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- A community in mourning
A community in mourning
And cuts coming to the school district. Read to the end for some nice trees
Madison Scott's face is everywhere you turn in Vanderhoof. It's plastered on billboards placed every few kilometres along the highway into town. It's on store windows and truck bumper stickers and enlarged on the side of a building.
She was 20 years old when she was last seen, the posters say. She was five feet four inches tall with ginger hair down to her shoulders, a piercing in her left nostril and the silhouette of a bird on the inside of her left wrist.
These posters and billboards have been put up in the hope that Scott might someday be found alive, able to return home to this tight-knit community in central B.C. that has dedicated itself to finding her for the past decade.
Those are the opening paragraphs to my report from Vanderhoof yesterday following the discovery of Scott's remains. It’s been a while since I’ve been there and it’s easy to forget the sheer presence Scott has. While I’m sure her picture fades into the background for those who see it day after day, returning as a visitor I was struck by how frequently her name and image pop up, both on the road into the city and as you walk around — bathrooms, windows, vehicles, it really is everywhere, and the impact of this story is reflected in the fact that the municipal flag is flying at half mast, a community in mourning. There’s nothing new to report in the investigation but as the mayor told me, "We've waited 12 years for answers. We can wait a little bit longer." Here’s hoping those answers come with some sense of closure to everyone this loss has touched.
You had one job
For all the time spent talking about curriculum and the like during elections the reality is that school boards really have one core function: Setting the budget for the communities they serve. Unfortunately, it seems the local board has so far been unable to do that as it faces a $2.3 million shortfall, which you can read more about here and here. Staffing cuts are forecast.
Cariboo Rocks the budget
I missed last night’s council meeting due to aforementioned reporting but I did want to highlight this report from the Citizen which leads with “City of Prince George lost $75K on Cariboo Rocks the North in first year” and then goes on to show that in the years since a profit has been turned:
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the rock festival in 2020 and 2021, but when Cariboo Rocks the North returned in 2022 revenue was up again resulting in a $91,704.53 profit for the city. Following the success of the 2022 event, the city has made a net $64,530.33 profit hosting the rock festival.
I’m sure we’ll get a report on how council reacted to all of this but I found some of the comments in this Reddit thread insightful in terms of a discussion about should we even care about this, especially when the city is now making money off of it. This comment, in particular, raises some good points, namely:
The fact that the City (and taxpayers) funded this event has been hidden. Whether intentional or not there is no way to know. I only learned the City's bankrolling of this event since Brian Skakun started asking questions in council chambers a few months back. If he didn't know as an elected official, it seems purposeful. I looked back to event promotional material in the early years. City of PG as a funder is not obvious. TourismPG is listed, but its anyone's guess how they were involved.
And
The event lost money in the early years. Taxpayers shouldered that risk without knowing it. It's only recently that a profit has been reported. If the event only lasted a couple of years, this would have been a loss to Taxpayers. COVID-19 threatened events like this and this loss was never disclosed to the public. That is problematic from a transparency point of view. The continuity of this event was never certain.
There’s more beyond that but tbh I also get the impression that enough people think the festival is great that the Citizen and Brian Skakun and anyone who raises these questions is just going to be seen by a large number of people as trying to raise a problem about nothing which is too bad because ultimately, it is our money, and even if something is a success we deserve to know how it is being used — and we wouldn’t without this sort of reporting.
Quick news:
Health Minister Dix will “almost certainly” come north to personally assess UHNBC this summer.
150-unit multi-family development planned near Exhibition Park.
City staff oppose parking reduction for Foothills seniors housing project.
Help coming for businesses in northern B.C. hit by forest sector changes.
Trial dates set for Prince George nightspot's COVID tickets.
Cycling advocate calling on Prince George to install temporary protected bike lanes.
New performing arts manager to put Prince George on the map.
Some nice trees:
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