Just more Fiberal bovine excrement.

If you look at PG... not one of our major industry has office space in the downtown... not Canfor, Sinclar, Dunkley, Carrier, any of the mines, suppliers... the list could go on...very nice office buildings on the periphery... if they were to ever cluster for shared services and critical mass it would be a real catalyst, but I doubt that would ever happen... an interesting what if though.

IMO the only thing in Victoria should be the legislature... all the ministries should be spread out across the province. Energy and Mines should be located in Fort St John. Tourism should be located in Kelowna. Actually I envision a new province of Northern BC with its capital in Tumbler Ridge, Mackenzie, or Chetwynd... but that's another story for another day.

What PG needs is to figure out why the population of the age group 25-40 has declined by 70% in the last ten years (previously it was the highest demographic). This is the future of the city, and it has all but disappeared. I would say its the lack of free enterprise opportunity... the youth saw no opportunity and moved on. The city is in the clutch of monopolist outside capital that is well entrenched... and we have a city hall that lacks a compelling vision for the city. Export raw materials and spend public dollars is all we know. If we could crack the 70% decline puzzle in the 25-40 age group we would be a city with a future.

There is no way the BCGEU would allow the ministry to move from Victoria.

More propaganda to deflect our thoughts away from the HST which Falcon is heavily tainted with. Just another wasteful thought of taxpayer money. Schools and hospitals begging for coin and this guy thinks we will wake up happy in the morning to see his picture on the front page of the citizen and read a story about a cabinet meeting in PG. 2 hours later when the jet takes off back to Victoria all we will be left with is a hefty bill and a fading contrail. If this is all Falcon has to offer he won't make much of a Premier.

Commonwealth Administrative Facility North.

As far as I know, there is no one in the BC Legislature that is interested in decentralizing government ministries.

I posed the question some time ago when I learned of the dismal population projections for PG over the next 25 or so years as put out by BCstats for use by the SGOG team.

While the answer seemed reasonable "no one is interested in living in the north" there was no effort in talking about whether that is the way things ought to be.

With that attitude, the real question becomes why is anyone interested in living in the rest of Canada where everyone else has weather like Edmonton, not like Victoria.

The question I keep posing to people who have some urban planning background and deal with the question of community sustainability is how much does it cost economically ans socially to support an individual in the GVRD versus Kelown, versus PG, versus Quesnel.

In other words would it be beneficial to have a whole string of smaller communities in the 50,000 - 100,000 and 200,000 size category along a highway arterial such as 1, 16 and 97 than to keep bunching them together as one urban agglomeration like the GVRD which is gobbling up the best farmland and growing condition we have in this province.

My thoughts EXACTLY Ben! When I read the article last night, that was exactly what went through my head!

Right on, Ben! I fully agree!

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"There is no way the BCGEU would allow the ministry to move from Victoria."

Can't allow governments to be held hostage by unions! That is why governments should not be in their pockets!

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"...when I learned of the dismal population projections for PG over the next 25 or so years..."

As soon as we start moving ministries relevant to the North to here those projections will start to change dramatically in a positive direction!

A lot of things will happen over the next 25 years and no projection can ever take into consideration factors and conditions which often materialize out of nowhere and at totally unpredictable times!

Let's envision a bright future and work on it to make it happen - why keep imagining a bleak and dismal future?

Actually falcon is half right. Yes move the premier's office to Prince George. Also move every other government office here. Just about every other province has their capital in the approximate geographic center of the province. In BC they took the best agricultural land in the most pleasant climate of the province and urbanized it.

Oh, did I say move? Well, yes indeed I did, as in relocate permanently. Make sure they have a close up look at how things really are.

A close up look at how things really are by being located where 75,000 people live? Really?

I think we are giving ourselves a little too much credit in regards to the role we play in the Province. I have a better idea, let's just move the capital whenever there is a swing in our diverse economy. When forestry is up, it can be here. When oil is up it can move to Fort St. John. When natural gas takes over, it can move to Fort Nelson. Maybe when tourism spikes it can relocate to Kelowna. When film production, commerce and port traffic is the key, it can stay in the Lower Mainland. Hey I've got it, how about we just have 15 capital cities given that every single region contributes the economy on an ongoing basis?

I could buy into moving some of the key ministries to more relevant locations, but even then, don't expect any huge gains in efficiencies, knowledge, etc. It's not like the ministries are staffed by loggers folks. Those are generally planning areas where they need financial and legal expertise just as much as anything else. Any type of subject matter expertise can easily be located in Victoria as easily as it can be in Mackenzie and let's be honest, it's far easier to attract that expertise to Victoria.

If Falcon wants to do anything, how about he start staffing the field "on the ground" services and positions like they used to be and get people employed doing the grunt work again? Oh that's right, we let industry "self regulate" so we don't need all of those people, LOL.

I agree with NMG for the most part.

The Capital of BC in Victoria. The legislative buildings are in Victoria, the Government is in Victoria. Get used to the idea.

