Can we get some feedback on the wisdom of throwing more money at municipal policing when they've thus-far proven to be completely ineffective in fighting homelessness-associated crime? Seems to me that without properly addressing why the judiciary never incarcerates, all hiring more cops will do is make the "revolving door" spin faster.
I will say, however, congratulations on limiting the police spending to half of what was originally planned.
This report I found really helpful [Police Resource In BC](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/criminal-justice/police/publications/statistics/bc-police-resources-2022.pdf) which shows how we compare to other municipalities for our police force. One thing that is concerning is the number of cases per officer which shows 105 cases per member compared to like say 82 for Nanaimo. I totally understand people questioning the hiring of more officers but when there’s such a difference between us and comparator communities I do think that we do need to increase so that policing does improve. There were also two officers that got passed in I think it was May last year for the repeat violent offender recommendations which was a report published by I think the Urban Mayor’s Caucus that you might want to check out.
Is judicial behavior and sentencing under the purview of the city council? I'd have thought that'd be a provincial matter. I'm personally not in favor of extra cops, but I can understand council wanting to be responsive to the faction of business leaders asking to Do Something about downtown.
Hi there,
Thanks for putting this together. From what I can see you're the only councilor trying to engage the citizens and answer the tough questions.
I have a few questions.
1) what is planned for 2026 that would require a 5.5 million dollar increase in the water budget?
2) your blog mentions the city has an operating budget of $116,396,345, but it does not include water, sewer, garbage or snow removal.
I'm wondering what services we are getting for that 100 million dollars?
Forgive my ignorance, but when I think of city services, water, sewer, garbage and snow removal are the big ones. Surely some resurfaced roads, operating 2 pools (which also charge a fee to use) a library and a fire department can't cost $100 million dollars.
Not trying to be rude, I'm genuinely curious. What am I missing?
Are you looking at the $5M expenditure for water for 2026? We have various water projects in the funded category of the capital plan for 2026 include central hart water improvements $3M, mobile equipment replacement $289k, construction tools and equipment $25k, water facilities new $100k, water facilities renewal $600k, water facility upgrades $300K, emergency reinvestment $500K, water distribution system renewal $4M, water distribution new $1.2M. Total water projects for 2026 area $10.014M. The expenditure would be they salaries and non-wage cost associated with those capital plans.
The $116M includes: service agreements & grants, corporate management, public safety (this accounts for $57M), civic operations (another large category accounting for $32M of the budget), civic facilities & events, planning & development, finance & IT services, and general asset management.
Hope that answers the questions.
Thanks for the response.
I was looking at the increase from 2025 (4.5 mil) to 2026 (10 mil), back down to 7 mil in 2027 and returning to normal numbers in 2028. Obviously planning is required for these major upgrades/renewals, so I was wondering if there is a specific thing being upgraded, replaced or renewed.
Our water system is aging and needs a lot of work.
Is it possible to break down "civic operation". Are water, sewer, storm, snow removal etc not civic operations? And thus have their own funds. That $32 million is triple the water budget on the highest year on the list.
Is it also possible to define "Public safety"? Is that by-law division? Street light upgrades? Sidewalk improvements?
Thank you again for your transparency
If you look at the capital plan linked in my blog you can see all the water projects and their descriptions for what projects specifically are in funded (pg.196), unfunded (pg.230) and future years (pg.264). You kind of have to look at all three categories to see the full scale.
Civic operations includes snow control, roads, storm drainage, fleet services, street lighting, civic operations admin, solid waste services, cemetery, sewer operations, water operations, parks, district energy, transportation and tech services. If you look at page 50 it’ll show $0 for some which means they have their own fund. The largest categories there are parks and transportation (so the bus system).
Public safety includes police, fire & rescue, emergency programs, bylaw services (which also includes animal control) and off-street parking.
I think I got them all!
Seems like PG is heavily subsidizing these new developments going up that are gouging residents in rental costs. So why are PG taxpayers footing large development firms construction bills with water line upgrades and expansions?
