China Trip Details

Friday, January 26, 2007 03:59 AM

Prince George City Hall has released more information on the Mayor's trip to China. The Mayor and Virginia Sprangers,(Events Prince George Sport Manager) have been invited to attend the Asian Winter Games.

Prince George is the only North American community to attend the games, and that, says Mayor Colin Kinsley, gives Prince George a unique opportunity. “Prince George will have unprecedented access to Asia's top sport officials as we promote Prince George as a place to train, compete and live”

The Mayor says the opportunity to promote sport hosting in Prince George is the catalyst for the trip but that won't be the only avenue he plans to follow "With the number of top Asian government officials attending the Games, we will also be promoting the trade and commerce opportunities that exist in Prince George and Northern BC” .

The Mayor will carry those messages into meetings with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Committee and the Asian Games Organizing Committee. The Changchun Foreign Affairs office is also setting up meetings between the Prince George delegation and members of a number of Asian National Olympic Committees.

45 different Asian nations are participating in the 10 sport Asian Winter Games which are held every four years. The games are regulated by the Olympic council of Asia under the supervision of the International Olympic Committee. .

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Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 03:59 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Gofaster on January 26 2007 5:42 AM

I am amazed, not really, that Kinsley seems to be at the top of the list for taking theses trips. Maybe he should stay home and deal with local issues.
I guess this is why he wanted one last term in office "to see items finished that he seen started"

Posted by: acrider54 on January 26 2007 6:29 AM

Iv'e been invited to Hawaii, Mexico and other exotic places but I can't afford to go so I stay home to I can pay taxes and maintain my home.

Posted by: diplomat on January 26 2007 8:00 AM

>The Mayor and Virginia Sprangers,(Events Prince George Sport Manager) have been invited to attend the Asian Winter Games.<

They accepted the invitation. Does that mean that all the other North American communities (surely they must have received invitations as well?) did not find this effort worthwhile enough to take the trip?

The Chinese must feel slighted about the fact that only one city accepted their invitation and that all the other North American cities did not. By the way, *North American* includes Canada, the United States of America and all of Mexico!

Who did the inviting, who established the first contact and may we see the letters please?

I suspect that Prince George invited itself.

I have a hard time believing this release coming out of City Hall, especially since not one of the trips has ever produced any tangible results, except for one lonely Asian athlete individual actually showing up in P.G.

Posted by: Runner46 on January 26 2007 8:35 AM

What was the old addage about first one grain of sand, or was it one grain of rice?

Posted by: postman on January 26 2007 9:44 AM

It is almost laughable if it wasn't so sad how Kinsley has rubbed our noses in it for so long and we have lapped it up. Proves you don't have to get up very early in the morning to get one by on the PG citizenry. And we all know Mr Kinsley doesn't get up early.

Posted by: diplomat on January 26 2007 9:50 AM

Shouldn't Chamber of Commerce and industry representatives take trips to foreign lands to promote their own specific products and services? At least they know what they are looking for and what they are selling.

Yikes!

Posted by: Jeth on January 26 2007 10:32 AM

I defended the City's junket to Torino (at the time) with the expectation that meaningful relationhips and opportunities would be developed there, and the results communicated to PG taxpayers.

Can anyone (including City staff) tell me (us) what benefits were derived from that trip (now almost a year ago)?

Posted by: owl on January 26 2007 10:36 AM

I am with diplomat.

The press release makes it sound as if PG was the only one from North America that was invited.

If so, perhaps the Mayor should have stopped along the way in Ottawa, Washington, Mexico CIty and another 20 or so North American Capitals to bring personal mementos to China from North American countries.

I would not be surprised if the culture in China is such that to refuse an invitation is as good as a slap in the face.

Posted by: owl on January 26 2007 10:38 AM

BTW, the after the fact news release from City Hall on such matters do not help the situation. The idea is to pre-empt speculation and gossip as much as possible and provide the full background.

Posted by: Harbinger on January 26 2007 10:42 AM

The Chamber of Commerce shouldn't have to go to China to see what they are selling. They just have to go to Wal-mart. For the Chinese to find out what we are selling to them would just involve a walk in the woods.

Posted by: Palopu on January 26 2007 10:57 AM

Much like the World Winter Cities Mayors meetings in Changchun, China on Jan 15th,2006. This function was attended by only 2 Mayors in North America. One from Anchorage, and of course one from Prince George. I wonder if on that trip our Mayor told the Mayor of Anchorage that we intended to take away 10% of the business from his Airport, once we got our Airport expansion up and running. If he did the Mayor of Anchorages guffaw is probably still ringing in his ears. But I digress.

I suspect that most if not all Mayors in North America never received an invitation to the Asian Games. Invitations may go out to heads of Governments, or Provinces, however I wonder if they would filter down to lowly Mayors. If so with tens of thousand of mayors in North America, it is very strange that only our Mayor is going. I suggest that other Cities are a little more conservative when it comes to spending taxpayers money.

Posted by: travism on January 26 2007 11:35 AM

What a wonderful situation, our mayor goes to china, our preimer thinks stanley park is a bigger crisis than the pine bettle epidemic (don't get me started on VANOC), and our federal govenment pulls funding from our Unversity ($5 million for the sports complex. I sure am glad to see my tax dollars spent so wisely.

Posted by: diplomat on January 26 2007 11:50 AM

"I sure am glad to see my tax dollars spent so wisely."

...like to go to Afghanistan to do a little expensive warmongering, as per aftermath of Bush's follies.

(Bin Laden -still at large- and his trained pilots were mostly from Saudi Arabia).

How they lead us around by our noses! And our MP is full of boisterous enthusiasm about the whole killing safari, while our highways, bridges and other infrastructure repairs are assigned to the back burner.

The politicians are indeed the sand in the gears of democracy!

They don't serve - they rule as they please once elected.

Posted by: charles on January 26 2007 6:35 PM

And the spending spree continues.

Posted by: realitycheck on January 26 2007 9:17 PM

Just to set the record straight.....the federal government never pulled any funding for the NSC. There has never been any promise of any money by the Feds...ever.

Posted by: Palopu on January 26 2007 10:11 PM

You got that right reality. UNBC **assumed** it would get the $5 Million from the Federal Government, however I dont know if they have even now made an application for it.

This sports centre will be an even bigger **white elelphant** than the Multi Plex, and I suggest will lose about the same amount of money each year. Approx $350,000.00 or more.

Posted by: diplomat on January 27 2007 9:48 AM

I think we should demand that issues like the Cameron Street bridge refurbishing and the planned 4% road tax levy be put to a referendum!

Same for any other large spending initiatives that have direct impact on the taxpayers of this city.

A threshold should be set that requires an automatic referendum when it is exceeded.

"And the spending spree continues." Not if we get together and demand to be involved in the final decisions.

Posted by: jonnypg on January 27 2007 11:39 AM

Wasn't there a qoute from a movie that said
"The people shouldn't be afraid of there government,the government should be afraid of there people".

Posted by: thereasonableman on January 28 2007 7:16 PM

I think it would be cheaper just to leave the mayor in China, rather than paying to ferry him back and forth. He could sideline as op250's Asian correspondent.