For six years now, Prince George has been running with the check engine light on, and now it’s going to get financially serious for the city and the taxpayers as a lawsuit is in the air.
Council has had a full year of pay cheques from the taxpayers for little change in our downtown core. If the vandalism and theft wasn’t bad enough, we have a building explode resulting in thousands of dollars in damages to surrounding businesses. With one failed mayor’s committee and thousands of wasted tax dollars on focus groups and research papers and reports, nothing has changed. Now a lawsuit should get some attention, but even worse, it could turn into a class action lawsuit against the city for doing nothing to address the issues.
Mayor and council have earned a combined $433,781.00 for a year of “nothing substantive” to address the downtown issues. Other than the infighting and squabbling among councillors and alienation of the mayor, it’s safe to say their election promises are falling very short of expectations. Public “confidence” in our downtown core is at an all-time low, despite the hard efforts of Downtown Prince George to show the downtown in a favorable light.
It’s high time the mayor calls a meeting of the downtown businesses and that every city councillor listens and responds to the issues. Excuses are not an answer, nor is the finger pointing and responsibility downloading to other levels of government. Each councillor is accountable to the public they serve, that goes even more so for our mayor as the most forward-facing member of our Council.
Council directs administration by means of bylaws and motions. It’s time these folks start earning the pay cheques they deposit. If any member of council feels they can’t come to the table and work the issues to a solution, they can feel free to leave council at any time. As one councillor likes to point out, it’s a part-time job, but that doesn’t mean only half the effort needs to be put into that job. This needs to be addressed now before it snowballs (literally) in the coming months with the onset of winter. We can’t take any more of this lack of action from city council.
John Zukowski is a downtown Prince George business owner and operator.
