After giving notice last month, councillors Brian Skakun and Trudy Klassen will discuss their proposal that the City of Prince George restore local advertising in The Citizen at the Monday, June 9 city council meeting.
In February 2022, the NDP government amended BC’s Community Charter to remove the requirement for local governments to place public notices for things like hearings in a newspaper published at least once a week.
After that change, Prince George city council passed a bylaw in June 2022 removing the city’s requirement to publish public notices in newspapers and instead allowing for them to be published on social media platforms and its website.
Skakun and Klassen’s motion would restore up to $100,000 of yearly advertising in the Citizen and redirect 50 per cent of the city’s advertising expenditures with Meta — Facebook and Instagram’s parent company — to local and Canadian media outlets.
It would also require the city to publish an annual transparency report on its advertising expenses and hold a town hall on the subject in the first three months of 2026.
Echoing thoughts expressed in an editorial printed in the Citizen’s June 5 print edition, owner and publisher Cameron Stolz emphasized The Prince George Citizen is the city’s newspaper of record. Unlike social media posts and websites, the Citizen’s print editions cannot be altered or deleted.
“We’d like to recognize that this motion — brought forward by councillors Skakun and Klassen with no input or direction from The Citizen — is in alignment with the procurement policy brought forward by Coun. Kyle Sampson and unanimously approved by council in May of this year that directs the city to support local businesses first,” said Stolz. “The Citizen supports the city spending its advertising dollars locally, not just with us, but with Pattison Media and Vista Radio as well.”
At the Monday, May 5 city council meeting, councillors approved a motion directing staff to prioritize local suppliers when looking to purchases of services or supplies under a threshold of $75,000.
If no local suppliers are available, staff are to prioritize regional, provincial, national and then international suppliers in that order.
The motion is the fourth item on the June 9 meeting agenda. Proceedings will kick off at 6 p.m. in council chamber on the second floor of city hall at 1100 Patricia Blvd.
