A group of city councillors is looking to form “Team PG.”
In a notice of motion on Monday, councillors Kyle Sampson, Tim Bennett, Cori Ramsay, Trudy Klassen and Ron Polillo called on the city to establish a roundtable with local MLAs, MPs, School District 57 trustees and senior administration, and Lheidli T’enneh First Nation chief, council and senior administration.
“These meetings will provide opportunity for the City to glean information, observations, and experience from other locally elected officials; and also for the City to share information as well,” the councillors wrote in their notice of motion. “The 'Team PG' informal roundtable will provide opportunity for the City to engage with our locally elected provincial and federal colleagues, who have direct access to the provincial and federal governments; both of which have unique jurisdictions over various key issues facing our community. The intention behind the 'Team PG' informal roundtable is to strengthen and build a united, multijurisdictional approach, when possible, for tackling local issues and initiatives by information sharing between each other on key initiatives, issues, or opportunities for the city/region.”
The notice of motion suggests that the Team PG meetings be held two to three times per year, but acknowledge flexibility may be needed to bring the parties together.
Economic diversification, social issues – including downtown, addictions, crime and mental health issues – reconciliation initiatives, and infrastructure needs were some of suggested topics to be addressed in the meetings.
“The meetings should be focused on discussing current observations of our community's key issues, sharing details about what initiatives are currently underway, what is working, what isn't, and to identify potential opportunities to work together and/or collaborate where our resources overlap,” the councilors wrote.
The motion will come back to a future meeting of city council for debate.
