DBIA's Revised Budget Gets Approval

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C.- The Downtown Business Improvement  Association (DBIA) has  submitted a new budget,  an audited statement of  what was left in the bank account before the new  group took  over the DBIA, and receipts from an event it has already sponsored  but which it wanted Council to approve "post event".

The revised  submission  was approved unanimously by Council and it ws noted by Councilor Cameron Stolz that  the spending plans fall within the  prescribed mandate of the  DBIA.

The spending plan has changed in that  while expenditures  remain basically the same,  the  labels for the spending have changed.  For example, the previous  submission outlined  "Retail/Office recruitment" at an expense of $30 thousand dollars this year  to  try and attract new businesses to the  downtown core.  That  line item is now called "Downtown Promotion" and the  amount to be spent this year remains unchanged at $30 thousand. 

It does include a 400% increase in rent as the DBIA wants to move out of the Initiatives Prince George building and into a space which is  in the C-1 zone of downtown.

The DBIA also  submitted the  audited statement of the expenditures of the DBIA from  2009 , a year when the DBIA was not  collecting funds from taxes.  The DBIA also submitted  some of the receipts from the Let's Get Started  follow up event  held in May.  The  receipts indicate it cost  a little more than $14 thousand dollars to have former Premier Mike Harcourt  in town.  That  was  about 75% of the  expenses outlined for that event.  That $14 thousand dollar bill for Mike Harcourt  is half of the annual salary  budgeted for the DBIA Manager.

The  revised budget also  plans " special events" which,  while no longer  linked to the  City landing the bid for the 2015 Winter Games,  are events the  DBIA  may decide to hold such as  an auto show, a  "fringe festival" or perhaps a Santa Claus Parade.

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