that there is not a good cost accounting system in place which allows all costs of City provided services to be fairly distributed in the proportion that every component of our users use them.

$6 for the transfer station. Look for more illegal dumping in the new year. People were already too cheap to pay the $4.

the only time you worry about someone is when they arn't complaining.

The "MSP premiums increase about 6%" goes into general revenue. Most of it will be spent paying for salaries of high priced bureaucrats and will not help improve our health care.

"Don't forget the upcoming increase in the carbon tax. Anyone hear of climategate?"

I would love to hear Gordon Campbells take on his failure to do anything about CO2. Especially considering BC is the only province to have a CO2 increase.

Thanks to IPG for the new Hotel tax! Did City Council vote on this?

The next new tax will be the downtown improvement tax.

hmm two percent tax increase on the hotel clients, to convince them to stay an extra day in a town that has nothing special to offer. Seems like another pencil pushers idea.

Ruez about how you are being scammed chasing manned caused C02. Of the C02 in the atmosphere, man caused is only 5% of total and that ratio has not changed for as long as C02 has been measured. Trillons of dollars wasted for nothing.

The increase in dropping stuff off at the transfer station just means more people will be dumping garbage in secluded areas, on dead-end roads, commercial dumpsters, etc. So much for encouraging people to help keep PG clean. And free dumpsters for a few hours once a year just does not cut it.

"Of the C02 in the atmosphere, man caused is only 5% of total"

5% you say...... hmmm ... not much at all. How about I dump water in your car's gasoline to make the volume 5% water and 95% gasoline. See how well your car runs......

;-)

Do your part gus, stop releasing CO2. Stop breathing.