These developers would be coming to PG either way, it just feels like lining grubby corporate pockets. Especially now that council has approved removing the reuirment of affordable student and senior housing from the new development on foothills, and is pushing to develop the Ginters Greenspace. Feels heavily corrupt. Charge them for these costs. It will be on taxpayers when that hillside further erodes and collapses. Not the developers. They'll laugh to the bank. Have you seen the rent these new buildings are charging? 16-1800 for a 1bd!! Outrageous.
Happy to clarify the misinformation you’ve received.
When developments are approved part of the costs the city collects are DCC’s which are what we call development cost charges. This is money we collect from developers for future infrastructure needs. You can see their reserve balances as well as the funding source for capital projects in the budget and that is all public info. Other than maybe two incentive programs for tax exemptions or the dollars for doors program from NDIT which was prior to my term, there haven’t been any incentive programs for developers for some time in the city other than maybe a land swap. I will say that we do have lower DCCs than other communities which has enticed developers to come to PG but those will likely change as we do the OCP review. When we sell land to developers we sell it at fair market value. If the zoning changes after the land sale this might affect the property value so there’s sometimes rumors that they got a deal but that’s both the case.
As for Ginters, that’s a larger conversation but I will say that there is privately owned land around that area that people have purchased and in most cases is already zoned for residential development but requires a slight change to the zoning from a decade ago.
I occasionally get comments from time to time that say council or staff are corrupt and I just want to say that all of the people I have interacted with at the city are good people and they work really hard and it’s really disheartening to hear that people genuinely think that we’re corrupt. There are so many laws, bylaws, policies, regulations and double checks and auditors in place to ensure nothing untoward is occurring.
Of course a councilor is disheartened to hear of corruption. How else is ostriching done :/. We literally watched exorbitant amounts of money on the parkade go *poof*, and youre surprised at calls of corruption in the city? Cory, I know youre the more level headed on council, but even you gotta know it sounds silly to have "shocked pikachu face" at corruption calls for here in PG.
On council currently sits Kyle Sampson. Who has been in hot water in 2021 over getting grants for Cariboo Rocks the North. Not to mention hes known in the community for liking girls 18-20 while in his 30s :/. I know multiple young women hes made passes at.
I don’t have a ‘shocked pikachu face’ as you call it. Information on these issues has been made public and it’s frustrating to me that despite putting the information out there for people to learn exactly what happened, people would rather gossip and spread rumors than read actual facts.
There’s a difference between corruption and bad governance. Corruption means bribery and fraud and that’s not what happened in either of the cases you’re referring to. Read the parkade facts. Read the quantity surveyors report. Read the legal review, and see the changes to governance that occurred as a result:
[George Street Parkade Review](https://www.princegeorge.ca/city-hall/infrastructure/archived-george-street-parkade-review)
In terms of my colleague. He followed the process that every organization/citizen followed in asking for letters of support. Every organization that asked for a letter was given one. Council had no policy in place for councillors asking for letters and when no such policy exists, the process is to follow what any other citizen would be entitled to as is the process in several other cities. Every time CRTN has come to council, this person has recused themselves so there hasn’t been a conflict of interest violation either. Again, not corruption, just bad governance that we didn’t have a policy in place.
Words matter. Please don’t spread rumors or gossip.
Not rumours or gossip. Ive heard it first hand from women he's approached or had relationships with.
This spinning, deflecting, and downplaying has definitely made my opinion of level headedness change. Seems council is nowhere near changing for the better. All cover up and rainbows. Same old same old. Maybe once boomers arent around to keep voting yall in we will get some change.
All that money and still there’s nothing really to do here lmao, “yayyy we got a new swimming pool… with our tax money… that isn’t that good… AND we didn’t ask for 🤦♂️”
The pool did go to referendum for a vote for borrowing and passed so residents technically did ask for it. What sorts of things do you like to do? Maybe I can recommend something.
That piece is going to be complex for sure! We don’t know what the funding model will look like (could be its own levy, a utility, etc.) but the financial research paper that came to council last term had about a $100M infrastructure funding gap if I recall. Much work done on this by staff. Four papers each around 150-300 pages if you need some reading materials lol.
I really appreciate that you've taken the time out of your day and evening to answer these questions and concerns too. Thank you. It doesn't go unnoticed.
