Alongside a new mayor, Simon Yu, and three new faces, five incumbents will be returning to the Prince George city council horseshoe.
Each of the five re-elected city councillors said they are thankful for the support and ready to get back to work.
“I'm really pleased with getting re-elected and I'm just humbled with all the support that I get. People really get behind me when the going gets tough, and I really appreciate the support,” said Coun. Brian Skakun who won re-election to serve his seventh term.
“I'm sad to see Terri go, we worked really well together for two terms, but you know, working with Simon, I'm looking forward to that,” said Skakun, as former Coun. Terri McConnachie finished in second place behind Yu in the race to be Prince George’s next mayor.
Skakun said he hopes to be able to give Yu as much advice as he can and be able to provide a leadership role.
He noted that he’d also like to focus on the downtown social issues as well as examine the city’s management structure.
“I'm just hoping that some of the candidates that ran this time get involved with some city committees and stay in touch with us and council and run again in four years because the four years goes by really fast,” added Skakun.
Coun. Garth Frizzell said this time it’s less about the jubilation and excitement and more about the amount of work head of the new council.
“Because this election was different from the other four I’ve been in - the issues are, right there, in your face, they are provincial jurisdiction, but they're ones we, we have to deal with,” noted Frizzell.
He said there’s an opportunity for the city to apply for a rapid housing program that is going to be released by the federal government on Dec. 1 and the city can’t wait to get an application in for that program.
Frizzell noted he also wants to investigate the home energy retrofit programs available. Other communities have access to it and he wants to see what a Prince George solution would look like for that.
He said the new mayor and council will have to make sure the partnerships that former Mayor Lyn Hall built for reconciliation are not just maintained, but strengthened.
“We've got five that are incumbents, of course, and we've worked together before. We've been talking back and forth about what this could look like, and I’m really excited to see the new directions that Simon Yu will bring to council and what his leadership style looks like.”
Coun. Cori Ramsay, who will now be serving her second term, said although it was a tough campaign period, being re-elected by the community was an affirmation that her hard work over the past four years has paid off.
She is also ready to roll-up her sleeves and get back to work.
“I think it's really important for us to develop an advocacy strategy moving forward. There's 188 local governments in the province of B.C., and all of them are really struggling with a lot of similar issues,” said Ramsay.
“We are all going to the province asking for help. But we have to be more creative and more strategic in order to get that help that we need on those big-ticket items. I'm really hoping that we can develop that advocacy strategy through our strategic planning session, and really just have a really clear road map of where we want to go and how we are going to get there.”
Ramsay noted she is excited to welcome the new faces to council and excited to work with a new mayor.
“He's very enthusiastic and he seems full of hope. He's very eager to make a difference in Prince George for the better and so that's definitely something I can get behind.”
Coun. Kyle Sampson was also re-elected to serve his second term on city council and said he was thrilled to regain the confidence of the Prince George voters.
Sampson said there are two initiatives he plans on tackling right away and one is bringing various ministries that deal with mental health and addictions, housing, and health to Prince George so they can see what we are facing as a community and what a made-in Prince George solution would be.
“I think there's no doubt that everyone across B.C. is experiencing these similar issues but it's obvious that Prince George is unique in its own way, as well.”
He also noted that he’d like to look at how Prince George can partner to achieve goals of reducing carbon emissions looking at economic drivers in the region that will help achieve that.
“I'm ready to get to work and keep that momentum going and keep working hard for the community of Prince George.”
Coun. Susan Scott said she’d heard from a variety of different voices during the election period and doesn’t want those voices to drop.
“I found this very interesting in terms of the number of people that were willing to actually put a face and voice to a comment. I had a lot of people reach out to me on social media that way that was different and I really appreciated that people took the time and energy to do that.”
Scott said she is going to retain a hard focus on seniors and seniors' concerns and she also wants to find a resolution for better mutual communication for those who are impacted by social issues downtown.
She also noted that she has been ready and willing from the get-go to work with whoever is elected and maintains that commitment.
“I'm looking forward to the days ahead. Yeah, this is not going to be simple and it’s not going to be easy but I stand prepared.”
Skakun, Frizzell, Ramsay, Sampson, and Scott join Tim Bennett, Ron Polillo and Trudy Klassen who will be serving their first terms on city council.
