Hopefully the new directors that get placed will realize that taxation without representation is wrong.

It is unfortunate that these individuals have resigned from the Board. I assume that they were not able to be part of the game that is being played by Dan McLaren and his group. At some point hopefully we will be presented with the truth in what has taken place over the last number of months with regard to "the new downtown re-development". The true developers and builders of this City are not represented by the likes of "McLaren and his group". Dan's ego is even larger than the tasks he has taken on.

Thank you Kirk for the tireless amount of time you spent with DBIA, unpaid, and often subject to much criticism from the armchair quarterbacks that offer little or no input into our community.
It would appear that "the leading voice of downtown Prince George" did not include the opinion of these three reputable businessmen which the new President of the DBIA claims was an oversight; not something I would call "fresh leadership!"
Make no mistake about it, the 30 year tax exemption they are looking for is only for the properties that the McLaren group own. The fact that some members of City Council seem to oblivious to this can only leave one wondering about the vision they have for our City. Keep digging Ben, the truth will be uncovered eventually. It is a long road that does not have a turn in it!

While this is an unfortunate bait-and-switch/coup d'etat by the new executive, it would be interesting to know how many landowners bothered to attend the AGM that elected this executive.

It would also be interesting to know options the society's bylaws allow landowners who are not happy.

After taking hundreds of thousands of our dollars flipping the PG hotel, the Commonwealth group now wants a tax holiday of up to 40 years!! WTF!!! A short term(5 year max) to help a new business start up and grow is OK but anything more than that is corporate welfare.

We had all better watch Dapper Dan and city hall, who have shown in the PG Hotel deal how little business savvy they have. His comments posted earlier in the week show that downtown revitalization is #1 priority REGARDLESS of costs.

I can't say how thankful I am to hear other people say what I am thinking about Dan McLaren. Is he someone we can trust to help grow PG or is he just in it for himself. I am just not sure he is there for all us of taxpayers. His dealings with City Hall and the DBIA need to be watched.

It looks to me like we have a "free for all" going on the taxpayers' cookie jar.

I don't trust the new establishment. Our PG Citizen boss doesn't even own a home in PG. What's his stake in our community?

Coup is right ...

The DBIA is lost ...

Flying to Calgary tomorrow afternoon. Got a job giving me twice as much income as I make driving hack in this $h!t Hole. Will be back in a few weeks to officially move my house to Calgary!

No more PST, no chance of HST, and no chance of Gordo Cumball ever screwing me again!!

Life is going to be GOOD.

Cheerio everyone! Have a nice pothole day!

Taxi

Does Calgary have internet access??? ... :-)
keep in touch!

The Newspaper owns a building in the downtown and the publisher is the local representative of the building owners. In that position, he repesents the membership of the organization in the DBIA. Most home owners do not have the priviledge and responsibility of a vote on the DBIA.

In addition to that he lives in the city.

While home ownerships was a pre-requiste to vote at one time, it no longer is. Even females are now allowed to vote.

The world is changing. :-)

What is a Business Improvement Association anyway?

It is none other than a Public-Private Partnership. Yes, that famous P3 or PPP, acronym that has so many good and bad impressions attached to it.

It is a partnership of businesses in a defined district with the city in which the district is located. Essentially the public part agrees to collect taxes which it turns over to the private sector in order to carry out agreed programs and projects which BENEFIT both the private businesses and the general public of the city.

Yes, there will be BENEFITS to the private partners. And yes, there should be BENEFITS to the city. And yes, there should be a monitoring that takes place by the city to ensure that the taxpayers of the district as well as the city get value for their money and that BENEFITS are distributed relatively equitably as possibile.

I think the greatest danger actually is that the ratepayers in the district end up paying for projects that are actually the responsibility of the City. In this case, the City has been doing virtually no planning for the downtown, at least none that is readily visible. The last group did a study early in their term. Part of that was incorporated into the OCP at the time.

When the current reincarnation started, they were proposing a security patrol. As was pointed out to them, that would have been a duplication of service, a service that is the City's responsibility.