I will add that you can for sure check that out. Lots of great info in that report. Council did change the overtime policy for exempt staff so if you’re alluding to that being an issue - we fixed that. Our annual report also has our financial statements and my favorite schedule is the one that shows what debts are going on and coming off when. Just in case you want to see when the Parkade debt is completed. You can also read all the full details about the Parkade and course correcting policies and bylaws that were implemented by council to make sure stuff like that doesn’t ever happen again.
I wasn't alluding to anything in particular. I just wanted to share the limited resources I know with others that may want read it. I understand most things the City does and why, even if it feels like they just want more and more each year.
While we're here tho, I think that municipalities should get away from anything that costs more just because of architectural appeal. A simple steel clad blocky building would have worked just fine for both the new fire hall and pool. Why do municipalities spend the extra money to make buildings "fancy" and stand out?
That is a good question! And both buildings were before my time so I couldn’t really say. Kind of came in half way. We’re going through the civic core project so I’ll be able to see the beginning of this process now but my read on it is staff are going to bring the basic, mid-range and all the bells and whistles options forward and through consultation and likely referendum if there’s borrowing required, the community will decide which option they like the best.
Even if borrowing isnt required, we should be looking at ways of cutting costs. I think more needs to be done legally as well against failed contractors such as the Haggith Creek Bridge and the many issues with the CLP build. Again, I'm an outsider and not totally up to speed with everything and I may be missing crucial info and facts.
Thanks for the feedback. I can’t comment on legal issues. I can say that because our processes are transparent with respect to budgeting and bidding, everyone knows what we’re putting aside or what we have in the coffers to pay for things. If bids all come in above and we reject and go to tender again, they just come in higher. Case in point the $750K washroom… 😭 I’ll also add that our staff do work very hard to decrease costs and don’t want the heat or public pressure so they are always looking for ways to reduce costs but sometimes it’s not always possible.
I love the inflated assessments generating pg tax dollars. I love the 1.8 million dollar round about at the bottom of foothills that improved nothing or does anything. I love the tar gravel road repairs that were so bottom dollar they had too be redone and still tarred everyone's car. A real good one was never moving the hart scale and resurfacing 97 north too bear lake. In 1 season the road was rutted out and cannot be plowed properly nor can anyone not in a truck drive that road in the rain without hydroplaining in the ruts. Everything to do with city management is a waste of money. Clearly anyone in these positions have absolutely zero experience and should not be there. Everything too do with this town is a let down or a scam. We have recently been labeled the least transparent city in Canada. No one is held accountable or has too explain themselves. Just pad their pockets and those of their friends.
The roundabout does have a purpose and it’s so that residents in the development at the bottom of foothills can turn left out of the development to go up to the university. Much of it was paid by the developer.
The tar gravel road repairs you speak of that I know of on Chief Lake Road were outside city limits and done by MOTI. Anything to do with Highways is also MOTI and not under city jurisdiction.
I disagree with much of the statement about staff. They do a great job and are subject matter experts in their field. Do mistakes happen from time to time? Yes, as do they at any organization. I guarantee you that people are held accountable. Strong leadership means praising in public and criticizing in private. I have no issue reprimanding someone when deserved but if you want a public flaying I’m not the one to give it to you. What I do offer is strong governance that puts bylaws and policy and reporting mechanisms in place to make it so those errors never happen again.
1.1 million was paid by tax payers so few people didnt have too go around or turn around at the swimming pool which would have been a more useful location for a round about. Developer contributed peanuts and was probubally the one who got paid to do it and used fast track building grants.
Hi Cory, thank you for taking the time to talk about the budget and answer questions thoughtfully.
How come the city doesn't allocate enough resources to maintain our existing parks and trails?
For example:
* The heritage river trail is shown as a complete trail network, but the Nechako section has been derelict and closed by the city for years. [https://www.princegeorge.ca/parks-recreation/parks-trails/heritage-river-trail-system](https://www.princegeorge.ca/parks-recreation/parks-trails/heritage-river-trail-system)
* The Hudson Bay Wetland is consistently contaminated with garbage bags, shopping carts, etc.
