PHOTOS: Prince George tackles ageing infrastructure in Talktober public sessions

Did you know the average age of infrastructure in the city of Prince George is 42 years?

And, that Prince George’s total pipe length is roughly the distance from Prince George to Winnipeg?

The state of infrastructure is the focus of the city of Prince George’s Talktober public information sessions at the Civic Centre, with the city providing a presentation on infrastructure before a Q&A period hosted by Mayor Lyn Hall.

“What we want to do is talk a little bit about the historical reasons behind why we have the infrastructure that we do,” said city manager Kathleen Soltis during the first Talktober info session this afternoon (Oct. 1.)

Soltis explained that city infrastructure encompasses not only roads, bridges, street lights, sidewalks, water, sewers and storm drainage but it’s also civic facilities like arenas, pools, public parks, trails and sports fields.  

“From the 1940s until the 1980s, the population doubled every decade," said Soltis. "Prince George, at that time, was considered to be the fastest-growing city in B.C. Between 1953 and 1974 the town grew and the boundaries were expanded about 11 times.”

She says this boom affected city planning with most of the city’s infrastructure either built or acquired in the 1970s.

“The average date during which the infrastructure was built was 1977 and that makes the average age of our infrastructure 42.”

Prince George also has the lowest population density among its peer communities, meaning city infrastructure is spread out over the city’s boundaries which total 300 sq. km.

“Infrastructure is such a huge issue in the city,” says Mayor Lyn Hall of why he wanted to focus on the topic for this year’s Talktober. “What’s unknown is the magnitude of infrastructure that we have and the expansion of our boundaries. We have areas where maybe there are three or four houses but we provide infrastructure from one end of the block to the other.”

This spring, the city passed an Alternative Approval Process (AAP) for $32 million worth of infrastructure upgrades, despite some opposition from the public.  

Hall says a lot of the city’s immediate infrastructure needs were addressed within the AAP.

“There’s going to be more infrastructure need down the road, but I think the focus we had and the work that was done in planning for infrastructure improvements were bundled up in that AAP,” said Hall, adding that infrastructure needs can arise out-of-the-blue.

“We don’t know what is going to happen. The sinkhole was a perfect example, we couldn’t plan for that and there it was so we are having to deal with it,” said Hall. “We had a decision to make around the table. Do we deal with this infrastructure deficit today, or do we keep kicking the can down the road?”

Hall noted that there are two key take-away points from the city’s infrastructure presentation.

“The massive amount of infrastructure we have in our city and the need that there is to maintain it and upgrade it and the other one is how large our boundaries are and what it takes to provide infrastructure needs to those boundaries.”

Hall also answered a variety of non-infrastructure related questions from the public, and the Q&A portion was open to any topic.

Questions ranged from topics like idling cars, dog parks, the proposed West Coast Olefins petrochemical plant, to garbage pick-up processes and downtown parking.

“We didn’t want to restrict questions just to the infrastructure presentation we wanted people to feel like well ‘Here he is let’s ask him some questions’,” added Hall.

But wait, Talktober is not over yet!

The Talktober Open House runs until 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow (Oct. 2) from 12 p.m. until 8 p.m.

Presentations will be given at 12:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. with the Q&A sessions to follow.

You can also get involved online and fill out the city’s budget consultation tool, and check out the official Talktober webpage for more updates and information on the presentations and slides provided.