We aren't all farmers, Globe and Mail

sorry i was sick there's so much to get into baby owls, bears, a new brand, a bad bus system

May 10, 2024

Pardon my unscheduled absence. I caught a version of whatever it is that’s going around and spent the last few days in a hole.

Now, the weather is gonna be warm so you can load this long list of links up and take them to the beach (the Nechako River bed) for your weekend reading.

Cougar’d

This photo posted to the CN Centre’s Instagram was meant to anticipate the Monster Madness monster truck event this weekend but kind of stung after the Cougars’ heartbreaker of a loss in double overtime Monday night. The CBC’s Sarah Penton did her darndest to cheer up coach Mark Lamb in a Tuesday interview, pointing out all the accomplishments both he and the team had held, but he was honest about being bummed out. Still, it was a record-breaking season with the deepest playoff run the team has ever had, so I think we’ll likely see a lot more of that “winning culture” he speaks of next year not just from the bench but from the fans. I started out this season writing about how this felt like a make-or-break year for the team’s future in Prince George and I feel pretty confident that they came out on the “make” side of things.

Here’s the draft report.

This baby owl is all the rage

I keep seeing people post about it. It’s the new hotness.

The farmers of Prince George

The Globe and Mail published a column about decriminalization that made me angry, but not because of anything it had to say about decriminalization. No, the line that got me was this one:

There was always going to be a split between the view from the big city and the view from more rural parts of the province. It’s one thing for progressives to say yes, let’s charge ahead with decriminalization because it’s the only pathway out of this crisis, and another for a farmer in Prince George or a retired senior in Princeton to see the positives in this policy.

UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHH.

One, I hate the idea that somehow farmers are just too, gosh shucks to understand issues the way them big city folks do but even if that were the case they are not exactly representative of Prince George. This is something people on all sides of the political spectrum do, which is cosplay as understanding rural issues by putting on the imaginary lens of us simple country folks up north. Here’s the thing: There aren’t all that many farmers here.

That graph is from the most recent census report that finds of the employed labour force in Prince George, 995 people — 2.7 per cent of the overall workforce — was employed in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting combined. Yes, that is higher than Metro Vancouver (0.8 per cent) but it’s not exactly representative of your average working person.

What is?

16.1 per cent of our population is in health care and social assistance, 13.2 per cent is in retail and 8.1 per cent is in manufacturing. A more representative worker for our city would be a nurse, cashier or social worker. Even if you expand out to include the greater Prince George area, the amount of people in agriculture etc goes to 3.4 per cent. Yes, we are surrounded by nature but this is very much an urban centre.

District learning commons

In my last newsletter I wrote about proposed budget cuts at the school district, which includes a proposed $270,000 reduction the District Learning Commons which I described as “an internal library of things like books, guides, DVDs etc that educators can use to access material for classroom learning.” I got a note telling me while that is part of it, there’s much more:

The bigger thing done is we are the central point of processing for all resources for the district. Every textbook, class novel set, library book, etc. is cataloged and processed. That's what the majority of the department does.
The rest of the budget is split between:
running the district courier system
the library system infrastructure
electronic resources for students
A few additional points:
This is a centralized system — its already about as lean as it can get. In most districts these services are at each school.
It’s made up of 5 of the lowest paid CUPE members (clerks and library techs make one of the bottom CUPE wages)

Council notes, part one: Bears

While the Cougars game was on, Prince George city council was in a marathon session of its own. The big discussion, I think, was around bears and whether council has, in fact, done all it can to deal with them and it’s up to individuals at this point.

The discussion kicked off with a proposal from Kyle Sampson to form a committee made up of various expert groups like the conservation officer service and bear aware to actually come up with some better ways of preventing bears from getting habituated to humans that go beyond saying “hey, lock up your garbage” every week or so. That preceded and was linked to the following agenda item, which was whether the city should offer people $500 to remove fruit trees. The best overall writeup is from MyPGNow though the Citizen is worthwhile because it takes note of Garth Frizzell’s concerns that the fruit tree program could result in an infinite money glitch if people just keep planting the trees. In the end council decided to form the committee and refer the fruit tree decision there and we’ll see what they have to say but in my humble layperson’s opinion I’d say step one might be to try to figure out the garbage thing before coming for the fruit. I am already seeing bags ripped open and dragged around green spaces that border neighbourhoods which strike me as a far bigger concern than the 2-3 months a year a fruit tree is ripe. Whether that’s getting people better tools or stepping up enforcement or both, it just seems like tackling the thing that has no benefit (loose garbage) and seeing how that goes is worth trying before going after urban gardeners for growing food in their yards.