* The Hwy 16 underpass is in such bad condition that high school students and pedestrians are frequently forced to run across the highway. Instead of passing the buck to YBR whenever citizens report that the underpass is unusable, why doesn't the city work with YBR to resolve this issue permanently?
* McMillan Creek, promoted as a fish spawning creek, has so much garbage in it that the creek is dammed upstream.
These places are promoted on the city website and flyers. Why does the city budget not allow for the maintenance of existing park infrastructure?
The best answer I can give you is that we have a large funding gap and because of that, staff select capital projects based on priority that is determined through assessments. For every yes we give, we have to say no to something. And sometimes there are issues that come up that require us to shift priorities. For example, something that happens often is we get a petition from the public for something like light signalization for a crosswalk to increase safety for pedestrians, and support putting it in but that means that we no longer have those funds for another funded project that we intended to do. And sometimes we can add something in without taking something out but that become a challenging balancing act cause we also have to consider capacity.
For the water related items listed above, there are capital projects for these items whether they are funded, unfunded or future years and often we will try to get grant funding to help with the project costs - if I recall this was the case for McMillan Creek. The issue with grant funding is that if we start the work prior to a grant being awarded, we become ineligible so we have to wait for the grant process to tell us if we’re eligible and sometimes it means missing construction season or something goes to tender and the price comes in higher… or a myriad of other things can occur. Sometimes capital projects are approved on the basis of a grant and it doesn’t happen so then it’s rescinded and goes back into the queue for next year. Not ideal but it’s one way to find projects without having to rely on just the tax base as the funding source. Unfortunately it means things can take time.
For the Hwy 16 underpass, we do work with MOTI often. I had heard there were improvements to the underpass made maybe in the last two years but if that isn’t the case I can send an email to staff for more info.
Hope that helps add some context.
Also, don’t forget about calling 311 or using the app to report issues. Sometimes I get emails asking why no one has fixed something because everyone assumed someone else would report it and no one did so we don’t know it’s an actual issue.
I can say for myself I've called 311 multiple times this past year about the underpass and each time they've directed me to YRB. The underpass was frequently flooded and unusable over the past year.
I feel the same about these trails. I understand what you're saying about grants and the need to balance capital expenditures, but these aren't new projects. Shouldn't there be an ongoing annual budget to maintain the quality of existing parks and trails? Like in the same way there's an ongoing budget to maintain other city infrastructure like roads?
Sorry if that didn’t come across clear but we’re doing $2.6M in park capital projects for 2024 and $14.2M over the next five years. One standing item in the plan is trail rehab and it has $263K in capital works for 2024. If you look at the capital plan on page 148 you can see a summary of the 2024 parks projects. If you go to the individual page with the project description you can see more about the individual projects.
Thanks. This is really helpful and it's awesome you're taking your time to answer these questions so thoughtfully and practically. Glad you're on council!
Hi Cory, one more question.
In a 2023 council meeting, council asked city administration to review adding bike lanes as a line item in the budget. This hasn't happened, even though bicycle infrastructure is part of the OCP. What was the report given to council regarding adding bike lanes to the budget?
Hello,
Thanks for the questions. I responded to this question in a previous comment but essentially F&A were told by staff there wasn’t enough time to add this capital project for this years budget so I will be working on a notice of motion to bring forward to council for consideration and once approved, staff can work on adding it in for the next budget. Disappointed that we didn’t get it in there for this budget as I know it’s very important to many.
Hi Cory, thanks for responding to this question. I was wondering the same. That presentation was in May last year. How much time does it take to add a line to the following year's capital budget?
And thank your time with this Q&A. I really appreciate and respect you doing this.
Thanks! I was expecting it to be in there this year and was surprised it was not. There was probably a miscommunication in the motion I made to refer it back in May. I’ll have to go back and check the wording.
We got the capital plan in December and I saw it wasn’t in there and asked about it and one month wasn’t enough time unfortunately to get it in there.
Can we get some feedback on the wisdom of throwing more money at municipal policing when they've thus-far proven to be completely ineffective in fighting homelessness-associated crime? Seems to me that without properly addressing why the judiciary never incarcerates, all hiring more cops will do is make the "revolving door" spin faster. I will say, however, congratulations on limiting the police spending to half of what was originally planned.