We dont need a Northern Premiers Office in Prince George. What a bloody waste of time and money.

Prince George is located 500 Miles from any City of any consequence. We have 75000 people if we are lucky. The whole of the Central Interior has approx 300,000 people scattered from hell to breakfast.

Most people in BC would not, I repeat would not come to Prince George unless there was no other alternative.

So lets quit pretending that we are in the middle of the Universe and lets start to see our selfs as we really are. Most of the world doesnt even know we exist.

To run around calling ourselves BC's Northern Capital is a prime example of what I mean. Who the hell says we are BC's Northern Capital. Does that phrase have any legal meaning, or is it just gibberish that we have been repeating over, and over for the past 10/20 years.

I suspect that this town has a huge inferiorty complex, and that is why it is always trying to make out that it is much more than it actually is.

The liberal crime family wants a new office? How about New York or Sicily, where maybe they would feel at home? How about Texas, where our railroad ended up. Public railroads are a good idea because they can set rates to benefit the economy of the people who live here. Private railroads are a bad idea because they charge as much as they possibly can and none of the profit stays here.
How about a nice new parliament in California where the 'new' liberal government can crawl around on their knees trying to convince the people who live there that 'Run of River' really is good for the environment and they should happily to pay more for power like Gordy said they would. Cuz we're locked into these twenty and thirty year contracts with the (foreign) private companies the liberals gave the power to, and we (the people who live here) are going to be paying two and even three times what we used to pay for power. You'll recall that they said 30% over three years? That was a lie. Just remember those immortal words, 'It's not even on the radar!' when they talked about the HST before the last election. And now, even though the HST has cost them their leader, they are still trying to quietly sneak it through. I guess when you have as much money as Christy Cluck Cluck or Gordo (the Conman) Campbell, an extra couple of grand a year to the tax man won't bother you. But you, my friend, who knows that you could use that extra cash for clothes and food and transportation, would be well advised not to be fooled a third time by the lies of this government which is much more interested in their own welfare, to which your concerns will always run a distant third. Let me put it this way: Would you vote for Bernie Madoff? Because that's the league these people play in. And Gordon Campbell; just like Bernie, should be in jail for fraud. It's not okay that he lied and cheated us - those things he gave away are gone forever.

Loki wrote: "Just about every other province has their capital in the approximate geographic center of the province."

Oh ....???

BC .... NOT!!!
Saskatchewan .....NOT!!!
Manitoba ..... NOT!!!
Ontario ..... NOT!!!!
Quebec .... NOT!!!!!
Newfoundland/Labrador ..... NOT!!!!
New Brunswick ......almost
Nova Scotia ...... almost
PEI .... almost
Alberta ... almost

Yukon .... NOT!!
Nunavut ... NOT!!!
NWT .... almost

By my count, 6 of the 10 provinces suffer from the same problem of the location of the capital not being in the centre of the province. Two of the three territories have the same problem.

Several have unique problems. BC's main one is that the capital is even more remote by virtue of being on an island. Even Nanaimo would have been closer.

I think the main "problem" in BC is the large climate variation between the lower mainland and the rest of the province. I do not think there is another province which has similar extremes. On average, we are warmer than Edmonton - we have fewer heating degree days.

In fact, there is no other province which has the band of heating degree days we are located in go as far north as it does in BC. Even this far to the interior we are influenced by the Pacific.

http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/archives/5thedition/environment/climate/mcr4033?maxwidth=1600&maxheight=1400&mode=navigator&upperleftx=2592&upperlefty=2608&lowerrightx=5328&lowerrighty=4680&mag=0.125

Palopu wrote: "Most people in BC would not, I repeat would not come to Prince George unless there was no other alternative."

The key in the statment is "BC" ..... From anywhere else in Canada, the people would not have to overcome the climate factor. From BC, the cold climate is a factor.

There are other factors to overcome, most of which will go away with a population increase. If by some magic we were to plant 250,000 new people here, the majority of the barriers to coming here would go away.

The problem is, getting from 75,000 to 325,000. How does one do it?

And, of course, there is the other matter that we absolutely do not speak about. How many want this to be a city of 325,000? There are actually those who moved here because it is a smaller community, yet has some of the ammenities of a larger community. I am one of those. Maybe I am in a minority. Has anyone ever done a survey to find out if I am?

A new office!!!!..................as they (Northern Health) up the rent for our Seniors. Parkside seniors home increase 2009 was $206.17 and a recent increase notice startinting Jan.1 2011 of$224.19......thats per month folks!!! This is criminal!!

ditor's note:

It is apparent that some of you cannot conduct yourselves in a civil manner. I have removed all comments on this story.
Effective immediately we will remove commenting on all political stories, it is a shame that people cannot act in a civil manner, a few simply ruin it for the majority who have something valuable to say.
You will also notice you can no longer post comments on political stories.
Ben Meisner
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Hmm appears like someone speaks with forked tongue old ,appears you have double standards ,no comments allowed for Cluck Cluck Christie but let fly for Kevin