Council notes part two: A brand new brand

Also at the council meeting was a new branding guideline for the ciy, focused mostly around the three-line confluence log and Mr. PG. You can read the presentation and see way more about it here. But more to the point, here are some pics (Will is the company behind it):

This is the sort of thing that is easy to look at and say “meh, so what” but honestly, done right, can make a huge difference. Quesnel went through this process about a decade ago and if you walk around town there it is obvious in a good way — you see the branding on their mailboxes, benches, even garbage cans, giving a real cohesive, and more welcoming, look to the city’s downtown (it has a few other advantages but the branding helps). Imagine those blue and purple and green lines seen above power boxes/etc downtown — it just looks better which makes us seem more like a real place, IMO. I’m a fan of this.

Council notes part three: Fourplexes! And our transit system is bad

Remember how the city is all mad at the province for coming after Airbnbs? Well, that’s not the only housing initiative going on — so, too, is a push to make it easier for fourplexes to be constructed in cities like Prince George. And council is complying with this one.

There’s a fascinating story about how fourplexes could be the next “Vancouver Special” over here and it’s worth a read/watch.

Going back to the Citizen report, another initiative is the need for more housing around high density transit corridors. It is not surprising to me, but apparently surprising to council, to learn that only the UNBC bus exchange actually meets the criteria for a transit-oriented area which is defined as a stop that has at least two unique routes, running 7 days a week, with departures every 15 minutes or less. This is why no one takes the bus, council, unless they don’t have other options. Anyways.

Council notes part four: Are you opposed to spending $22.15 million to refurbish the Aquatic Centre? Read this

At Monday’s meeting, council voted in favour of something called an alternative approval process for anyone who wants to oppose borrowing money to refit the Aquatic Centre. Basically, rather than go to referendum, those opposed can counter-petition the city on the decision, if they are so moved. You can read about that here. Mayor Yu wanted more details so voted against the plan, as did councillor Brian Skakun. Meanwhile, councillor Cori Ramsay has written a blog post outlining her understanding of the project and why she is in favour.

Council notes part five: The rest

The intergovernmental committee gave its report on its April 29-May 1 visit to Victoria and nobody wrote about it, so here’s a link to the report itself. Basically, Garth Frizzell and Kyle Sampson, along with some support staff and reps from Lheidli T’enneh met with local MLAs , the minister of mental health, the minister of housing, the solicitor general, the attorney general, the minister of health and more to talk mostly about the issues you’d expect: Crime, housing, drug use.
The city accepted $180,000 from Miracle Theatre and authorized the purchase of a new structural protection unit.
2024 Budget and Tax Rates finalized.
Mayor Yu’s Standing Committee on Public Safety to meet for first time on May 21st.
The City’s bylaw, the fire department and the RCMP will be stepping up patrols in light of the fires that are occurring in the downtown core. The chamber of commerce is pleased.
Apparently converting boulevards to be more bee-friendly would cost $20,000??? Council simply received the report.
A public safety townhall is being held May 28 at the very same Civic Centre.

A super-mega-big news roundup

Today’s song goes out to Mr. PG:

Northern Capital News is a free, daily newsletter about life in Prince George. Please consider subscribing or, if you have, sharing with someone else.

Send feedback by emailing northerncapitalnews@gmail.com. Find me online at akurjata.ca.

Kat Louro

May 10

Weird farmer label aside, it also really grinds my gears when it's implied "rural" folks (although I question a metro area of 80,000+ that serves as a major shopping and health center exactly qualifies as rural) won't have nuanced or non-ignorant takes on progressive policies or movements. It really downplays groups like the POUNDS project, UNDU, and community/health research groups at CNC and UNBC that do a tonne of advocacy and work around these topics. I totally admit that my circles in Prince George run more left leaning, and I was raised by two union loving socialists, so maybe I'm not as keyed into the average view of Northern BC. However, I've also lived in major metropolitan areas and can comfortably say that living in a city doesn't automatically make you progressive by any stretch. I'll never forget a Van landlord asking us if it was really racist up in Northern BC and how they'd have a hard time living up there, and then five minutes later telling us we were so lucky we were going to have "a white landlord" if we got that apartment.

Expand full comment

1 reply

Kathy

I hope you're feeling better!

I've been saying for so many years: if you want more people to take the bus, you have to increase the service. Efficiencies and cost-saving won't help the transit system thrive in PG. More riders will. And riders will only ride the bus a) if they have no other choice, and b) if you make it easy for them. Why would I wait half an hour for a bus in the Hart so I could go to Spruceland, only to have to take another half hour bus somewhere close to where I want to go? Run the buses every 15 minutes and give me route options. Why this shocks people is beyond me. Also, yes, housing along bus corridors. (But again, that means we also have to put the buses along housing corridors.)

1 more comment...

northern capital news

Discussion about this post