Jordan Bateman considers Penticton the "poster child" for municipal core reviews and would like to see Prince George city council follow that model as it implements its changes.
During a visit to Prince George on Wednesday, the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the cost savings the Okanagan valley city realized through its review have led to a three-year tax freeze. He believes Prince George could see similar results if Mayor Shari Green and city council follow through on the recommendations.
"Core service reviews are all about reminding yourself what the core services are," Bateman said. "Especially for city's like this that are regional centres, there's always a pull to take on everything that the senior levels of government aren't funding, but sometimes the senior levels of government aren't funding it for a reason."
On Monday, city council debated a number of recommendations from a city staff report stemming from the core review conducted by consulting firm KPMG. Among the ideas council asked staff to proceed with further studies on were increases to the costs of business licences and hikes in user fees.
Bateman, a former city councillor in Langley, said he disagrees with a flat rate increase for business licences because some industries would have the capacity to pay more than others and he would have preferred the city had sold off the Pine Valley golf course.
He supports increasing user fees, as long as they're reasonable.
"User fees that constantly go up with no end in sight are trouble, but you have to have skin in the game when you use services," Bateman said.
Another controversial recommendation Bateman supports is the re-implementation of a downtown street parking fee. During his B.C. debt clock tour, Bateman said he had to pay for parking downtown in some communities like Salmon Arm and Kelowna and said he doesn't think a proposed $1 an hour fee in Prince George would deter people from frequenting the business district.
Now that the council has decided to proceed with some of the recommendations, Bateman said it's up to the local politicians to build a political culture which follows Penticton's ideal of promoting frugality.
"I was in Penticton, the city hasn't fallen apart," he said. "It's still beautiful, the pot holes are filled and everything is going along just fine, but they're not paying a huge increase in taxes every year."
