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- Indian tacos from Edmonton! Our terrible transit system! Prince George, Wrapped!
Indian tacos from Edmonton! Our terrible transit system! Prince George, Wrapped!
There's just too much too fit in today's newsletter
Prince George residents could be facing a tax increase, at a minimum, of 8.17 percent. That was not the initial cost, which was 5.88 percent. However, the City recently received news that the tax base PG Pulp came back at a lower than anticipated. From $1.3 million to $828,000 which means a fairly significant drop in the taxes coming to the City.
The big difference between now and the most recent years is, unless something changes, there’s not going to be any sort of provincial relief to help offset this, as there was during the height of the pandemic. Council’s going to have to figure out this one on its own.
Council votes to explore opting out of the province’s Airbnb crackdown
You know what else council wants to do on its own? Decide on a policy for short-term rentals. As previously reported, councillors Brian Skakun and Trudy Klassen put forward a motion to have staff look into short-term rentals in the city and what opting out could mean. The motion was supported unanimously, though with varying degrees of strong words for the provincial government.
Brian Skakun started out by talking about why he thinks the city might want to opt out of this. He said he talked to one woman who operates a VRBO for people who stay at hospice, while others cater to teachers or professionals. “They’ve created a niche for themselves,” he said, and argued that since the province has given cities the option to opt out of their rules, the city should at least explore that option. “I really don’t think they’ve thought long-term about this,” Skakun said of the provincial plan.
Garth Frizzell said while he understands the province’s goals, “having a one size fits all approach … that doesn’t work for me,” he said. “Prince George should be making decisions about Prince George, not Victoria.”
Kyle Sampson was blunter: “If they would like to have a [one-size-fits-all approach], I guess they should get rid of municipal governments," he said, calling the legislation “half-baked.”
Tim Bennett was milder, calling the provincial legislation is “a little vague.” He was “all for” getting more information, and wanted to know if a report from staff would include the potential lost revenue by short-term rentals not paying into the hotel tax — which staff says it would be.
Ron Polillo wanted to know what the vacancy rate is in the city, and ws told it’s about 3.5 percent, but it can fluctuate. Said he’s happy to have more information gathered before a decision about whether to opt out, or not, is made.
Susan Scott talked about her son and wife who are living in an Airbnb in Burnaby going on three months. I kind of missed the purpose of the story, but she is in favour of getting more information.
Cori Ramsay talked about Prince George acting as a hub for travellers around the region — particularly medical travel. Keen to have a lot more information about vacancy rates, etc. Will also be watching other similar municipalities to see what they learn/do.
Mayor Simon Yu shared some facts he says he found researching this topic. He says only about one per cent of homes in the city are used for short-term rentals.
Of note, later in the night during zoning discussions the topic of the province pushing for more multi-family homes came up, and staff said once all the new housing legislation became law, they would be talking to council about how it affects them.
Coming soon: New council code of conduct rules
I’m going to write in more depth about this tomorrow, or possibly Thursday, but council also had a lengthy discussion about a new code of conduct policy. The first three readings of it were passed, with opposition from Mayor Simon Yu, who didn’t think it goes far enough to avoid potential conflict of interest — but he was warned that the only real solution to the problem he had with the legislation as-is is to form a completely new, semi-autonomous wing of city government known as an ethics commissioner, something only three cities — Vancouver, Surrey, and New Westminster — have, and which can be quite costly. Again, will write about this in more depth in a future newsletter. It’s late, I’m tired.
Mastermind toys is closing down
Ailing toy retailer Mastermind GP Inc. says it has reached a deal to sell the bulk of its business to a company representing three big names in the Canadian retail world.
…
The store began telling customers last week that it would close 18 of its 66 stores.
One of those eighteen is the Prince George location, though not til sometime after the holiday season if you’re planning to do Christmas shopping there.
An Indian taco place is opening up?
The website for this place indicates it is opening in the old College Heights branch of the Salted Cracker.
