When delegates from the red-clad I Heart P.G. group come before council this morning, they will be asking the group to keep in mind those with limited and special means when considering a host of recommendations stemming from the core services review.
A special council meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. in council chambers will address the 120-page core services review implementation plan put together by staff. The document, released publicly on Wednesday, outlines the means by which the city could see a $12 million impact on its coffers by next year. Almost $7.8 million of that comes from increases to user fees, licensing costs and adjustments to rate structures.
Council will be asked to approve 68 recommendations as a block and address another 40 individually. The recommendations come from the entirety of the KPMG final report, not just the initial 40 forwarded from the core services review committee.
In a report from city manager Beth James, the financial impact of the first 57 which are completed or on-going includes $33,000 in cost avoidance, $7.6 million in one-off revenue and $5.3 million in annual revenue.
The next 11 to be approved as a block are under the category of efficiencies, and are projected to "result in cost avoidance of $187,000 annually."
Among the final 40 to be considered include those items cast off as Do Not Do suggestions in the KPMG report as well as new ideas from outside of the consultants' document.
CUPE local 1048 president Janet Bigelow and other representatives from groups such as the Special Olympics want the city to commit to maintaining publicly owned facilities such as the Four Seasons Pool, Civic Centre and parks.
While the issue of contracting out the operation of the Four Seasons Pool hasn't been raised in the staff report, it has been an ongoing conversation since the core review process began.
What the report does suggest is raising the aquatics fees and charges by 10 per cent annually for three years, effective Jan. 1, 2014. An estimated $142,000 could be put towards reducing the annual operating subsidy and it would also put Prince George - by staff's own estimate - in the top three of comparator communities for highest rates. The comparator cities are Richmond, Langley, Kamloops, Coquitlam, Saanich, Nanaimo, Delta and Kelowna.
The staff report also suggests holding on to control over the Civic Centre, at least through the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
An increase in rental rates by 10 per cent over three years would generate $54,540 in 2014 and would also include an evening rental rate for those who wish to use the space for a shorter period of time. Currently, auditorium rentals are only done on a 24-hour basis.
"What we're focusing on is how this is going to affect the people that are on fixed incomes and low incomes," said Bigelow, who is scheduled to speak at the beginning of the morning session.
Coun. Frank Everitt is expected to miss this morning's meeting. Everitt said he attempted to get the date of the meeting changed so that everyone could attend, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Coun. Brian Skakun was initially also unable to attend, but managed to get the necessary time off work at the last minute.
Over the weekend, Bigelow and fellow I Heart P.G. members were out at events such as the Pride parade and farmers' market to spread the word about the morning meeting and the ideas contained in the report. She said the community response was "awesome."
"People are concerned. They're concerned about the pool, they're concerned about the Civic Centre, they're concerned about possible hikes in different fees, and more important than that, they didn't know anything about it," she said.
Despite the core review process beginning more than a year ago, Bigelow said there were user groups who didn't know any specifics of what could be coming down the pipe. "Or maybe they had a clue a year ago, but they thought it's not going to happen because they only brought forward 40 in total. Now they're going to tackle them all."
One of those ideas is the possibility of shuttering the Nechako branch of the Prince George Public Library. While eliminating the public library was a Do Not Do suggestion in the final report, staff have taken another look at it and are suggesting the city undergo a cost/benefit analysis. In 2002, it was estimated that about $200,000 could be saved by closing the Nechako branch in the Hart.
The initially ignored idea of increasing costs for business licenses is also revived. By increasing fees by 30 per cent, administration estimate that the business licensing function would operate under a full cost-recovery model.
Though some ideas are new, some of the recommendations contained in the report are fleshed-out plans of things council has already approved for further staff exploration or implementation. These include: increasing the cost of ice time; revising the user fees and rates for sports fields and parks (see related story); reintroducing paid parking downtown; and cutting back on the number of tennis courts the city maintains.
Staff have identified 21 of the city's 63 tennis courts that they would save $18,000 by not installing nets, sweeping, painting lines, sealing cracks, weeding the fence line, etc. These courts are at Clearwood and Malaspina parks, Harwin, Quinson, Van Bien, Vanway and Westwood elementary schools and South Fort/Family Resource centre.
Other areas where the city could "avoid costs" include:
n Plowing residential streets after 12 centimetres of snow has accumulated, instead of the current 10 cm: $180,00
n Replace burnt out street lights with LED bulbs: $54,000
n Implement an enhanced return-to-work program for staff who have been injured on the job: $100,000
n Getting repaid for city services provided to the Northern Lights Festival: $20,000
n Not towing cars that are blocking snow-clearing operations to adjacent streets, instead enforcing the bylaw restrictions: $60,000
n Enter into a joint tender for asphalt with the provincial ministry of transportation or obtain a dedicated gravel source for the city to attract other asphalt manufacturers to the city for annual paving: $700,000
A handful of new ideas that weren't contained in the KPMG report are also in staff's plan. One, closing the Quinn Street sani dump, has already been introduced at council and was sent back to staff for more information. The others include getting property owners to purchase business licenses for rental units (ie. secondary suites, duplexes); increasing the cost of criminal record checks from $35 to $62; and continuing to work on an initiative that would allow the RCMP to benefit from the city's fuel buying group.
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