It was a standing-room only crowd that filled the Ramada Hotel's ballroom to hear the candidates for city council face off on the most newsworthy issues at last night's all-candidates meeting.
The forum, hosted by The Prince George Citizen, was attended by four mayoral candidates and 17 council candidates. Mayoralty candidates Bruce Fader and Brandon Lewis and council candidate Travis Shaw were not in attendance.
Although there were a few moments of levity, such as when incumbent councillor Cameron Stolz misspoke and suggested the issue of the city's staffing costs could be solved by "flattening city hall" - which he corrected to "flattening the decision making at city hall," once the laughter died down - it was a fairly straightforward affair, with many candidates finding themselves in agreement on the major issues.
The candidates fielded questions from the panelists Bruce Strachan, Todd Whitcombe and Citizen reporter Arthur Williams and were guided through the process by moderator Randall Heidt.
The mayoral candidates were asked to name something they would commit to change during their term.
Alex Huber focused on fiscal responsibility and the money put into the city's infrastructure. "Roads are in rough shape, snow clearing is getting worse and I find we need to put more resources into our roads," he said, noting the importance of fixing these issues with the upcoming Prince George centennial and Canada Winter Games in 2015.
Shari Green reiterated a major plank in her campaign platform about the need to change the conversation about Prince George. "I felt that many of us have felt we owed some apology somewhere for living in this community," Green said.
Listening to the community's cry for additional resources put into the city's roads, incumbent mayor Dan Rogers said he is committed to finding a quarter of a million dollars each year to put into the roads. "I will champion spending even more, and if I can't do that, I will not run the next time."
When asked about the city's budget, which the municipality's financial planners have projected to include a 5.13 per cent tax increase, all in attendance expressed their displeasure at the number and the prospect of cutting services.
Taking stock and finding efficiencies were the top solutions to finding money in the budget, according to the candidates.
Former school board chair Lyn Hall said council needs to set its priorities for their entire mandate at the beginning of their term.
Incumbent councillors Stolz and Dave Wilbur said they both resisted the proposed increase when it came up at council and outlined how they have both worked to find those efficiencies.
Both Jordan Gadsby and Scot Affleck likened running the city to setting a household budget.
"Running the city is like running your house. You fix costs every month and then you have leftover money to spend wisely - theoretically," said Affleck.
The city needs to find efficiencies from the bottom up, Gadsby said. "When money's tight, you put food on your table and a roof over your head first. We need to look at our core services and look after those as our main priority."
The candidates were also quizzed about the necessity of adding more members to the RCMP's Downtown Enforcement Unit.
Council candidate Dorothy Friesen, like many of her opponents, was not in favour of increasing the number of police officers.
"Our population hasn't grown, the RCMP have done a good job of reducing crime in the downtown area. They need to stay there. We need to keep that task force downtown, but I do not believe we should increase the number of policemen in the city."
Stolz was quick to point out that the police were not in favour of losing their current funding, citing an 85 per cent decrease in crime downtown. "We recognized that downtown is the biggest problem area and we've allocated resources for that."
Other candidates, such as Myrt Turner, were in favour of the police being flexible enough to address crime issues wherever they occur.
In his effort to show his commitment to transparency, Gadbsy said he will be posting his campaign's financial statements on his website prior to the Nov. 19 election.
Brian Skakun was a topic for discussion -- especially when mayoral candidate Eugene Fetterly kept his response blunt and to the point on the incumbent councillor's trial for leaking a confidential city document.
"Long live Brian Skakun," he said, eliciting a wild cheer from the audience.
For his part, Skakun said the Municipal Freedom of Information and Privacy Act was broken.
"The privacy act was created by government officials to protect government officials and I think that's totally wrong. It needs to be revamped, not just by government officials but with feedback from the people that elect us."
The next all-candidates forum is hosted by the Prince George Chamber of Commerce Nov. 8 at the College of New Caledonia.
