Prince George Mayor Simon Yu’s motion to return to publishing public notices in the local newspaper was defeated Wednesday night after a lengthy and heated debate around the city council table.
Yu brought forth the motion in a mayor’s report calling for an amendment to Public Notice Bylaw No. 9329, 2022 which specifies the city’s website and Facebook page as the official public notice channels, rather than the local newspaper.
The bylaw was adopted at the August 29, 2022 council meeting, and that November the city discontinued its publication of public notices in the local newspaper and began publishing all notices on the city’s website and Facebook page.
In his report, Yu argued that utilizing the local newspaper for public notices ensures a wider reach that encompasses accessibility, inclusivity, credibility, and adherence to legal mandates.
“We need to support local and we need to support local journalism especially if they have been here a long time,” said Yu.
However, when the motion reached the floor the discussion quickly evolved from the specifics about public notices to a lengthy debate about the state of local journalism.
Coun. Trudy Klassen and Brian Skakun argued in support of the mayor’s motion.
“I’m so glad this has come before council because this is hugely important,” said Klassen. “A democracy cannot exist without a local media, without a free press and I know there are massive sea changes happening in the media landscape at the moment, but I think it's incumbent we utilize the local services we have.”
However, discussion also saw councillors raise questions about everything from transparency, print versus digital advertising, the specifics in the wording of the motion, to possible costs to the taxpayers.
“Saying that we are not open or transparent because we are not buying ads to promote our public notices in the Citizen... that is not less transparent or open. That information is publicly posted on our website. The Citizen and any other local media can report on it as they wish,” said Coun. Kyle Sampson.
“This debate turned into 'should we be funding local media so they can continue to do their work' and that is not the job of local government,” said Sampson before stating that if the city wanted to fund local journalism they should look into creating a granting process.
Coun. Tim Bennet eventually suggested an amendment that would see administration return to council with a report that includes the financial and operational benefits and implications for amending the public notice bylaw.
However, Mayor Yu argued that Bennett’s amendment was irrelevant because his original recommendation does not exclude anything in the existing bylaw.
“What are you guys afraid of by saying, yes? What are you afraid of by doing this?” asked Yu, after which another heated debate followed.
Yu specified he wanted the term ‘local newspaper’ included in Bennett’s amendment rather than ‘local media’ and that adjustment was defeated when it came to a vote.
“Everyone is in favour of transparency. Everyone is in favour of local media. Everyone is in favour of local journalism, but I think we’ve witnessed our let them eat cake moment,” said Klassen, in response.
Coun. Sampson and Skakun then had a heated exchange with Skakun accusing Sampson of calling him a liar.
“I’m not going to engage in petty debates,” said Sampson. “If you want to throw crap out there like then we are not going to do it in a public setting and diminish the quality of this debate.”
When Bennett’s proposed amendment calling for a report for more information came to a vote it was defeated.
This put the mayor’s original recommendation back in play and after a brief recess and without further discussion it was defeated with Yu, Klassen, and Skakun in support and everyone else in opposition.
