When the city of Prince George married its surrounding areas in 1975, it came with a dowry of more than $5 million.
The lion's share of that amalgamation-linked money from the province was used to begin building cultural and recreational infrastructure (such as the construction of the current-day Bob Harkins branch of the Prince George Public Library and the Elksentre) and to renovate the former forestry buildings on 15th Avenue to what is now home to the Community Arts Council and Studio 2880.
But as alderman Lorne McCuish - the only member of the old city council to publicly oppose the creation of a greater Prince George - said in October 1974, the money getting passed on from the province wouldn't begin to cover what the city really needed including upgraded water and sewer infrastructure.
"We're inheriting a bad show," McCuish was quoted in The Citizen. "The government wants the city to pick up the tab for somebody else's mistakes."
In an Oct. 31, 1974 letter to the editor, Prince George alderman Howard Lloyd had made a last-gasp case for amalgamation.
The vote on conjoining the existing city of Prince George with the surrounding areas of the Hart, Nechako, College Heights, Vanway, Blackburn, Beaverly and South Fort George was only two days away on Nov. 2.
Lloyd was urging voters to mark Yes on their ballots by telling residents to look at the bigger picture and the potential benefits gleaned from becoming one big happy family, such as improved road infrastructure and community spaces.
"Recreational and cultural facilities need upgrading and attention in a city which, although we are far from major centres to the south, still serves as the hub to an ever-growing area east, west and north," Lloyd wrote in The Citizen. "There is no valid reason our citizens of northern and central B.C. should lag behind our southern neighbours in the amenities of modern-day life."
In their final report to the provincial municipal affairs ministry outlining their transition plans after amalgamation, the restructure committee - the 12-member group created by mayor Harold Moffat in 1973 to study the feasibility of expanding Prince George - recognized filling that amenity gap would take funds the municipality didn't have and looked to the province's NDP government to step up.
"The province must remember that Greater Prince George has been one of, if not the fastest, expanding areas of British Columbia," said the July 1974 committee report. "In such areas, it is not uncommon that population expands much more quickly than do essential services and other amenities which are expected nowadays by the electorate."
The restructure committee asked for $6.3 million worth of assistance:
• $600,000 to expand city hall by three storeys to house all the necessary new administrative staff required to oversee the new city.
• $600,000 for public works equipment.
• $200,000 for a satellite works yard.
• $1.75 million for fire protection buildings, communication systems and equipment.
• $1.4 million for a skating rink and new arenas.
• $1 million for a cultural centre.
• $750,000 for a swimming pool.
After factoring in the provincial grants that pay for one-third of capital costs for recreation facilities, that left a total request of $5.25 million.
The response the committee received from Municipal Affairs Minister James Lorimer was a proposal to provide roughly $5.175 million in cash grants - one grant equal to general taxes collected in the outlying area for the past three years, one equal to three years' worth of the annual local government per capital grant ($34 per capita, per year) and one special capital works grant of $30 per capita based on the total population of the new city on Jan. 1, 1975.
The province also agreed to hold onto responsibility for highway construction and maintenance of the roads in the newly amalgamated areas, as well as policing for the next five years.
Proper allocation of those provincial funds fell at the feet of the nine of people elected in Dec. 14, 1974 to represent the new "super city" as mayor and aldermen on city council.
With the news that the city was receiving about $100,000 more than originally anticipated due to population figures being higher than anticipated, city council sliced up the $5.3 million pie in May 1975.
The bulk of the funds - $2.5 million worth - went to recreation and culture. Fire protection (including new halls, equipment and a communication system) received a $1 million allotment. There was $800,000 carved out for public works equipment and sites, $750,000 towards the expansion of city hall and a final $300,000 for land assembly.
By June, council had also developed a formula for figuring what parts of the city got what, to "ensure every sector of the enlarged city gets a fair share of amalgamation grants for recreation," reported Citizen staffer Bill Graham. This broke down to providing one hockey rink for every 13,500 people and one swimming pool for every 30,000 residents.
But it wasn't as fair as it was made out to be. Council quickly approved construction of new arenas at the exhibition grounds (Kin 3) and in the Hart (the Elksentre), and a new livestock arena at the exhibition grounds, but there was nothing on the books for the southwest portion of the new city.
Alderman Elmer Mercier advocated for his area, and was ultimately successful in getting half a million dollars from the community recreation funds grant set aside for capital projects in the southwest and eastern parts of the city - though city manager Chester Jeffery noted at the time that future council's could overturn that decision.
"Alderman Mercier wished council to realize that the Kin Centre is completely booked and that ice time (isn't) available except for minor hockey for the next year," said minutes of the July 7, 1975 meeting.
While the road through amalgamation was paved with good intentions, a change in provincial government threw a wrench in some of the plans.
In early 1976, after construction projects were well underway, the city found out the new Social Credit government was embarking on an austerity program that would eliminate the grants paying for one-third of the capital costs for recreation facilities.
Former Prince George alderman Howard Lloyd, now a Social Credit MLA, told the city the funding program would return in the following fiscal year to support the major projects, but that the city shouldn't have assumed the money was open-ended.
"Lloyd said Prince George received more than its share of the recreation facilities grants in the past few years," said an April 1976 story in The Citizen. "He said the attitude that receiving grants was part of the amalgamation agreement with the provincial government was based only on 'a verbal agreement' at most."
In the next part of this series, a look at the ramifications of the decision to focus on cultural and athletic pursuits with the amalgamation grant.
