I’m done!

I’ve not been sure when I was going to take the hiatus but the answer is now. I have no doubt there will be a newsletter or two still to come before the new year but this is the last regularly scheduled Northern Capital News of 2023. I made the decision some time during last night’s city council meeting when I completely zoned out on what was going on. Here’s what I can tell you: The meeting opened with mayor Simon Yu thanking everyone who has been tuning into council all year, giving a special thanks to media and said that it’s possible he’ll start doing monthly budget reports in 2024. Then a while after that council received the results of the civic core engagement survey and things just kind of… devolved? As I’m writing this, the mayor is expressing concern about whether enough different factors were considered in the feedback and wanting to hire an outside consultant to look more specifically at some key items for more feedback because he felt it would be a missed opportunity if not but the motion was defeated and…. I’m honestly lost. The motion was defeated, anyways.

The confusion seems to be that the intent of staff and the rest of the council is to use the survey results as a broad goalpost to move toward putting together a more concrete plan on how to develop the city’s downtown, and the mayor seems to fear that the next step is to use the survey results as the concrete plan — despite staff saying that isn’t the case. Anyways, yeah, like I said, the rest of council accepted the survey results and moved forward. There will be a better write-up of this in the Citizen and My Prince George Now, I’m confident, and I’ll link to that whenever the next newsletter comes.

BUT

Like I said, I’m taking a break. I’m still working but friends and family are in town and there are plays to see and gifts to wrap and it’s time for me to focus on that for the next little bit rather than puttting this together each night. I very much enjoy putting this newsletter together but I also enjoy the breaks! So that’s what’s happening.

One bit of exciting news I will tell you is that I have a very good lead on Jim Raddish, in part because I had misremembered how to spell his name. So that will be something you hear about here, at some point.

For now, let’s do one last round of quick news and posts and I will bid you a happy holidays —thanks to all of you who read and write and I’ll talk to you probably before 2024, though no promises!

Are you missing a chicken?

The local SPCA posted some found animals yesterday, including:

CBC colleague Betsy Trumpener was there for their recovery by bylaw:

Quick news:

• Man sent to hospital after aggravated assault.

• Province looking at improvements to Hart Highway after pedestrian killed.

• The story of a woman who moved from Moccasin Flats to Knight’s Inn.

• Club 1177 (formerly Lambda) is apparently for sale and not flying the flag of an evicted ‘embassy’ anymore (more on that here).

• Regional District discusses UHNBC project funding, Foothills Landfill usage in final meeting of 2023.

• Nisga’a language proficiency degree to be offered through UNBC.

• A look at how the federal government’s new housing plans could impact Prince George.

• Good reviews for the Railway Museum’s lights display.

• Regional District of Fraser-Fort George names Chris Calder new CAO.

• Could an extension of Foothills Blvd be in PG’s future?

• Keep the streets clear for snow plows.

• A podcast about fat biking.

• A good post from the city of Prince George.

• Will it snow on Christmas?

Today’s song:

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