The need for money to fund the city's crumbling infrastructure is once again the focus of the agenda for tonight's council meeting.
This week, councillors are formalizing requests for the province to shell out some assistance.
The Union of BC Municipalities meets September in Victoria and the Prince George delegation is taking two resolutions with them in hopes the provincial organization group will take them on.
One stems from a motion spearheaded by Coun. Cameron Stolz, asking the UBCM to lobby the provincial government for natural resource revenue sharing agreements for local governments who ask for them.
The idea was inspired by the agreement developed by the communities within the Peace River Regional District, which struck an understanding with the BC government in 1998.
Their current agreement - renegotiated in 2005 - provides a share of the tax revenue the province collects from new natural resource projects outside of municipal boundaries.
The argument behind such an agreement is that the municipalities provide the supplies, workers and the necessary support services for these industrial projects.
"The fair share agreement isn't about taking existing money from the government and asking them to do something less somewhere else," Stolz explained. "It's saying, 'look, there's new revenue being generated, we would like you to share it with us as the supply centres and service centres for the natural resource industries.'"
When initially put into place in the Peace River, the agreement didn't generate a significant amount, but this year the province cut them a cheque for more than $35 million.
But the distribution varies wildly between the communities. For example, while Fort St. John saw more than $14 million in 2011, the District of Hudson's Hope took in just over $650,000.
The fact that it's a slow process and dependent on the pace of future developments means this is something the city should start putting together now, Stolz said.
But communities within the Peace River region have limited access to the industry property tax base and face specific challenges, which means any agreement Prince George would be a part of couldn't follow exactly the same model otherwise the city would find itself holding the short end of the stick.
"If you're looking at the Hart North industrial site, there's a site that will be developed over the next five to 20 years and that will have a rather significant impact on the supplies, workforce and infrastructure that's required to support the heavy industry up there," he added.
A model that could benefit Prince George and surrounding areas in the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George is something the city's finance and audit committee will look to develop over the coming months.
"There is no solution that we're going to tenant that will solve our infrastructure deficit problem tonight or tomorrow. So if we're looking at a longer term solution to this, we need to be putting that effort into it now," Stolz said.
Council is also forwarding a resolution based on Coun. Brian Skakun's May 4 recommendation that the BC government be lobbied to share a portion of the provincial fuel tax to use for road rehabilitation projects.