Who is the person promising a fusion of Mexican and Indian?
Keith Boer … [a] 28-year-old businessman [who] had already seen a certain amount of success as a franchisee with Chopped Leaf a few years back, but now he was putting all of his eggs in one basket. Actually, strike that; not eggs, but roti and naan, filled with such delicious Indian mainstays as tikka masala and butter chicken, as well as Mexican dishes like carne asada.
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“It was a void we found in the market,” says Boer. “That kind of quick service Indian food that really wasn’t around. Being able to get a good, quick lunch for 15 bucks seemed like a good idea, and people really love it.”
The project is backed by money from people behind Chopped Leaf and Wok Box and this is definitely being developed as a franchise restaurant, even if Prince George is just the third location, so your enthusiasm may vary depending on how pysched up you get about scalable business plans behind your fusion cuisine.
People who ride the bus deserve better than this
On the first real snowfall of the year, a Reddit user shares a reminder that any claim we have to being a real city is negated by the lack of a functional transit system:
I am an avid community bus rider for personal reasons, and have no private vehicle to get here and there in the city, yet. Getting used to things in PG, today I decided to go to Costco for shopping with the community bus. Took No.15 first to get me to Nicholson exchange gate and hop on No.47. Forgot to pay two tickets to the No.15 driver to get a day pass, so I gave two tickets to the No.47 bus driver and got my day pass for the sake of return from Costco by bus. Arranged my shopping to take the bus No.46 from Costco stop at 1:23 pm. Waited in the bus stop at 1:10 pm. The bus didn't show up at 1:23 pm. Seven people were waiting for the bus to come. At 1:38 pm, I called the PG BC Transit and the operator told me that the bus No.46 got stock in Victoria St and BC Transit mechanic is working on it to fix it. Asked if there is an extra bus to operate and pick us up, like what I have seen in London, ON. The answer was negative. The agent advised us to wait for the other bus that will come an hour later and hanged up the phone! I spread the news with standing passengers and they suddenly became frustrated/agitated and started cursing me dearly as if I was PG BC Transit CEO! I went to Costco entrance and called PG Taxi to take me home. So, I burnt one extra bus ticket in the beginning of my journey, burnt one day pass, and paid for taxi. The moral take home message is the title that I chose for this posting.
I get that there are going to be problems and delays, especially in inclement weather. I think most people do. But it is infuriating that in the year 2023 there is still no system in place where transit users are proactively alerted when their bus is delayed or cancelled, and that it is somehow deemed acceptable for there to be a two-hour gap between buses to one of the busier parts of town. A system where transit is only really used by people who have no other choice, and as a result they get treated like this, is no system at all.
Prince George, wrapped:
This is a great post from the city, using the style of Spotify Wrapped. Hats off to whoever came up with this:
CBC cuts:
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Radio-Canada will eliminate about 600 jobs and an additional 200 vacancies will go unfilled as it contends with a $125-million budget shortfall.
No granular details, yet, but CBC president Catherine Tait said specifically she is hoping to avoid cuts to local news services:
"Journalism is core and wherever possible we are trying to protect those positions," she told The National host Adrienne Arsenault.
"So my hope is that certainly in local news and in the regions, there won't be that dramatic and impact for our audiences."
Posts:
Quicks news:
New school board chair Craig Brennan is interviewed on CBC and announces the launch of a public feedback email: [email protected].
I mentioned this last week, but schools struggling to retain staff, union says. Some followup commentary from teachers, here.
Canada Post asking people to keep driveways and sidewalks clear for safe delivery.
St. Vincent de Paul Society ready for another Community Christmas fundraiser.
More artist/craf fair profiles in the Citizen: Felted creatures, knitted gnomes and socks found at the Fibre Arts Guild sale; Local twins big fans of the ceramic arts; Giant gnomes created with foraged materials; Master gardener shares the fruits of her labour.
Today’s song is for the vibes of the instrumental:
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