 | Friday, November 20, 2020
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | What's going on in Prince George city hall? | | |  | | | — By CBC Prince George's Andrew Kurjata
Last week’s Metro Matters newsletter noted a number of high-level municipal officials leaving their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, but few places seem to have lost as many personnel as B.C.’s sixth-largest metro area: Prince George.
The city started shedding jobs over the summer, including terminating the managers of both the CN Centre arena and the Civic and Conference Centre, citing a lack of revenue due to COVID-19. Multiple union jobs attached to pools and park services were also eliminated.
And the cuts keep coming. In September, city manager Kathleen Soltis departed for undisclosed reasons, and this past week CKPG News obtained a list of recent eliminations which includes the director of public works, director of infrastructure services and manager of environmental services.
The official reason behind these changes is COVID-19, and indeed the city is estimating an $8-million budget shortfall as a result of the pandemic. But the virus may also be a convenient cover for an internal reset some see as long overdue.
There have been growing cries to clean house at city hall ever since the Prince George Citizen newspaper revealed (through access to information requests) that members of the city’s nine-person management team were paid up to $235.72 an hour for working overtime during the 2017 wildfire season, costing taxpayers more than $100,000.
Meanwhile, multiple projects have gone over budget with little explanation and the raises kept on coming, prompting Citizen editor Neil Godbout to call on city hall to be "truly accountable for repeated errors costing taxpayers millions of dollars." Soon after, Coun. Kyle Sampson, who is new to city hall, passed a motion for council to take an "objective look" at the city’s compensation policies. Eleven days later, Soltis was gone.
Whether this hints at possible futures for other municipalities in a time of COVID is tough to say.
The province is handing out aid money to try and stave off deeper financial crises, and some cities say it’s more than enough to cover projected losses.
Those running a tight financial ship are better positioned to move forward without major changes to their operations.
The rest are faced with a choice of cutting costs or raising taxes — the bills for which would go out one year before the next municipal elections.
Viewed through that lens, it’s possible the pandemic is making tough financial decisions a little easier.
| | |  | | | 1. Vancouver | After several meetings and weeks of debate, council approved moving forward on its climate emergency plan. It sets up a 2021 vote on city-wide permit parking, and depending on how things go, a 2022 vote on mobility pricing. The day after the vote, Mayor Kennedy Stewart pushed for a federal exemption to allow the decriminalization of simple drug possession.
Read more | | | | |  | | | 3. Penticton | A global pandemic can’t slow down controversies over bike lanes. This time, it’s in Penticton, where a proposed lane that would stretch from one end of the city to the other is causing the same gnashing of teeth that one councillor notes happens in every city when it’s first proposed. Still, one to keep an eye on, given the Okanagan has had fewer of these debates.
Read more | | | | | |  | | | 4. Sayward | The small Vancouver Island community will elect a mayor and two councillors on Saturday. Normally that wouldn't be too interesting, except the community has gone through four mayors since the pandemic and its top bureaucrat resigned, all for mysterious reasons. Hopefully the community can get back on track so the province can stop holding its hand for basic functions.
Read more in the Campbell River Mirror | | | |  | | | 5. Delta | Finally, in the midst of all the anxiety and tragic news in the world at the moment, there is a 6-year-old girl in Delta who has successfully petitioned the city to explore building a crosswalk to connect a park trail with a busy mall. She says even if her campaign doesn’t succeed, she’s “still happy that I worked and tried my best.” May we all have her approach to life.
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forwarded to you. | | | | That's it for us today! Check out the latest headlines at cbc.ca/bc and follow our municipal affairs reporter Justin McElroy on Twitter. And if you have any questions, you might want answered in a future mailbag, drop Justin a line at metromatters@cbc.ca. | | | |
