Mr. PG is moving downtown and Lheidli T'enneh Memorial is getting a new playground
Two icons of the city are up for review
We pause coverage of the provincial election to bring you news from the agenda before city council this coming Monday, titled “Future of Mr. PG.”
Mr. PG is a City asset and a registered trademark of the City of Prince George, with huge popularity. Increased development on the corner of Highways 16 and 97 has made it difficult for residents and visitors to gain safe access to him. It is also becoming increasingly challenging for staff to promote him, provide adequate maintenance, and set up flags and lights as requested. With these concerns, staff began to look at several locations where Mr. PG would be easily accessible with an attractive background to enable residents and visitors to take pictures with him to showcase Prince George.
I’ll pause here to say this is true! I recently had a visitor in town who wanted to pose with Mr. PG and trying to figure out how to get to him through the hotel and apartment building parking lots was pretty challenging — lots of fences and gates, no main road there, it kind of seems like you are driving onto private property and then you’re trudging through a mud puddle. I have the benefit of at least knowing vaguely where the turns are, I can’t imagine a tourist driving through town and spotting him would have any real ability to make the turn. Here’s what that looks like if you’re coming in on Highway 97:
And I’m not even sure this is fully accurate with the newest buildings. Either way — not clear!
And I guess there is some debate about whether an apartment building is the best backdrop for a photo but either way, for reference, here’s what it used to look like:
Here’s what it’s like now:
The report goes on:
The overall consensus is to align Mr. PG with the Visitor Information Centre again. With the PG Conference and Civic Centre, PG Public Library, and Two Rivers Art Gallery, along with the new Tourism Container Market coming soon in Canada Games Plaza, we are creating an aesthetic space that will help create a vibrant civic core. Mr. PG will be located in a space that is safe and easy to access, providing an attractive backdrop for photo opportunities which will give him – and the City – maximum exposure. Directional signage starting at the corner of Highway 97 and Highway 16 will be a priority within the plan and will guide visitors straight to Mr. PG. With many local restaurants and small businesses in the area, directing people to visit Mr. PG will also encourage people to stay longer to dine and shop in our City, driving an increase of revenue back to our local economy.
I’ll say this: the city is taking a big step here investing its assets within the Canada Games Plaza. The movement of Tourism PG to this location had some pushback BUT as someone who frequently walks through there, having friendly visitors greeting people, offering free fishing roads and stickers and stuff has enhanced the area. I am also on the record as being a fan of the Canada Games Plaza artwork and clocktower be as much of a “stock image” for the city as Mr. PG is, so putting them together makes sense to me. I am curious how they plan to secure him but in principal I am not against this idea (others will be, I encourage you to make your counterarguments in the comments and emails).
This isn’t completely finalized, yet, because these are the next steps:
Determine the current structural integrity of Mr. PG, assess proposed locations, develop the project plan, and estimate budget.
Funding options – research available grants and partnership funding, determine if any capital funding requests will be needed.
Communications strategy – create a strategy to promote Mr. PG as a City attraction.
A new playground for Lheidli T’enneh Memorial
And that’s not the only high-profile item on Monday’s agenda. Here’s the plans for a new playground in Lheidli T’enneh Memorial:
Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park is the crown jewel of park and open space in Prince George, attracting tens of thousands of residents and tourists annually. A significant number of resources are required to not only maintain and operate the park, but also to keep up with the growing demands for upgrades and enhancements.
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The Rotary Playground at LTMP was installed in 2000, and unfortunately has reached the end of its useful life. The wooden structure does not meet current play area design standards for accessibility and is generally in poor condition. A playground safety audit in 2021 recommended that reinvestment is necessary and should be a top priority for the City of Prince George.
The artistic renderings above and below showcase the plan for the replacement. There’s a big budget for this — $3 million — in part because of the park having been built on a Lheidli T’enneh village and burial ground more than 100 years ago, without any real care.
The entirety of the Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park is a protected archaeological site that requires archaeological monitoring and site mitigation obligations under the Heritage Conservation Act. Considering the high archaeological sensitivity and cultural value of the area, innovative approaches will be employed to minimize earthwork and unnecessary disturbances. Electromagnetic (EM) and ground penetrating radar (GPR) will be used to survey the area currently in use as a playground to provide a more inclusive picture of potential subsurface targets.
