A city councillor is looking to take the lead on creating a new link for local veterans.
Coun. Garth Frizzell has submitted a notice of motion to the rest of council proposing the idea of following in the steps of two other Canadian locales in creating a Community Covenant.
Veterans Affairs Canada defines these as "an agreement within a community, defined by the community, to support Canada's veterans and their families, in a manner specified within the Covenant document."
Such a document for Prince George would arise out of collaboration with local groups that support veterans.
"There are two things you do: the things that need to be done and the things that ought to be done," said Frizzell. "And over the past five, six years, we've done a lot of the things that need to be done and we're going to keep doing the things that need to be done at the city. This is one of the ones that ought to be done."
Frizzell said he became more military-minded until last year when he learned about his grandfather's involvement in the Second World War, when he served as wing commander in the air force. It led him to join the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and start to "get a sense of what the military do and the direct connection there is to Prince George."
"But once you start asking what you can do and what you ought to do to be there for a group of people that are there for you, you start coming up with more questions than answers," said Frizzell, who said there are different, fragmented services available in the city for veterans.
He came across the Community Covenant idea from Federation of Canadian Municipalities colleagues who represent Conception Bay South in Newfoundland and Labrador and Halton Hills in Ontario.
"So it's our turn to look and see what we can do for our personnel, for our veterans," said Frizzell.
Council will discuss the proposal at a future meeting.