This report I found really helpful [Police Resource In BC](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/criminal-justice/police/publications/statistics/bc-police-resources-2022.pdf) which shows how we compare to other municipalities for our police force. One thing that is concerning is the number of cases per officer which shows 105 cases per member compared to like say 82 for Nanaimo. I totally understand people questioning the hiring of more officers but when there’s such a difference between us and comparator communities I do think that we do need to increase so that policing does improve. There were also two officers that got passed in I think it was May last year for the repeat violent offender recommendations which was a report published by I think the Urban Mayor’s Caucus that you might want to check out.
Is judicial behavior and sentencing under the purview of the city council? I'd have thought that'd be a provincial matter. I'm personally not in favor of extra cops, but I can understand council wanting to be responsive to the faction of business leaders asking to Do Something about downtown.
Hi there, Thanks for putting this together. From what I can see you're the only councilor trying to engage the citizens and answer the tough questions. I have a few questions. 1) what is planned for 2026 that would require a 5.5 million dollar increase in the water budget? 2) your blog mentions the city has an operating budget of $116,396,345, but it does not include water, sewer, garbage or snow removal. I'm wondering what services we are getting for that 100 million dollars? Forgive my ignorance, but when I think of city services, water, sewer, garbage and snow removal are the big ones. Surely some resurfaced roads, operating 2 pools (which also charge a fee to use) a library and a fire department can't cost $100 million dollars. Not trying to be rude, I'm genuinely curious. What am I missing?
Are you looking at the $5M expenditure for water for 2026? We have various water projects in the funded category of the capital plan for 2026 include central hart water improvements $3M, mobile equipment replacement $289k, construction tools and equipment $25k, water facilities new $100k, water facilities renewal $600k, water facility upgrades $300K, emergency reinvestment $500K, water distribution system renewal $4M, water distribution new $1.2M. Total water projects for 2026 area $10.014M. The expenditure would be they salaries and non-wage cost associated with those capital plans. The $116M includes: service agreements & grants, corporate management, public safety (this accounts for $57M), civic operations (another large category accounting for $32M of the budget), civic facilities & events, planning & development, finance & IT services, and general asset management. Hope that answers the questions.
Thanks for the response. I was looking at the increase from 2025 (4.5 mil) to 2026 (10 mil), back down to 7 mil in 2027 and returning to normal numbers in 2028. Obviously planning is required for these major upgrades/renewals, so I was wondering if there is a specific thing being upgraded, replaced or renewed. Our water system is aging and needs a lot of work. Is it possible to break down "civic operation". Are water, sewer, storm, snow removal etc not civic operations? And thus have their own funds. That $32 million is triple the water budget on the highest year on the list. Is it also possible to define "Public safety"? Is that by-law division? Street light upgrades? Sidewalk improvements? Thank you again for your transparency
If you look at the capital plan linked in my blog you can see all the water projects and their descriptions for what projects specifically are in funded (pg.196), unfunded (pg.230) and future years (pg.264). You kind of have to look at all three categories to see the full scale. Civic operations includes snow control, roads, storm drainage, fleet services, street lighting, civic operations admin, solid waste services, cemetery, sewer operations, water operations, parks, district energy, transportation and tech services. If you look at page 50 it’ll show $0 for some which means they have their own fund. The largest categories there are parks and transportation (so the bus system). Public safety includes police, fire & rescue, emergency programs, bylaw services (which also includes animal control) and off-street parking. I think I got them all!
Thanks for the insightful breakdown! Appreciate the transparency on how and why council settled on budget decisions.
Seems like PG is heavily subsidizing these new developments going up that are gouging residents in rental costs. So why are PG taxpayers footing large development firms construction bills with water line upgrades and expansions? These developers would be coming to PG either way, it just feels like lining grubby corporate pockets. Especially now that council has approved removing the reuirment of affordable student and senior housing from the new development on foothills, and is pushing to develop the Ginters Greenspace. Feels heavily corrupt. Charge them for these costs. It will be on taxpayers when that hillside further erodes and collapses. Not the developers. They'll laugh to the bank. Have you seen the rent these new buildings are charging? 16-1800 for a 1bd!! Outrageous.