Who is responsible for what is a fine line. Perhaps as the new guard gets strated they can clarify to the general public what they will be doing, what the City will be doing and how they will work co-operatively.

In fact, we should be looking for a joint statement by the two parties to the P3 venture.

BTW, there is another model for BIAs in operation in England. There the levies are on the occupiers of the properties rather than the owners. I think given the types of things that a BIA can do with the money under legislation, that would be a much more appropriate approach. To me, based on the mandate of BIAs, they are more like merchant associations rather than property owner associations.

Marketing schemes from a merchant's point of view are quite different, for instancce, than from a property owner's point of view.

What might appear to some to be conflicts of interest might actually arise from just that very difference of perspective.

Quite a bit of behind the scenes happenings to do with downtown PG.Don't know if it is positive or negative,but at least things are moving and not stagnant.What I have always been taught is usually someone has something to hide,if they can't be up front with things they are doing.A prime example of this is the Prince George Hotel deal,the Chances Casino deal,and the Prince George Golf Course.So to Dan McLaren,Mayor Dan Rogers and anyone else with insider knowledge of all the crap to do with downtown revitalization,start speaking up and give the citizens of this city some details,or you may find yourselves in the same situation as the provincial liberals and the HST,and feel the backlash from the residents of PG.

You people just dont get it, dan M needs that worthless land down town to park his ego. This town and mayor are either corupt or just plain stupid and cant realize they are part of a con. This is all about a fast buck that can be turn over quick at the tax payers expence. This little group just creamed $500,000 from the tax payers and it was so easy, they are back for more. Open your eyes and realize what this is. This group was successful in taking over the DBIA and has such as wicked agenda and council cant see them coming or are just plain in on it. When Dan M clipped the city for a cool 1/2 million, not a word in the Citezen news paper. When this report came out, the first 2 1/2 pages were about the injustice of the report. Why??? just a thought, is it posible that the publisher of the paper is Dan M buddy. You know, the same guy who sits on the board with Dan M. One needs to only look at who Dan M is chummy with and you will see that birds of a feather flock together. I know 2 things for sure, I will never win the lottery and the citizen will never do a non biased reoprt on what is going down here. They are the fox news of Prince George. Opinion needs to to do a search on all the companies dan M and the boys are involved in and publish their names. The good citizens will see who is all involved and sould come to the conclusion that a pluage or infestation has hit town. just a sugestion, boycot all the businesses they own, opperate, or control and have this vermine leave town. Above all, cancel the Citizen news paper as they are using it to spread the propaganda of this coruption. The report stands and not ONE of the DBIA has the expertise to comment or critque this report and for that matter neither does the city. I hope this not another unbc road fiasco. Commission reports till you get the answer you want. Sort of like going to a dance and asking 100 girls to come back to your place for the night, you may get slapped 99 times but 1 will say yes. objective acheived

From what we have been able to see from the various pieces that are out there in the media recently, this is a possible scenario of what has been happening.

BC has been saying for 2 or 3 years they will build a wood innovation centre downtown. So far we have seen nothing concrete, or even wooden.

City has been saying and written it in public documents (Mayor's Task Force) that they want the centre downtown.

Province is doing some rough idea generation where it might go and tossing those out to some people interested in listening. A few, including the City and the DM consortium, see an opportunity to jump start the downtown for the umpteenth time in 30 years. They each assemble some land and make it "developer ready".

The provincial election is over. The economy is down. There is a slow down in starting projects. The project grows into a new faculty, adding a new Emily program, CNC trades/tech, and student housing. New leadership at UNBC begins to do their due diligence and looks at what all that means to them. Is this good or bad? What size of facility do we need? What will be the needs over 5, 10, 20 years? Is the site initially talked about the appropriate one?

Then the Mayor states, after they bought the Hotel site, he can no longer confirm that the PG Hotel will be used for what may have been the original purpose.

We have a new game in town. Watch the thimbles to see which one the pea is under. Who will end up with the pea and who will end up empty handed? Exciting times.

In the meantime, it is business as usual. One more dream. We can only hope that some or all of this comes true. Otherwise, what is next?