"James says the Provincial Government should look at regional differences and offer options to people because of the realities of where they live and work".........................................................lol!

And that's it? That the NDP's solution to all the problems they are yapping about? FCOL. What else is new?

So what solution do you have?
It's real easy to trash stuff but come up with some kind of a solution is the tough part.
Put you money were your mouth is so to speak.

How about the provincial government funding a new east bi-pass for highway 97 connecting the South of town, through the airport light industrial park, through to a potential heavy industrial zone in the Fraser Flats/ Shelly area, and then through to Salmon Valley?

End result is an efficient provincial North/South highways system with many benefits:

- It would cut a half hour commute for those isolated in the oil country to the North... 14 hours already removed from the Lower Mainland.

-It can by-pass the city of PG without a single stop light as a provincial highways should be for a region that makes the kind of tax contributions that this region and its industry generate.

- If done in conjunction with industrial park planning it would make local industrial traffic far more efficient. More efficiency means more profits and more profits means more government revenues and more local jobs.

- It is a major safety improvement removing dangerous goods and heavy industrial traffic from the city center full of jay-walking pedestrians, suicide walkers, and little old ladies that can’t see very far.

- It removes a major contribution to air-shed pollution (big rigs) in what is the countries worst polluted air-shed already contributing to thousands of premature deaths.

- It enables good regulatory, economic and health policies as far as air pollution standards and the attraction and retention of high paying industry with the ability to have new industrial parks on grid outside of the city air-shed accessed by the new by-pass route.

- It allows the logging industry to transition to road building of infrastructure for the future forest industry at a time when the global financial industry assures us that we will not have a robust US housing industry for at least a couple of years. This allows the capital investments to get through this patch and go right back to work producing revenue for industry and government and people as soon as market conditions turn around.

- $1 Billion dollars for softwood pine beetle impact studies is a complete waste, but $200 million investment in the provincial economies future (PG bi-pass route) would have a direct impact now; and a lasting legacy for the effected small enterprise business and equipment operators in the North.

- It seriously challenges the federal government to invest some federal dollars complimenting the provincial investment to the East with a similar project to the south on the federal funded highway 16, a highway ridiculously under build for its purpose when one looks at the Domanio overpass as well as the overpass at 16&97 or even range road for that matter. Were beyond the overpass solution for that stretch of highways IMO.

I think people offer solutions as they personally see them, all the time.
And the politicians ignore every damn one of them!
If it wasn't their own idea,not interested.
Hell,it just wouldn't look right for them to actually LISTEN to the people that elected them!

Eagleone. There is no Industry or business North of Prince George with the exception of Bear Lake and Chetwyn. After that business heads East to Grande Prairie, Dawson Creek, Edmonton etc;

97 North for the most part is used by Moose, Deer, Bears, Coyotes, Wolfs, Crows, etc; Vehicle traffic is very low. This area will never grow beyond where it is to-day, and actually died right off when they built Highway 16 through to Mcbride so to connect with Edmonton. Even Hiway 16 is more of a sanctuary for wildlife. You can drive for miles and miles and never see another vehicle.

I like some of your ideas, however the money would be much better spent on Hiway 16 West and 97 South, that is where the action is and will be for the foreseeable future.

Prince Rupert port expansion.
New Alum Ingot plant at Kitimat
Two or three big mines on Highway 37
Transmission line on Highway 37
Sawmills at Vanderhoof, Fraser Lake, Ft St James, Burns Lake, Houston, Smithers, Terrace, etc;
Tourist going through to Pr Rupert to Alaska.

Just some examples.

Can't gather information about us up here in Victoria? They are really out of touch. Ain't they?

Palopu, I agree highway 16 is just as important. The problem is Carol James has no say in highway 16 improvements because that is federal tax dollars. Carol James does have a say in highway 97 because that is provincial tax dollars. A good starting point for any infrastructure improvement is to lobby the politicians that actually have a say in the matter.

I disagree with your notion that no industry is located to the North. Tell that to people isolated up in the Peace country. We do a lot of trade with the mines and resource industries up north, we have a lot of logs that come in from the north, and you don't need a plant in the bush to have demand for logs at the local mills in town. One look at the scale traffic at PG Sawmill where you have at times logging trucks lined up past the Northwood rail crossing trying to feed a super mill as well as a chipping plant with logs and you can see a lot of traffic that is just as important as a tractor hauling widgets from some plant. One sawmill generates 10 times the industrial traffic as any manufacturing plant in say Ontario would generate for the same jobs employed. East of town we have 3 pulp mills, a chip plant, a super saw mill, a oil refinery, and many other highly industrial businesses that could use the east side access.