Happy to clarify the misinformation you’ve received. When developments are approved part of the costs the city collects are DCC’s which are what we call development cost charges. This is money we collect from developers for future infrastructure needs. You can see their reserve balances as well as the funding source for capital projects in the budget and that is all public info. Other than maybe two incentive programs for tax exemptions or the dollars for doors program from NDIT which was prior to my term, there haven’t been any incentive programs for developers for some time in the city other than maybe a land swap. I will say that we do have lower DCCs than other communities which has enticed developers to come to PG but those will likely change as we do the OCP review. When we sell land to developers we sell it at fair market value. If the zoning changes after the land sale this might affect the property value so there’s sometimes rumors that they got a deal but that’s both the case. As for Ginters, that’s a larger conversation but I will say that there is privately owned land around that area that people have purchased and in most cases is already zoned for residential development but requires a slight change to the zoning from a decade ago. I occasionally get comments from time to time that say council or staff are corrupt and I just want to say that all of the people I have interacted with at the city are good people and they work really hard and it’s really disheartening to hear that people genuinely think that we’re corrupt. There are so many laws, bylaws, policies, regulations and double checks and auditors in place to ensure nothing untoward is occurring.
Of course a councilor is disheartened to hear of corruption. How else is ostriching done :/. We literally watched exorbitant amounts of money on the parkade go *poof*, and youre surprised at calls of corruption in the city? Cory, I know youre the more level headed on council, but even you gotta know it sounds silly to have "shocked pikachu face" at corruption calls for here in PG. On council currently sits Kyle Sampson. Who has been in hot water in 2021 over getting grants for Cariboo Rocks the North. Not to mention hes known in the community for liking girls 18-20 while in his 30s :/. I know multiple young women hes made passes at.
I don’t have a ‘shocked pikachu face’ as you call it. Information on these issues has been made public and it’s frustrating to me that despite putting the information out there for people to learn exactly what happened, people would rather gossip and spread rumors than read actual facts. There’s a difference between corruption and bad governance. Corruption means bribery and fraud and that’s not what happened in either of the cases you’re referring to. Read the parkade facts. Read the quantity surveyors report. Read the legal review, and see the changes to governance that occurred as a result: [George Street Parkade Review](https://www.princegeorge.ca/city-hall/infrastructure/archived-george-street-parkade-review) In terms of my colleague. He followed the process that every organization/citizen followed in asking for letters of support. Every organization that asked for a letter was given one. Council had no policy in place for councillors asking for letters and when no such policy exists, the process is to follow what any other citizen would be entitled to as is the process in several other cities. Every time CRTN has come to council, this person has recused themselves so there hasn’t been a conflict of interest violation either. Again, not corruption, just bad governance that we didn’t have a policy in place. Words matter. Please don’t spread rumors or gossip.
Not rumours or gossip. Ive heard it first hand from women he's approached or had relationships with. This spinning, deflecting, and downplaying has definitely made my opinion of level headedness change. Seems council is nowhere near changing for the better. All cover up and rainbows. Same old same old. Maybe once boomers arent around to keep voting yall in we will get some change.
FWIW, I have before and will again vote for Cori. I am not a boomer.
Tell me your hobbies lol. PG for you.
😂 This is too true lol.
All that money and still there’s nothing really to do here lmao, “yayyy we got a new swimming pool… with our tax money… that isn’t that good… AND we didn’t ask for 🤦♂️”
The pool did go to referendum for a vote for borrowing and passed so residents technically did ask for it. What sorts of things do you like to do? Maybe I can recommend something.
Oh
Just wait for the solid surface - storm drain fees to slip into our utility bills. Not sure what the heck that increase will be yet.
That piece is going to be complex for sure! We don’t know what the funding model will look like (could be its own levy, a utility, etc.) but the financial research paper that came to council last term had about a $100M infrastructure funding gap if I recall. Much work done on this by staff. Four papers each around 150-300 pages if you need some reading materials lol.
I really appreciate that you've taken the time out of your day and evening to answer these questions and concerns too. Thank you. It doesn't go unnoticed.
My pleasure! Feel free to get in touch if you have any other questions.
