We have to get these Nazi's from city hall out of power!

correction, anyone with a voice is able to talk.. The contract must have included a clause that doesn't allow him to discuss it. wondering why? undoubtedly power and control issues. they must be very insecure i suppose

What the heck?

This kind of leadership always fails in the end.

I suspect that one reason is that the cost of this icebreaker by the time it is finished will be prohibitive.

WHERE ARE ALL OF THESE SPINLESS COUNSELORS. WONT EVEN ONE OF THEM STAND UP FOR THE PEOPLE THAT ARE PAYING THE BILL.

Just to recap. The man that owns the piece of equipment has quoetd the job and is confident it will work. The piece of equipment is motoring across Canada as we speak (thank God it's not coming on CN rail !) yet two things bother me. No PUBLIC discussion of the cost of the job this man is going to do, and they STILL are moving ahead with the "hot water" plan ? Anyone know when the next election is? Maybe this machine can dislodge hizzoners head from his neather regions?

Is it not unlawful to abridge both freedom of speech and the press?

If the order not to speak to media is part of the contract, what exactly is the penalty for breaching? The city council will cancel its arrangement to have the ice removed? How would that make the city look?

I guess if the city doesn't want it's contractors bothered this gag order would also apply to politicians and photo ops with contractors. I do belive the whole lot of the city council should be turfed in November for their performance in this situation. Then the unelected hangers on should be next. I.E. the mayor's campaign manager cum city spokesman (Spin Doctor)

hmmm....interesting. I don't work for the media so am I allowed to bring him a cup of coffee at least while he works and ask him how his day is going?

Too bad I couldn't show up at the press conference tonight and introduce myself to the mayor. If any of you go tell him I say, "Hi!!!!!"

HEIDI555 I THINK YOU HAVE EARNED THAT RIGHT. GO FOR IT GIRL.

A new council this November is not enough, clearly.

So stupid, too. Who exactly is the media? We all have cameras and video, can "broadcast" on YouTube, can write articles on Facebook, blogs, or contribute to others' like this one.

Look at all the video and photos the Opinion250 readers contributed to the CN crash story on August 4. Are those people the media? I-Reporters on CNN - are they the media? I think they are; we all are.

Time Magazine chose "You" as the person of the year last year, recognizing the power of consumer generated content, like all of us posters are doing here.

The irony is it was exactly this new "media" landscape that allowed heidi1555 to post her research that lead to this contract.

The traditional and non-traditional media should band together and insist clauses like this are removed from this, and future contracts.

The citizens of Prince George deserve transparency - they are tired with "done deals" and "backroom deals" and secrecy and non-disclosure.

It will be interesting to see if the traditional media gets access.

Gag the city officials, we could use the peace and quiet for a change.

And let the common sense, no BS people like Paul talk for a change.

Yes, i know its asking for a miracle.

"If the order not to speak to media is part of the contract, what exactly is the penalty for breaching? "

Interesting notion since the City is between a rock and a hard place.

If he tells them he will speak if he wishes to then who else are they going to hire to do the job in this case?

If they cancel his contract, how will the city look when they tell the people the reason they cancelled his job and continue to keep the the area in an usafe condition jsut because someone did not accept the gag order?

"It will be interesting to see if the traditional media gets access."

The Citizen's article this morning was BS. They were talking about 6 foot thick ice. There is a considerable difference between ice chunks which themselves are maybe 18 inches to 24 thick piled up to 6 feet high and 6 foot thick ice as a surface on an ocean or lake.

They are being fed crap and they are gullible enough to take it.

First of all I can not believe what I'm reading......


[The Citizen's article this morning was BS. They were talking about 6 foot thick ice. There is a considerable difference between ice chunks which themselves are maybe 18 inches to 24 thick piled up to 6 feet high and 6 foot thick ice as a surface on an ocean or lake.]

Ya, no doubt.

Don't raise the road. Lower the river. Duh!!

In the *good old days* before the internet it was much easier to keep people like mushrooms - in the dark and feed them a load of fertilizer.

"Opinion250 has been in contact with Laplante’s company since a week ago and has built up a relationship with him."

Contrary to the City and *two of the best ice experts in Canada* who had never heard of him and the capabilities of his equipment and had never contacted him, in the last six weeks.

Gag requests/orders are...well, Not Nice! (I can't express what I am really thinking).

How typical. Looks like someone is trying to take the credit for an awesome idea away from those who really deserve it. Has it finally sunk it that the hot water idea is not as realistic as the solution found by heidi555. Perhaps a salary paid city engineer or two or three is feeling a little embarrassed that they did not do the research they were paid to do. Is it bothering them that a normal civilian only interested in helping their fellow man out had the common sense to use one of the greatest tools of research available (internet) to find a solution? And it didn’t cost the taxpayer anything. How about that? Time for the mayor and his entourage to give credit where it is due.

wow, it does not take much for you guys to get excited. relax, spring is three months away, the ice will melt by then.

There is a lot of money to be made when someone declares an "emergency". Lots of money, and lots of wasted money.

So of course you can't have contractors mentioning to the media that what they are doing is a big waste, doesn't look good on the "emergency."

Government emergencies are handled by throwing money at the situation until the "emergency" goes away. That's why there are gag orders, too easy to get embarrassed.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What do politicians do when caught? Spin stories! What do they do when the public doesn't buy into it? - put a gag order on any one trying to speak truth! I suspect there is more going on here than an error in judgement. Someone obviously has a lot of money tied up. We must not lose sight that there is possible legal litigation pending. So if the government is the one hiring and paying for the contractor, it is naturally prudent to cover your butt especially if, you are the one accountable, and/or has some knowledge of wrongdoing-willfully or unwittingly!
(Dimwits in office--NEVER!)
2008 is shaping up to be an interesting year! Keep their feet to the fire everyone!

