On Oct. 20, Prince George residents will pick one mayor, eight councillors and five school trustees. The ballot will have two mayoral candidates, 13 councillor candidates and 11 school trustee candidates. There are also 15 candidates running in the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George.
PrinceGeorgeMatters has sent out a list of questions to those vying for a seat in public office.
Name: Garth Frizzell
Running for: City councillor
Age: 49
Number of years lived in Prince George: 20
Current neighbourhood: Van Bien
Occupation: Entrepreneurship instructor
Reason community would recognize your name: Tech entrepreneur, councillor, Sue’s husband
What is the most important issue facing Prince George, and how do you propose to deal with it?
Infrastructure crisis. Our sewer, water, roads, storm sewers, etc. were mostly built in the 1960s-70s. With climate change making their aging even worse, Prince George has hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that’s overdue. For nine years I’ve been elected to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, advocating to the federal government with the weight of 2,000 municipalities. This has so far led to 180 Bn. in promised funding for infrastructure across Canada.
How should Prince George address the issue of crime in the city?
Incremental increase of police officers, continuing focus on prolific offenders, continued partnering with projects like Car 60, support for measures reducing guns, gangs and violence.
What is your specific reason for running?
Building on this city’s remarkable potential. Our future is diverse, and so are our resource industries, education services, health care, parks and our easy access to the beautiful outdoors. In practice, I continue to work on diversification of the economy and diversification of revenue sources for the city
Where. can the city spend less?
Constant attention to making processes and management more efficient, phasing out of unused/low-priority services.
Where should the city be investing more?
Attraction of technology industries.
What new business or feature would you like to see in Prince George?
Data centres.
Next time you’re walking in the woods and you come face-to-face with a Sasquatch, what do you do?
Make the fine, and very important discretionary decision between treating her like the ambassador of her people, or like a hungry bear.
If the next city council does something film-worthy, who would play you in the film?
Bryan Cranston
Complete the sentence...
When I’m not at home or at work, you can find me:...riding the motorcycle or watching our kids’ judo.
The most random, yet interesting fact about me is:...I can name 190 countries in under two minutes.
My favourite beverage is: Prince George water from the tap
For Christmas/Hanukkah/the gift-giving season, I would like:...world peace. No, wait. A Tesla.
The best park in/near to Prince George is: Tie: Connaught (wedding photos taken there) or Ginter's (happy dogs, happy life)
If Prince George didn’t exist, I’d be living in: Wherever place Sue was living
When I need some pump-up music, I listen to: CPAC
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