City made important decisions last year, mayor says

As Mayor Lyn Hall looks back on 2018, he can't help but look ahead to 2019, noting how the decisions made last year will shape the year to come.

"Taking a quick look back at 2018, I think the one thing that stands out beyond being able to see the physical things around the city is looking at the building permits up to the end of November, which are valued at about $182 million," Hall said. "This is an all-time record for the city and a large piece of the development over the last four years, which will likely exceed $600 million and is really driven by the private sector and that's pretty important for us because it shows a lot of confidence in the economy here."

Hall said even though the city didn't have anything to do with the new School District 57 project, the construction of the new Kelly Road Secondary School, it is still really big for the city.

The mayor's office at city hall overlooks the construction site for the new condominium complex, giving Hall a bird's-eye view of a project he hopes transform downtown.

"Changing the face of downtown - we haven't seen any development like this for decades," Hall said. "The Park House condo development is something that I really think will be the driving force behind more commercial and retail development downtown. We need people to live downtown. There's lots happening on the other side of Victoria Street but when you get on the downtown side, we needed residential living downtown to create a community and that's what Park House development will do."

Hall talked about the results of the

Oct. 28, 2017 referendum that saw the community voting in favour of replacing Fire Hall No. 1 and the Four Seasons Pool. During the referendum 82 per cent of voters approved borrowing $15 million for the fire hall replacement and 62 per cent of voters approved borrowing $35 million to build a new pool.

The fire hall will be built on the southwest corner of Massey Drive and Carney Street next to the YMCA, while the new pool will be built at 600 Quebec St., which is the current location of the Days Inn.

Construction of the fire hall is scheduled to begin early this year while the pool is scheduled for the fall of this year or early in 2020.

The asset review which was ongoing in 2018 saw staff assessing city facilities to help prioritize repairing or replacing aging infrastructure.

"Staff did a tremendous job looking at those assessments and determining what we need to do," said Hall, who also mentioned the park review that took place in 2017 which began being implemented in 2018, which saw the more than $4 million in upgrades done to Masich Place.

"So now we're going to see the work being done on many of our parks and trails," he said.

There was a tremendous amount of work done on below-ground infrastructure in 2018 as well.

"I think the sinkhole at Carney and Winnipeg, despite the fact that it was costly and certainly something you don't want, I think that really shed light on the fact that our below-ground infrastructure in many locations is in pretty rough shape."

Highlights Hall talked about include the announcement of the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships being held in Prince George Feb. 15 to 24 and hosted by the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, which will see 140 athletes and 200 coaches from 20 nations gather together to compete in cross-country skiing and biathlon events.

Looking to the 2019 budget, Hall said one of the priorities is always road improvement.

"Road and sidewalk rehabilitation work has been going on for a few years," Hall said. "Our upcoming budget for 2019 will determine what that looks like, along with a number of other things that we're doing on the capital side around roads, paving and those kinds of things."

One of the jobs newly created at the City of Prince George is an emergency services coordinator because the new normal is the community receives evacuees during the inevitable wildfire season and when the time comes there has to be someone to put a plan in place if there is an order to evacuate the city.

Reconciliation is also on the city's agenda and continues to be an important item on the list.

"We continue to work with the Lheidli T'enneh and others around reconciliation," Hall said. "And that's not just at the political level but at the staff level."

The pavilion built at the Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park was a great asset to the city, Hall added.

"It's part of the history of the city," he said.

As for seniors in the City of Prince George, there's been an age-inclusive strategy action plan put in place.

"We want seniors to stay and I've said to seniors many times if they go away in the winter that's great but I want them to come home in the spring," Hall said. "So under this action plan it gives us an idea of what we need to do to provide because seniors want to sell their large homes and move into something smaller, so this really gives us an idea of what the needs are in the community."

Hall said there's something else he's very proud about.

"We're being looked at as a regional centre and it's important for us to carry out that role as the largest city in central and northern B.C.," Hall said. "I think as a result of that we certainly hold a responsibility for being a supporter in the region but also if communities need our assistance in some way, we're there to help."

Speculating on the city's future can't be fully addressed without looking to the legalization of marijuana use and the sale of that budding commodity.

In the last few months of 2018, Prince George council voted in favour of reducing the cost of a business licence for pot sellers from $5,000 to $1,000. The bylaw, which sets out the specifications of the streamlined application process, is in place and the city is waiting for applications to come through development services.

"We do know there has been a couple that have been approved by the province and so now they'll come through our process in development services and end up before council for approval," the mayor explained.

"The thing that we're also waiting on is the revenue distribution share from the province. As we know the feds and the province have had their piece and have come to a resolution. There is a province or two that say they're not going to do any revenue sharing with municipalities but I would hope that's not the case here in B.C. I still maintain that we want and need a share of that revenue that comes into the province because we're going to have added costs."