:)

This isn't a one time problem folks. Testing a few options today that could also be used in the future is not necessarily wasteful. It seems that we didn't have much in the way of ice breaking solutions prior to this, so let's not be so hard on the ones that are being considered. Chester

Ah ...... eagelone has raised the anty considerably ....... how close are we to that magic line?

Pretty close I would say Owl.

Lots of Gibberish on this subject, however very little fact.

All we have seen so far is a picture on an ice breaking machine in a deep water slow moving river somewhere back East. Then we have a statement from the Owner that he THINKS that he can solve the problem.

From this little bit of information we have concluded everyone at City Hall is stupid, and the ice breaking man is brilliant. Dont count on it.

The Nechako is very shallow on the South side. I suspect too shallow to allow him to break up much ice. If it wasnt shallow there would be no need for dredging.

We already have an open channel on the North Side of the Nechako, which I expect that he can expand, however who knows what the end result will be.

**The one thing that is a bar against all learning, that will keep you in everlasting ignorance is contempt prior to investigation**

Lets see the results of the **iceman** operation before we give the accolades.

Owl you are correct, Eagleone crossed the line, the comment has been removed.
I would have done it sooner had we not been at the PG Pulp Mill Fire.

Eagleone, please re-submit, but please refrain from accusing anyone of a fraudulant vote.

Elaine Macdonald
Publisher
Opinion250.com

Well I hope the city believes in preventative maintenance and dredges the river before next year so that we don't have a repeat performance. If the river needs to be kept open to prevent a re-occurance couldn't a bubble system be used? They use it in Williston Lake to keep a path open for the ferry and its usually much colder there. Mind you that is a lake and not moving water but...........?

.......um, when I posted my comment, "keep their feet to the fire" I had no idea about the PG Pulp Mill blaze. My comments feel really inappropriate now.

"I suspect that one reason is that the cost of this icebreaker by the time it is finished will be prohibitive."

I doubt it. I think it will come in at much less than the hot water plan.

Want some entertainment ? Try to get down River Rd to see the work being done. They run after you to chase you away, like they were trying to hide a UFO.

Yes, it's a big secret what goes on down by the river. I work in the area and sometimes we walk around at lunch to get some fresh air. Sometimes we take pictures. Last week, we had a dump truck operator ask us if we had authorization to take pictures. Too funny.

Yesterday my power supply in my computer fried and filled my house up with smoke (I took over hubby's computer now tee hee) so I had my windows open. I heard a boom and my house vibrated a bit, dog started barking outside like he does when it thunders. From my house I can usually hear the trains making a similar noise at the station but not quite this loud. Sounded like it came from same area. Did anyone else hear it?

I live way out in the middle of nowhere Heidi, its pretty quiet out here.

Well in the summer all the boats on the lake can generate a lot of noise, but after a couple of years i got so used to the sounds from the lake user, i barely notice even them now.

I admire you people that live in town, no way i could handle all the noise and pollution.
Your a tougher lot than I am.

I don't think my comments were over the line.

It is well documented on the internet with hundreds of studies that prove the Diabold vote counting machines can be manipulated for the desired results.

The city of PG uses those optical scanner vote counting machines that are able to be manipulated, and Don is the guy in charge of buying those machines and using them in our elections.

I did not say that Don committed fraud, but rather that the machines he prefers to use to count our votes have been proven to create fraudulent results in past elections (ie Ohio 2004, California 2006 ect).

At the time of the big gas deal referendum I refused to allow my vote to be counted by that machine, so Don said then throw your vote out, because the only way it will be counted is by the computer scanner. So I threw my ballot out rather than have it counted by a fraudulent vote counting machine. I made a complaint that my democratic rights were not respected. Don is the guy who decides and he decided that those vote counting machines were acceptable for municipal elections and if I didn't want to vote then that was my choice.

Hence he is the gate keeper that runs potentially fraudulent vote counting machines to count our vote. Sure the machines may have counted our votes correctly in the gas deal, or in our municipal elections, but because the vote counting machines are not independently certified, and because those machines have proven flaws for possible manipulation... no one can ever be sure as long as Don will only approve those machines for counting our votes.

If the situation does not change I guess I will not be able to vote until it is changed, because I will not participate in a democratic process that is not completely transparent. Its the basis of our democracy.

Don's view on gag orders is consistent with his views on the transparency of the vote counting process. That is a fact and not only an accusation.

Eagleone,

IMO if you do not vote, you have no right to complain about whom is in office.
Just my 2 cents.

Throw out any automatic counters and go back to the old days when we counted ballots manually. It is nice and slow, employs more people, pay them well and bond them if you are worried about cheating.
metalman.

Metalman gets it. Democracy is the vote count, not the casting of a ballot. I support democracy and not the farce these electronic machines have made out of it.

Stalin once said 'let me count the votes and I care not who people vote for' paraphrased. Any surprise that is where all the neo-cons who push these Diabold machines come from.

Its funny when people say they would like to vote someone out of office, but how do they really know they voted them in in the first place?

ie George W Bush.

Turbo I show up to vote, but if my vote is not going to be counted in a transparent varifiable fashion, then I do not participate at that time and I would hope everyone else that supports democracy will do the same.