New parking rules (and an app) for streets around the hospital
And CKPG says the urgent and primary care facility in Parkwood is in jeopardy, but doesn't say why or how??? And did John Rustad try to close Duchess Park??
First, a note about the election post — I’ll be adding articles, etc to them as they come up, up until Friday. So you can feel free to bookmark it, share it around and it will have the newest stuff. Today’s addition is a CKPG article about Coralee Oakes and a piece in the PG Daily News on the NDP candidate for Prince George-Mackenzie calling on the Conservative candidate to denounce social posts made by other people in that party.
Here's a bunch of stuff about the local election candidates
Election day is Oct. 19 — this coming Saturday. If you are wondering how or where to vote, here’s a writeup on that. It also looks like thousands of people in the area have already voted.
More election stuff
I’m honestly a bit confused about this one but CKPG says the future of the Urgent and Primary Care facility in Parkwood Mall is in jeopardy, without citing anyone indicating that is the case?? But anyways, it has Conservative Leader John Rustad saying the healthcare system is not working, independent Coralee Oakes raising issues with the funding model and the NDP’s Adrian Dix saying his party will keep it open if they are re-elected because of how vital and successful it is.
This tweet may be the source???
In PG Daily News, former high school teacher, now columnist, Gerry Chidiac writes about his memories of Rustad on the school board in a column titled “John Rustad must be stopped.”For what it’s worth, I did find a couple of articles about what Chidiac describes as Rustad having “set his sights” on closing Duchess Park in the newspaper archives.
For context, this was a time period when enrolment was down over several years and the school board did, in fact, have to close several schools. The first article is from November 2, 2003, and describes a school board meeting where hearings were being held into the possible closure of Lakewood and John McInnis junior secondary schools, part of a way to address a $5.5M funding shortfall. The district parent advisory council chair of the time asked why closing high schools weren’t being considered instead of just junior secondary schools, and there is a report referenced which found closing Duchess would have been the “second best money-saving operation” and parents who used the other two schools were “miffed” Duchess wasn’t being considered. John Rustad is quoted as saying it should be an option for discussion available to the board — a sentiment echoed by Lyn Hall, who would go on to be the city’s mayor.
The next is from Nov. 30, when an article appeared summarizing another meeting, again indicating Rustad wanted it on the table as an option.
A December article later references more about this — basically, a report had been prepared that the only two options available to the board for closing schools were either 1. close Lakewood and John McInnis or 2. close Duchess Park. In this article, it says Rustad had a motion to consider closing Duchess as an alternative to closing the other two, which was defeated 5-1 by the rest of the board. Overall, the decision was made that more information was needed before any more discussion of closing schools was had. So that’s the context around the column that I could find.
News roundup
Stephen Mackie to become Canfor Pulp’s new President and CEO.
Downtown business owners discussing street-level surveillance cameras to tackle crime.
Prince George Golf and Curling Club raises $50,000 through fund.
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Send feedback by emailing northerncapitalnews@gmail.com. Find me online at akurjata.ca.
My parents, who are in their 70s, only have a flip phone with no intention of ever getting a smart phone. They won't be able to pay for parking around the hospital with an app. I'm sure there are lots of people in town who will be in the same boat, either because of age or financial constraints. I haven't seen any alternate method of payment mentioned on their page about it.
FOI requests reportedly found that Urgent Primary Care centres have an average cost per visit of $129 compared to $36 to a fee-for-service family doctor. The overhead cost for a UPCC is more than a doctor visit alone. All UPCC’s are over budget. https://bcupcc.ca/performance/