What PG desperately needs is clean air. I think we can all agree on that. To enable clean air what we need is an industrial location outside of the city air-shed where the wind blows away from town. The realities of the physical world are that the only place we can build this type of industrial park is Northwest of town. The realities of building an industrial park is that it has to have highway access; and an industrial park at the end of a dead end road that still requires all traffic to route through our downtown ensures the industrial park will never happen.

Without the industrial park outside of the city air-shed our economy remains stagnant and jobless as we are held hostage to the air quality limitations that will forever make new industry in PG a controversial issue as evidenced in the many lost plants in PG's past such as the fibre board plant in the BCR Site (nixed due to air issues, 400 jobs), or the planned aluminum smelter (nixed air issues).

The facts are that BC Hydro has in place a substation Northwest of town built for the aluminum smelter that can handle any industrial expansion we could dream of in that part of town. With a road to access industry the possibilities grow exponentially.

The facts are that PG does not so much need a bi-pass route for today’s traffic, but rather for tomorrows industry, tomorrows clean air in the city, and tomorrows future as a city with a quality of life factored in for its residents. The idea that people in PG should just pay taxes and suck up the toxic air because 2010 region has sporting event priorities is a sick argument. We have already paid the taxes to have this done and now it is time for the politicians to set their priorities straight.

Two facts that politicians in this town will never admit to, but the reality of them is that this city will stagnate as an irrelevant backwater town of temporary residents if we do not address two realities in our city planning. #1 we do have the worst air in all of Canada and this is a direct result of not having industrial lands that are accessible outside of our air-shed, and #2 our downtown is build under the 200 year flood plain restricting expansion options, due the water level literally only feet below the surface, and the inherent risk associated with any private dollar investments in that part of town. Its why you only see city buildings like city hall, the coliseum, art gallery, civic centre, library, and police station all at the lowest point of the flood plain, and soon they wish to add the PAC to that location as well.

My solution is to focus on early urban renewal on the highway 16 area between highway 97 and Range Road. Move the highways out of town to alleviate the traffic and enable an industrial zone that allows for industrial expansion, but not at the expense of the air we breath and the quality of life for future PG residents. The downtown should be divided into 3 zones (administrative, banking, and social) where their focus gives them potential to renew and grow as PG pulls them along, because of the planning that takes place for the entire city, and not just the merchants of the hell hole we have for a downtown now.

The facts are we waste multi millions on studies of the pine beetle problem, air quality problems, the softwood lumber turn down, and the list is endless. None of those dollars improve the economy, create private sector jobs, or reach the community in an effective manor.

Infrastructure on the other hand is direct employment in the community with dollars on the ground, enabling the future generation to have an economy that works for them when they need to generate the revenue to take care of past generations. Dollars not spent by the senior levels of government for these essential infrastructure projects is money that is spent elsewhere usually for political reasons, that I can guarantee would not have the same kind of effect as what is needed in PG. We need to have our fed/prov tax dollar repatriated here into PG where they are desperately needed at this time.

Once PG has a clean air option, then I could support a four lane road south of town if they want to do more Red Rock projects, but for me the clean air options is more important then being able to pass someone in the middle of nowhere.

I should add that when all the logging truck operators are selling their equipment and going bankrupt, maybe then they will see the merit of converting to dump trucks for a few years working their equipment and keeping it until the forest industry recovers. They mostly live in the rural areas, and they voted for the current regional district that has no priorities and no vision.

We require the Regional District to have vision and then make funding requests for that vision and as a result the projects I mention above will never happen and people in PG will one day all die choking on their vomit and most will be bankrupt begging for government handouts as a result.

I would run on the infrastructure mandate myself, but what’s the point with the kind of voters we have in this town. It might be better just to save oneself the embarrassment. Its all about name recognition and the lowest common denominator politics of short term gains and such that gets people elected around here. Anyone with a grand vision is labelled as a nut that wants to spend your tax dollars. The result is we get real nuts that do spend our tax dollars, but not to grow the tax base and future potential, but rather for trips to China and under passes for the druggy’s in the hood....

No wonder Richie Bros. Auctions make a whole bunch of money. What suckers we are.

Eagleone...Maybe the city should move it's city hall to on top of that bald patch of clay called Tyner Estates, near Domano and Highway 16. Hope they don't name the streets there after trees. it would be a laff.

Sure hope the upcoming proposal called University Hill subdivision plan doesn't get totally denuded of trees and shrubs like the one down the hill near Domano. It would be a pity again.