A tea latte from Tim Hortons is the perfect metaphor for Prince George, actually
A tea latte from Tim Hortons is the perfect metaphor for Prince George, actually
And the 5 best ways to figure out if it's garbage day
Hello! After largely managing to avoid getting sick over two+ years of a global pandemic, I started my Christmas break by getting sick and have spent the bulk of the past two weeks dealing with a non-COVID-respiratory-something-or-other that’s rendered my holiday not much of one, at all. Nothing too concerning, but enough to prevent me from enjoying friends, family and the outdoors as much as I’d hoped. And I know I’m not alone: several visits to multiple drug stores indicate a high demand for cough-and-cold medication, and I know many of you had to cancel travel plans due to treacherous roads and grounded flights.
So here we are, nearly a week into 2023 and in the post-holiday-cleanup there is a big question: When is garbage day, again? That’s one of the topics of today’s newsletter — along with pay parking, more school bus problems and why a Tim Hortons tea latte is the perfect metaphor for Prince George. Here we go:
Quick hits:
2022 was one of the driest Prince George has ever recorded, with 26 per cent less precipitation than normal. It was also the 48th coldest on record.
In other year-end stats, calls to RCMP declined by 10 per cent in 2022. After four years of increases, calls to police were down by nearly 5,000 compared to 2021.
And house price values in the city increased by an average of 12 per cent.
2023 is going to be the year of city council telling us how important the Official Community Plan is. Prince George Citizen editor Neil Godbout presents the evidence for why it isn’t (short version: council ignores it whenever it wants, which is why things like bylaws for, say, protecting trees, are actually more effective).
On that subject: Mayor Simon Yu admits it’s a little harder to keep campaign promises than to make them.
Columnist and unsuccessful council candidate James Steidle wants to know why the new pool was built with wood from overseas.
Speaking of the lumber industry, Tolko and Canfor are extending their curtailments.
Speaking of the new pool, the city says the lot across from it that used to house the old pool will remain as free public parking for the immediate future.
The Lheidli T’enneh First Nation would like to build a bridge connecting their reserve lands.
In memorium: The Citizen lists some notable deaths over the past year.
Prince George’s New Year’s baby came two weeks early.
Watch an ice-skateboard in action at the Prince George Oval.
What was the point of hiring a new school bus company in the first place?
For more than a decade, school bus services in Prince George were provided by Diversified, which hired drivers to fill the routes needed to get students to-and-from class (fun sidenote: My parents home number is one digit off of Diversified’s, which means they would get lots of early morning calls whenever there was a snow day delaying those pickups).
But at the beginning of this latest school year, that job went to a new company: Student First. And… it didn’t go well. From the September to December, the company was unable to fulfill those routes, leaving students stranded and parents scrambling, with some reporting weeks worth of missed school and/or wages as they tried to accomodate things.
But now the district has a solution! Instead of paying just Student First or Diversified to provide bus service, they are going to pay them both! Yes: In the last weeks of December the district announced its big solution to the problems with Student First is to hire on Diversified to take on the routes Student First couldn’t handle:
SD 57 announced today that beginning in January, Diversified Transportation will be providing transportation services for a number of previously underserviced routes.
“The District appreciates that both providers were willing to work with us to design a solution that puts students first, and ensure that students are transported to and safely home from school each day,” said Assistant Superintendent Lee Karpenko in a release.
The district will be serviced by both First Student and Diversified Transportation until June 2024.
Which… what?
The District isn’t saying what this new arrangement costs but I have a hunch that hiring two companies is not cheaper than hiring one. It also raises some questions for me about Student First who, throughout this process, has been blaming a “worldwide shortage of drivers” for its inability to fulfill its contract.
So why was Diversified able to find drivers up until the spring of 2022 when their contract ended and, now, apparently in the winter of 2023? What big offer did Student First give to the school district that made it worthwhile to switch over and, perhaps more importantly, given that it was unable to provide the basic core service of getting students to and from school, why does it continue to have a contract for another year-and-a-half, despite the fact the district has had to hire another company to make sure kids can actually get picked up?
And, most importantly: What is this costing us?
Hopefully we get some answers, soon. Meanwhile, the CEO of Diversified says he’s not sure why they lost the contract in the first place but he’s hopeful it won’t happen again.
A tea latte from Tim Hortons is the perfect metaphor for Prince George, actually
Every once in a while big multinational companies release localized stats in an effort to get free news coverage. Last week, Tim Hortons did this with the release of a list of the cities and towns that saw the highest per capita sales of certain items and — yes, I’m giving them free publicity — but Prince George made the list! B.C.’s northern capital saw the highest per capita sales of tea lattes.
And look, this doesn’t mean anything, but I am going to go ahead and argue it is the perfect summation of Prince George as a city. A tea latte from Tim Hortons is a business jacket with jeans. It’s the crossroads between the stereotypical small-town, working class Canadian who favours Tim Hortons in the popular imagination, and the equally-imagined snobby, big-city elite who go for things like tea lattes.
In the past when I’ve been asked about the culture of Prince George I’ve described it as a city that will reliably vote for right-wing candidates while at the same time championing rainbow crosswalks and increased diversity, a university town built on the natural resource industry. Now I have a new answer: Think of someone who orders a tea latte. Then think of someone who orders from Tim Hortons. Now put those two people together: that’s Prince George.
5 ways to figure out if it’s garbage day
Nothing like a bunch of packages and holidays to throw your life into chaos trying to figure out when to put your bins on the sidewalk. Here are the top five ways to figure out if it’s garbage or recycling day (bonus: Christmas Tree recycling is this weekend at the CN Centre).
When you get your utilities bill, it comes with the year’s schedule. Put it on your fridge or bulletin board.
If you missed that, download the garbage schedule here and recycling schedule here.
Copy the schedule to your physical or digital calendar. Consult it weekly.
Sign up for text or email reminders for garbage (see image below), and get the Recycling B.C. app.
Assume your neighbours know what they are doing and copy them.
Northern Capital News is a free, daily newsletter about life in Prince George. Please consider subscribing or, if you have, sharing with someone else.