Nice try. The container port is not a given. An airport expansion is only temporary, and the low unemployment is only due to increased jobs in meinial low paying sectors such as food serving for instance. The construction boom will last only as long as the beetle timber does...what then? All this talk about mining .....when does the talking the talk turn into walking the walk?

And if it all does happen....You guys will still find something to ride your harps. I'm glad some people think a little positive. With the negatives in this forum I don't understand why anyone stays. Think a little postive....20 years ago everything was shut down this time of year becuase of the -40 weather....I would tend to think the unemployment is way down becuase the bush is all up and running. Not becuse a couple new waitress jobs showed up.....

Look out Longnecks--stick that neck out too far and somebody gonna' come along and go "chop. chop."
We are concentrating on saying , "Bye bye, bush."
Maybe you don't notice all the bare land, and those trees haven't just gone missing.
Where you gonna' ride your harp when the cuttings over? (Course you might be old enough to be practicing playing it!)
The big push in the bush won't last much more than 5 years.
Better you line up that waitress job before they are all taken!

Year End numbers from statistics Canada reveal the following for Prince George
Labour force decreased by 3200 workers from 2005
Fulltime employed decreased by 3100
Parttime employed increased by 600
Unemployed decreased by 700
Not in labour force increased by 2100

So we have an Unemployement rate decrease from 6.1% to 4.8%, however we have an Employment rate that decreased from 68.3% to 65.7% which means that we have less people employed than we did last year. This information is readily available for anyone to use, so why is it that the Mayor only mentions the low unemployment, and disregards the fact that there are less people employed.

I dont mean to be negative, however I refuse to sit by and not comment when misleading information is put out on purpose. Some of his other statements leave a little bit to be desired and I might get to that later.

Statement from Service Canada Labour market analyst.

**Right now and certainly for the last four months, Prince George hasnt been performing that well in terms of the number of people employed. Full time employment is down and part-time picked up as much slack as it could but not enough to keep the total employment figures from dropping and weakness in the forest industry started in August.** NOW Why couldnt the Mayor have said that. Is it because he is a Politician??

224 single family house permits for a total of $100 million in value.

So that is an average of $446,429 per house. So what was the average market price of new houses sold in 2006? The $1.5+ million house in St. Denis was built before 2006.

Can a realtor confirm that such was the average price of new houses in 2006? Or maybe someone working for Assessment.

Good find Palopu, That backs up my suggestion earlier that the actual employment numbers don't match the hype used to pump the real-estate market.

If the labor force decreased by 3200 then what happened to all those people is the real question. Did they leave town? Did their EI run out therefore they are no longer statistically part of the employment force? Was it baby boomers retiring?

3100 full-time is like taking the equivilent employees of the city of Burns Lake out of the Prince George economy.

When you have years of 20% unemployment it is only natural that things eventually swing back as these unemployeed no longer are counted as part of the employment market when they fail to find employment for in excess of one year.

Therefore this number could tell us that 3200 people in PG were the number equivilent of workers that failed to find a job within the last year over those who did find a job in the last year. Therefore because unemployment dropped from those that are statistics things are improving, when infact the opposite could be the case.

I would like to see the over all emplyment numbers rising. What if our target was 50,000 full-time jobs in the city of PG. That would be an accievement, not a 3100 decrease in full-time jobs. Since our real-estate valuation doubles in the last five years that means less people paying twice the interest for their homes. Incomes didn't go up that much.

I can't see how these two fundimentals of fundimentals can go in opposite directions without a correction at some point if not in over all full time employment numbers than surely in real-estate valuations....

I don't know how Kinsley can tell if we are in good shape or not, he is never here.

"THE FOREST INDUSTRY AS YOU ARE ALL AWARE HAS BEEN GOING THROUGH SOME VERY DIFFICULT TIMES OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS AND WE AS A MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT HAVE BEEN SUPPORTING LOBBYING SENIOR LEVELS OF GOVERNMENTS TO TAKE A MORE ACTIVE ROLE TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO THE FOREST INDUSTRY.

THIS HURTS OUR LOCAL BUSINESSES.

WE MUST CONTINUE TO CARRY THE FIGHT TO SENIOR LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS THE ISSUES PLAGUING THIS INDUSTRY NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
THIS IS NOT JUST A FORESTRY ISSUE; THIS IS A COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL ISSUE. COUNCILS, CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND UNIONS MUST COME TOGETHER AS A UNITED FORCE TO DRIVE HOME OUR CONCERNS. REMEMBER, WHAT EVER IT TAKES, IT MUST BE DONE."

http://www.city.timmins.on.ca/new/pdfs/cityHall/notices/2006/STATEOFTHECITYADDRESS2006.pdf

From a state of the city address by the mayor of Timmins, Ontario, another northern natural resource dependent community of about 50,000.

We are not alone. This one is not MPB based. It is based on changing times in the forest products industry.

"Year End numbers from statistics Canada reveal the following for Prince George"

That was posted January 8, 2007 ...... so how accurate are supposed "year end" reports? What is the "year-end"? Surely not December 31, 2006.

The latest net published bulletin seems to be 3rd quarter 2005 for Northern BC.

What is the precise location of the info source you quote? Is it on the net or is it available at the downtown office?

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/bc-yk/5624/jwtc/lmi/menu.shtml#2