Local News

The hatchet came down at City Hall today as nine employees were given lay-off notices. The lay-offs are part of a planned City of Prince George restructuring meant to achieve a drastic reduction in budget expenditures.

The City of Prince George laid off nine workers on Tuesday as part of $1.99 million in budget cuts planned for 2012. Four managers and five full-time union employees received pink slips on Tuesday.

City council signed off on a proposed budget plan that would see a 3.12 per cent increase in property taxes in 2012 on Monday. In October city staff predicted a 5.13 per cent tax increase would be needed to maintain services at existing levels.

Police have ruled out foul play in the death of a 39-year-old local woman after speaking to two people who brought her to the University Hospital of Northern B.C. Tracy Schwanke died Thursday, after she was taken to the hospital on Tuesday evening.

Unlike cities like Red Deer, which were caught unaware by rapid growth, Prince George has plenty of room to accommodate new commercial, industrial and residential development, city director of planning and development Dan Milburn said.

It's more than just planes taking off at the airport. According to numbers released by the Prince George Airport Authority, passenger totals were on the upswing for 2011.

The city's homeless shelters have issued a call for donations of warm winter clothing as the winter's first cold snap was worsened by a wind chill that is making frost bite possible within a matter of minutes.

Last decade saw B.C.'s economic decline: NDP

The cold weather combined with extreme wind chill is packing them into the Ketso Yoh men's homeless shelter. "In the last couple of nights we've had people in the dining area," said Elmer Ghostkeeper, a frontline worker at the shelter.

Two weeks after pleading with authorities for help, Lesley Kerr, a resident of Sunrise Valley Mobile Park, still feeds the family of stray cats who have taken up residence under her trailer.