City Hall is drawing fire from the People's Action Committee for Healthy Air (PACHA) and prominent air quality researcher Peter Jackson for proposed cuts to air quality initiatives in the city.
On Monday city council approved a 2012 budget plan that would see funding for the Prince George Air Quality Roundtable (PGAIR) eliminated in 2012. In addition, on Tuesday Mayor Shari Green announced the elimination of 28 jobs at the City of Prince George, including positions from the city's environmental services department.
"Two out of three positions in the city's environmental services department are gone," PACHA president Dr. Marie Hay said. "To me, I think that is shortsighted and unwise. I can't really believe the people of Prince George would agree to something like this."
Currently the city provides $70,000 per year to PGAIR, approximately 25 per cent of the organizations total $275,000 per year budget.
"It just cuts the legs out from underneath it," Hay said. "To me it's stunning that [city council] is spending $350,000 on an external review, and [they're] making all these sweeping moves before that's in place. In my opinion it's not
doing due diligence."
PGAIR was formed in 1998 and became a registered nonprofit society in 2008. The organization is a consensus-based partnership between the City of Prince George, Northern Health, UNBC, B.C. ministries of environment and transportation, Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, industry and PACHA.
The goal of the society is to promote better air quality in Prince George. Just this week the society announced its phase three plan for promoting air quality.
"Major industries are sitting around the table ... to see the city do a complete turnaround is just shocking. It defies reason," Hay said. "[But] I honestly didn't expect anything different from Shari Green's mayorship.
"Sometimes people are so driven by commerce, business interests that they don't see the big picture."
UNBC air quality researcher Peter Jackson has led much of the research done by and for PGAIR on the sources of air pollution in the city. Jackson said the elimination of city environmental services positions and the possible elimination of city funding to PGAIR is very
concerning.
"The city, up until now, have been very active participants. They were probably, with the Ministry of Environment, the most significant player at the table," Jackson said. "It's going to leave a huge vacuum. I'm not sure the process can survive that. I think that by making these quick decisions, without any
consultation, we could put the whole process in a stall."
Jackson served with the mayor's task force on air quality and said city staff in the environmental services department were critical to developing the city's clean air bylaw, took part in PGAIR's committees and were able to provide funding for air quality initiatives.
The partnership created by PGAIR has been a very effective way to combat a wide number of air
pollution sources, Jackson said.
"This is where you can hash out the issues," Jackson said. "I worry that if the city is pulling out, we could lose a big part of that."
PGAIR executive director Terry Robert said the city hadn't discussed the possibility of cutting its contribution to the air quality agency prior to announcing the proposed 2012 budget.
"It's going to have an impact, and we're a bit surprised by the decision," Robert said. "It does represent a significant portion of our budget. [But] we do have funding from the regional district and provincial government. We're going to have to look at what we can achieve without it."
The two city staff who represented the city on PGAIR's board are also gone, he said.
"We sure hope that we can continue to collaborate," Robert said. "What we're interested in doing is finding a way to work with the city."
Robert said he couldn't say much more prior to the meeting of the PGAIR board on Jan. 24, when the board will have its first chance to discuss how to continue.
City response
Mayor Shari Green said the proposed cut to PGAIR's budget is only that: a proposal.
"It's part of a list of suggestions from city staff. It doesn't mean we will act on that one," Green said. "From my perspective, there is no change to my commitment to air quality. PGAIR is an important
organization."
Green wouldn't comment on how many staff were cut from the city's environmental services
department.
However, she did say the city would continue to participate in PGAIR and have staff
representation at the board meetings.
Coun. Cameron Stolz said he plans to fight to keep PGAIR's
funding in the budget.
"They city plays a major facilitator role there. Without the city at the table, other players may decide to leave," Stolz said. "We've made significant progress on air quality. How do we keep doing that? The best way is to do that is through PGAIR. Regardless of how the [environmental services] department may have been effected, we'll still have city representation there."
