The city's service agreement partners will continue to operate without an increase to their annual budgets.
Initiatives Prince George, Tourism Prince George and Prince George Public Library will receive the same amount of money from the city as in 2013 - $1.024 million, $327,000 and $3.67 million, respectively.
Earlier this month, IPG representatives came before the finance and audit committee to ask for a 2.5 per cent increase to their budget, but didn't repeat the request as part of their formal budget presentation Wednesday night.
"It was clear that we wanted them to keep working with they have. They've managed to leverage the additional dollars they can find based on what we contribute," said mayor Shari Green. "And with all of that funding, they've been able to improve their program delivery and lower their administrative costs. Which is exactly what we want to see."
The money from the city constitutes 71 per cent of IPG's annual revenue, with the remainder coming in from other public and private funds. The economic development branch is projecting to spend 44 per cent of its money on program delivery next year, with a new focus on a business retention and outreach program for existing local businesses.
IPG CEO Heather Oland said the creation of a new Welcome to Prince George business program will help the organization better track job creation in the city.
A $67,000 surplus from IPG's 2012 budget goes towards managing their assets.
The library maintained their budget in spite of there not being any increase in provincial funding, said board chair Anne George. They are also not offering any wage increases to staff in the coming year.
Upgrades to servers that have gone beyond their life span that were scheduled for this year have also been put off. According to interim chief librarian Janet Marren, that will be a $25,000 investment.
The Tourism P.G. budget saw a slight reduction in their operating budget from the previous year to put more money into their reach into the marketplace, said outgoing CEO Aiden Kelly.
Money from the city makes up 27 per cent of the tourism organization's budget, with the lion's share (56 per cent) coming from the hotel room tax.
In addition to community perception, increasing all of the key visitation markers will be a focus for Tourism P.G. in 2014, said Kelly.
Among the challenges the agency faces is reaching everyone who comes through town, with the one visitors' centre on First Avenue, but Kelly also said he wouldn't want to see another one set up, like there used to be at the intersection of Highways 16 and 97.
"We meet the needs in a couple of different ways," he said. These include having tourism staff actually go out to campsites and other tourist locations. "Rather than waiting for
them to come to us, we go to them."
The mayor said she recognizes a net zero ask might not always be sustainable.
"We know that the cost of things goes up, as it does for everyone in their household and in their organization," she said. "Can we find some money next year? I hope that we can but again, if we're increasing labour wages, it's doubtful we're going to be able to also increase other things in the budget."