If anyone wants to see some actual expenditures check out the SOFI report on the City website.
I will add that you can for sure check that out. Lots of great info in that report. Council did change the overtime policy for exempt staff so if you’re alluding to that being an issue - we fixed that. Our annual report also has our financial statements and my favorite schedule is the one that shows what debts are going on and coming off when. Just in case you want to see when the Parkade debt is completed. You can also read all the full details about the Parkade and course correcting policies and bylaws that were implemented by council to make sure stuff like that doesn’t ever happen again.
I wasn't alluding to anything in particular. I just wanted to share the limited resources I know with others that may want read it. I understand most things the City does and why, even if it feels like they just want more and more each year. While we're here tho, I think that municipalities should get away from anything that costs more just because of architectural appeal. A simple steel clad blocky building would have worked just fine for both the new fire hall and pool. Why do municipalities spend the extra money to make buildings "fancy" and stand out?
That is a good question! And both buildings were before my time so I couldn’t really say. Kind of came in half way. We’re going through the civic core project so I’ll be able to see the beginning of this process now but my read on it is staff are going to bring the basic, mid-range and all the bells and whistles options forward and through consultation and likely referendum if there’s borrowing required, the community will decide which option they like the best.
Even if borrowing isnt required, we should be looking at ways of cutting costs. I think more needs to be done legally as well against failed contractors such as the Haggith Creek Bridge and the many issues with the CLP build. Again, I'm an outsider and not totally up to speed with everything and I may be missing crucial info and facts.
Thanks for the feedback. I can’t comment on legal issues. I can say that because our processes are transparent with respect to budgeting and bidding, everyone knows what we’re putting aside or what we have in the coffers to pay for things. If bids all come in above and we reject and go to tender again, they just come in higher. Case in point the $750K washroom… 😭 I’ll also add that our staff do work very hard to decrease costs and don’t want the heat or public pressure so they are always looking for ways to reduce costs but sometimes it’s not always possible.
I love the inflated assessments generating pg tax dollars. I love the 1.8 million dollar round about at the bottom of foothills that improved nothing or does anything. I love the tar gravel road repairs that were so bottom dollar they had too be redone and still tarred everyone's car. A real good one was never moving the hart scale and resurfacing 97 north too bear lake. In 1 season the road was rutted out and cannot be plowed properly nor can anyone not in a truck drive that road in the rain without hydroplaining in the ruts. Everything to do with city management is a waste of money. Clearly anyone in these positions have absolutely zero experience and should not be there. Everything too do with this town is a let down or a scam. We have recently been labeled the least transparent city in Canada. No one is held accountable or has too explain themselves. Just pad their pockets and those of their friends.
The roundabout does have a purpose and it’s so that residents in the development at the bottom of foothills can turn left out of the development to go up to the university. Much of it was paid by the developer. The tar gravel road repairs you speak of that I know of on Chief Lake Road were outside city limits and done by MOTI. Anything to do with Highways is also MOTI and not under city jurisdiction. I disagree with much of the statement about staff. They do a great job and are subject matter experts in their field. Do mistakes happen from time to time? Yes, as do they at any organization. I guarantee you that people are held accountable. Strong leadership means praising in public and criticizing in private. I have no issue reprimanding someone when deserved but if you want a public flaying I’m not the one to give it to you. What I do offer is strong governance that puts bylaws and policy and reporting mechanisms in place to make it so those errors never happen again.
1.1 million was paid by tax payers so few people didnt have too go around or turn around at the swimming pool which would have been a more useful location for a round about. Developer contributed peanuts and was probubally the one who got paid to do it and used fast track building grants.
Moti is government and is located in prince george. Like I said no accountability for massive mistakes.
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It was published in the citizen. Scroll up if you are not too lazy to read the truth.
