City's Budget Discussions Focus on Leisure Services

Monday, February 12, 2007 03:55 AM

Budget meetings #3 and #4 go this afternoon and evening at Prince George City Hall

The Leisure Services Department’s 2007 budget will be up for debate during both the afternoon and evening Council sessions.

Leisure Services is proposing a budget of $7.0-million dollars for the coming year, up just slightly from last year’s actual of $6.96-million dollars.

While the proposed budget for aquatics is up by approximately $50-thousand dollars from 2006, CN Centre’s budget is anticipated to be 64-thousand less than last year.

Fall of 2006 was a rough one for the CN Centre when ice problems led to the departure of two employees, including the facility’s manager. Salaries for the facility did come in at $1.02-million, about $165-thousand dollars over-budget. No word yet on whether the over-run is connected to the personnel changes. Salaries for 2007 are budgeted at $881-thousand dollars.

Recreation and culture services in Prince George take up 16-percent of the city’s operational budget - tied with roads. Protective services garner the lion’s share of funds at 29-percent annually.

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Posted on Monday, February 12, 2007 03:55 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on February 12 2007 7:45 AM

Where is the money to finance and run the Rack of Bones house in the budget? Is the cost to fund, finance and run all the rec buildings in the Leisure budget?

Loading up with debt for rec buildings and subsidizing leisure programs buys votes. People don't care about roads on election day. Anyone can do the responsible thing when it comes to roads. But leisure time is an opportunity for councillors to really toot their air horn. HeeHee!

Posted by: bohemian on February 12 2007 10:06 AM

I was looking at some of those budgets. Why do the projected budget years simply have the same numbers as the current year's budget?

Other municipalities do real 5 year forcasting (with different numbers resulting from differnet scenarios), while ours appears to simply do a 3 minute cut-and-paste in the spreadsheet.

What gives?

Posted by: diplomat on February 12 2007 11:21 AM

"People don't care about roads on election day."

It is, and has been the main issue on MY mind when I vote(d).

I have battled with expensive suspension repairs over the last 25 years, just from driving in town, to work and for *pleasure.*

To drive a regular passenger car in this town is a very risky undertaking.

Never once did I get reimbursed by the City for the cost of worn out struts and shocks and any of the labour, plus the expense of wheel alignments.

It stinks.

Posted by: Chadermando on February 12 2007 12:32 PM

I am concerned about the cost of policing services. I think the cost is getting out of hand and it is an issue that should be lloked at in greater detail before we commit another $30 million to build them a new station.

Is it possible we can get a municiple force that can take care of the mondane police work at a much lower cost and with actual accountability to the community when they go wrong? Keep the RCMP for serious crimes only and when we build for the next 30-50 years build the stations accordingly?