Kinsley to meet with P.M. At the End of the Month

Monday, September 19, 2005 07:49 PM

Mayor Colin Kinsley says he has a meeting set for the 30th of the September with the Prime Minister in Vancouver. On the agenda, the Mountain Pine Beetle. So no official invite to the P.M. to come to Prince George.

The information came as Councillor Brian Skakun presented his motions calling on the Mayor's office to issue an official invitation to the Prime Minister to come to Prince George and declare the mountain Pine beetle epidemic a natural disaster as defined by the Federal Government.

According to Skakun, with a Federal election in the wind, now is the time to strike.

Skakun says the $100 million dollars just promised by the Federal government is clearly not enough. He is concerned about a predicted reduction in the allowable cut will be reduced cutting wages by $100 million dollars a year. "This isn't about the sky is falling, I know there are resolutions before the UBCM, FCM, but this needs to be a multi layer approach."

Skakun's Council colleagues disagree, and soundly turned down his motions.

Councillors Basserman and Scott say the motion is redundant, Councilors Sethen and Dezell say the motion makes it look like there is little being done to deal with the pine beetle. Councillor Krause says he wouldn't support it because he wants to move ahead and work collaboratively with other communities and he supports those processes. As for Councillor Rogers, he rattled off all the work that has been done to make the issue front and center for all levels of government, but clearly we need to do a better job in communicating what local government is doing to find a solution that works for our community.

The Mayor says there is plenty being done, and he is somewhat upset with the motions because they don't recognize the hard work the city staff has done on the issue. Hopefully " We can just reiterate the seriousness of the damage done by the pine beetle, it is much more important to loook at 10 to 15 years out when the fiber of the forests have changed. We need to look to plans that will deal with that. The idea box is wide open" The Mayor wrapped it up by saying "This motion is redundant, it points out that we haven't done our job and that just isn't the case. "

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Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 07:49 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: gypsy on September 19 2005 10:22 PM

We can be guaranteed of one thing.
Those beetles are doing their job.
The Mayor says the city is doing their job???
Does that imply they stopped the beetle???
And also the staff have done their job!!!
Guess it is all taken care of???
Well--maybe??
Now I.ve heard everything???
Not to worry.

Posted by: owl on September 20 2005 12:50 AM

"This motion is redundant, it points out that we haven't done our job and that just isn't the case. "

That last part is the crux of the whole thing, isn't it?

Someone on council actually has the guts, in a very nice way, to say more should be done than has been done.

Working through all the bureaucrats in Victoria and Ottawa really has not gotten very far.

And the poor guy who pointed that out got hit hard by all his partners in crime.

Not only that, but the Mayor made a very cutting remark when he told Skakun that he was in touch with the PMO and will be meeting with him and has spoken to him. Nice of him to inform Council of that.

As far as bureaucrats looking after the ship, is anyone really looking at what the raw product is and how it can be marketed? Is anyone looking at the displacement of workers from one TSA to another TSA, from one TFL to another TFL? Is our modelling capacity sufficient to forecast? How accurate is it based on past experience?

The thing is a fiasco in the first place that really may have been avoided if the original outbreak in a park had been attacked. So called smart bureaucrats and politicians let us down once. So far they have shown that they move at a snails pace which is very much slower than a pine beetle's pace.

We saw the bungling of various levels of government in New Orleans. Why should we be unique?

I say, get the PMO involved directly to show how serious this is to us. After all, more than one of us have had the experience of going right to the top if the guy at the counter does not have the decision making authority.

For all we know the PM may be sitting in his bed at home right now while watching Leno wondering why his staff is telling him that the bug thing in BC is so serious when he hasn't even heard from the City Government asking him to view the infestation and asking for disaster relief for the northern part of the province. Obvioulsy his staff must be exaggerating.

Wonderful patsies we have sitting on Council, don't we?

Following the pied piper off the cliff every chance they get.

Posted by: gypsy on September 20 2005 7:47 AM

Yep, owl!!!
No harm would have been done by writing the PM.
Except Colin had to make that big attempt he is the "be all and end all" taking charge.
The big cheese speaks!!!
Sethen seconds the motion made by Skakun, then votes against it, so his previous conversations with her were wiped out when the Mayor spoke.
The poor thing does not have the courage of her convictions-and she is NOT a winner.
Nor are the rest of those cowards.
Do I respect them, believe them, or trust them to run this city??
No damn way!!!

Posted by: camoose on September 20 2005 2:51 PM

I wonder if there is an election or two coming soon. Wow! The King of our city is hoping to meet with Mr. Dithers from Ottawa. I wasn't going to vote for Colin but this sure changes my mind. He sure is doing a great job.