It appears that Prince George is the only City in Canada that is a member of the World Winter Cities Assoc for Mayors.(WWCAM) If I understand their website correctly the Mayors Meeting in Changchun will be attended by 20 Cities from 12 Countries.
Canada-1 China-7 Estonia-1 Greenland-1 Japan-2 Lithuania-1 Korea-1 Mongolia-1 Norway-1 Russia-2 Sweden-1 USA-1
The USA city is Anchorage.

It appears our Mayor is a Vice President of this group. It seems rather bazaar that our Mayor would go Scandinavia to observe first hand the bio-wood mass heating system, and then give a presentation on this system to the conference. You would think that Norway or Sweden could give this presentation, especially as they are already using it.

The WWCAM met in Edmonton in 1988, Montreal in 1992 and Winnipeg in 1996. It appears that these Cities, are not attending the meeting in Changchun. They dont show as being registered.

Did our Mayor attend the meetings in Montreal in 1992 or Winnipeg in 1996, or was this to close to home.

If this is such a great event for Northern Cities, why is Prince George the only City in Canada attending????

Well, there better be something worthwhile and productive for Prince George resulting from this particular expedition! Promises and reports of having had a wonderful time etc. are not something that can be taken to the bank!

If the Mayor wants to learn how to handle snow, he needs to go to Ottawa(34), Montreal(38), Quebec City (11), Charlottetown (14), Moncton (6), Fredericton (23), etc

Prince George has the 40th highest snowfall of cities in Canada. Don't bother going to Edmonton, it is 73rd ... the heavy snowfall cities are in the East. The expertise of how to remove snow relatively quickly and high standards with respect to removing it quickly (not 3 days after a snowfall) also lies in the east.

It is the 78th city with most huge snowfall days (25cm) ... in otherwords, people here really do not know what a real snowstorm is unless they come from a city which does ... Try going to Port Alberni (20th)

PG has the 8th lowest no of days with light winds and 5th lowest lightest wind year round ....

8th cloudiest skies .. 9th foggiest city (and we are nowhere near a large body of water ....

Anyway, it is too bad that this City is representing Canada on such technical issues about how to cope with winter on the international scene ...... Canada has some much better experience than this City can present.

Oh well .... it is a free world .... and the advice is free .... and we all know what one says about free advice ....

oops ....

forgot to provide the links which has that weather information ...

http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/weather/winners/highlights-e.html

http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/weather/winners/city.cfm?lang=e&SelectedCity=

What we badly need to learn from others is how other cities with relatively still air and foggy conditions cope with industrial air emissions .....

Just like the provincial government, we must send the honchos on all expense paid holidays.

I also question why Mayor Kinsley is presenting burning bio-wood mass rather than Scandinavia? We aren't even using this technology yet, are we?

If the Mayor is Vice President of the group, I understand why he wants to go. But, my question is this, what is the direct benefit to Prince George? Does the cost justify the expense?

I would rather see discussions about how to clean up the air in our fair city so more citizens will want to live here. They I wouldn't mind him going.

Gee, I wonder if our poor air quality has any bearing on the health of our community? Maybe we should request a study be done? Percy

Correction - Does the cost justify the return? Percy

If you vote with your feet what more can the citizens of our City expect. Someone once said, " we got what we deserve". God help us.