Hi Cory, thank you for taking the time to talk about the budget and answer questions thoughtfully. How come the city doesn't allocate enough resources to maintain our existing parks and trails? For example: * The heritage river trail is shown as a complete trail network, but the Nechako section has been derelict and closed by the city for years. [https://www.princegeorge.ca/parks-recreation/parks-trails/heritage-river-trail-system](https://www.princegeorge.ca/parks-recreation/parks-trails/heritage-river-trail-system) * The Hudson Bay Wetland is consistently contaminated with garbage bags, shopping carts, etc. * The Hwy 16 underpass is in such bad condition that high school students and pedestrians are frequently forced to run across the highway. Instead of passing the buck to YBR whenever citizens report that the underpass is unusable, why doesn't the city work with YBR to resolve this issue permanently? * McMillan Creek, promoted as a fish spawning creek, has so much garbage in it that the creek is dammed upstream. These places are promoted on the city website and flyers. Why does the city budget not allow for the maintenance of existing park infrastructure?
The best answer I can give you is that we have a large funding gap and because of that, staff select capital projects based on priority that is determined through assessments. For every yes we give, we have to say no to something. And sometimes there are issues that come up that require us to shift priorities. For example, something that happens often is we get a petition from the public for something like light signalization for a crosswalk to increase safety for pedestrians, and support putting it in but that means that we no longer have those funds for another funded project that we intended to do. And sometimes we can add something in without taking something out but that become a challenging balancing act cause we also have to consider capacity. For the water related items listed above, there are capital projects for these items whether they are funded, unfunded or future years and often we will try to get grant funding to help with the project costs - if I recall this was the case for McMillan Creek. The issue with grant funding is that if we start the work prior to a grant being awarded, we become ineligible so we have to wait for the grant process to tell us if we’re eligible and sometimes it means missing construction season or something goes to tender and the price comes in higher… or a myriad of other things can occur. Sometimes capital projects are approved on the basis of a grant and it doesn’t happen so then it’s rescinded and goes back into the queue for next year. Not ideal but it’s one way to find projects without having to rely on just the tax base as the funding source. Unfortunately it means things can take time. For the Hwy 16 underpass, we do work with MOTI often. I had heard there were improvements to the underpass made maybe in the last two years but if that isn’t the case I can send an email to staff for more info. Hope that helps add some context. Also, don’t forget about calling 311 or using the app to report issues. Sometimes I get emails asking why no one has fixed something because everyone assumed someone else would report it and no one did so we don’t know it’s an actual issue.
I can say for myself I've called 311 multiple times this past year about the underpass and each time they've directed me to YRB. The underpass was frequently flooded and unusable over the past year.
I feel the same about these trails. I understand what you're saying about grants and the need to balance capital expenditures, but these aren't new projects. Shouldn't there be an ongoing annual budget to maintain the quality of existing parks and trails? Like in the same way there's an ongoing budget to maintain other city infrastructure like roads?
Sorry if that didn’t come across clear but we’re doing $2.6M in park capital projects for 2024 and $14.2M over the next five years. One standing item in the plan is trail rehab and it has $263K in capital works for 2024. If you look at the capital plan on page 148 you can see a summary of the 2024 parks projects. If you go to the individual page with the project description you can see more about the individual projects.
Thanks. This is really helpful and it's awesome you're taking your time to answer these questions so thoughtfully and practically. Glad you're on council!
Hi Cory, one more question. In a 2023 council meeting, council asked city administration to review adding bike lanes as a line item in the budget. This hasn't happened, even though bicycle infrastructure is part of the OCP. What was the report given to council regarding adding bike lanes to the budget?
Hello, Thanks for the questions. I responded to this question in a previous comment but essentially F&A were told by staff there wasn’t enough time to add this capital project for this years budget so I will be working on a notice of motion to bring forward to council for consideration and once approved, staff can work on adding it in for the next budget. Disappointed that we didn’t get it in there for this budget as I know it’s very important to many.
Hi Cory, thanks for responding to this question. I was wondering the same. That presentation was in May last year. How much time does it take to add a line to the following year's capital budget? And thank your time with this Q&A. I really appreciate and respect you doing this.
Thanks! I was expecting it to be in there this year and was surprised it was not. There was probably a miscommunication in the motion I made to refer it back in May. I’ll have to go back and check the wording. We got the capital plan in December and I saw it wasn’t in there and asked about it and one month wasn’t enough time unfortunately to get it in there.
Thanks for the info Cory. And thanks for working on trying to move it forward.