Prince George city council was divided Monday over a plan to hold regular informal meetings with other local elected officials.
The proposed Team PG initiative came forward as a notice of motion by councillors Kyle Sampson, Tim Bennett, Cori Ramsay, Trudy Klassen and Ron Polillo.
Council voted in favour of the plan, which calls for the city to invite local MLAs, MPs, School District 57 trustees and senior administrators, and the Lheidli T'enneh chief and council to regular meetings two-to-three times per year, but scrapped the Team PG name.
“We have very complex, difficult issues facing us and there has to be a team approach to tackling those,” Polillo said. “This is about relationships and communication.”
Sampson said the city previously coordinated similar meetings, but they stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. The informal roundtables would compliment the advocacy being done by the city’s Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs, he added.
“I think it’s long overdue,” Ramsay said.
Mayor Simon Yu said he’d like to see the proposal flushed out in more detail by the Intergovernmental Affairs committee. Coordinating the meetings will be handled by the mayor’s office.
“There is a lot of moving parts right now,” Yu said.
However, a motion to refer the issue to the committee was defeated.
“How it gets done isn’t the critical piece,” Coun. Garth Frizzell said. “Let’s just get this done.”
Coun. Brian Skakun said the proposal duplicates much of the work the Intergovernmental Affairs committee is already doing.
“I’m challenged with this, it’s redundant,” Skakun said.
A community-to-community forum between leaders of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, City of Prince George and the Regional District of Fraser Fort George is already being planned for September, city council was informed in a report to council.