Ground-penetrating radar, you may recall, is the technology being used to search former residential school sites. You may also recall the consequences of not having this work done in the past, when historical remains were found during the construction of a pavillion in the park.
There’s some discussion of timeline to take place, in an effort to minimize the amount of time the park has without a playground, but there could be complicating factors. Here are some more renderings:
Also on the agenda:
For Monday’s meeting:
A discussion on renewing tax/financial incentives for downtown development.
Both Garth Frizzell and Kyle Sampson have notices of motion saying they’d like to advocate for a pyschiatric facility in Prince George, following discussions with UHNBC’s head of pyschiatry, who has campaigned for this isssue.
Kyle Sampson wants to also discuss enhanced financial oversight of major projects.
And a letter from Barkerville Heritage Trust wants support to continue managing Barkerville.
Walkie talkies and flashlights disrupt Come From Away performance
I wanted to highlight a comment I got on yesterday’s newsletter where I mentioned attending Tuesday’s performance of the musical Come From Away at CN Centre. Cat Halligan writes:
I enjoyed the show too but unfortunately, our experience was marred from the very beginning by noise made by CN Centre and Paladin Security staff. There were several security guards standing very near us and walking from the floor to the exit and back again, frequently talking, often at full voice, and there were several loud transmissions that came through on their walkie talkies. One security guard had a clicky pen in their hand which they clicked incessantly. Someone else flicked their flashlight on and off repeatedly, seemingly for no reason as they were holding it with hands clasped behind their back as they did so. We could also hear repeated loud crashing from the concession and very loud conversations taking place just beyond the curtain. Like, I get it, CN Centre isn't the Queen Elizabeth theatre. And people have a job to do. But could they do it with a little more consideration? That kind of noise would go totally unnoticed at a hockey game or rock concert I'm sure. I really tried my best to tune it out but unfortunately it was constant, distracting, and honestly infuriating. Especially when it happened during the quiet, poignant parts of the story. We asked the security staff to keep it down at one point, and it looked like someone sitting near us did too. I wonder if any others had a similar experience? Was it just worse where we were because we were right next to the centre entrance/exit to the floor? I love musicals, I was so excited to see Come From Away, and I also thought "more musicals please!" But honestly, after last night I don't think I'll shell out hundreds of dollars to watch another one at CN Centre, I'll wait until I can go to Vancouver.
Fortunately, I wasn’t as close to this noise as Cat, but I did notice it and even thought “gee, I hope that’s not as loud as it seems to be for the people who are closer.” Turns out it was. Hopefully CN Centre gets some messages about this and adjusts.
News roundup:
I have been busy every night this week so again haven't had a chance to watch the candidate events happening at UNBC and CKPG. According to Reddit, last night's event again had no-shows from the NDP and the Conservative Party of B.C. However, over on CKPG the NDP and Conservative candidate who missed Tuesday’s UNBC event both showed, which makes me wonder if it’s less about them deliberately not taking part and more about not getting the invitations. It's possible, I suppose, but seems somewhat unlikely to me that BOTH the NDP and Conservatives are deliberately skipping UNBC while attending CKPG the next night.
UNBC’s student newspaper has relaunched in partnership with the Prince George Citizen.
New exhibits at Two Rivers Gallery include Ukrainian art and portraits from the permanent collection.
City clears debris from burned-out trailer site at Moccasin Flats.
Meticulously quilled pieces created by Prince George artist.
How Four Independent Incumbents Could Determine BC’s Political Future (features Prince George-Cariboo North incumbent and independent Coralee Oakes).
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Send feedback by emailing northerncapitalnews@gmail.com. Find me online at akurjata.ca.
Final suggestion: 100 ft tall Mr pg in Christ the Redeemer pose hoisted onto the cutbanks
All candidates were invited to the UNBC forum. The facilitators walked attendees through the timeline of this.
The CKPG recordings were done in advance.
Conservative candidates are dropping out of debates all over the province. I'm not sure what happened with the NDP.
Either way, there seems to be a concentrated effort to make this election about parties over candidates.