After digging out of a 17-centimetre snowfall that swamped the city on Friday, Prince George taxpayers can take comfort in the fact the city will allocate the same amount of money for its annual snow removal budget this year as it did in 2019.
That $8.5 million promise is included in the $19 million capital budget for 2020 council approved Monday night as part of the city’s $191 million five-year financial plan for 2020-24. The budget will raise taxes at least 2.15 per cent this year.
Among the list of 65 budget items approved, three new service enhancement positions were created - a forensic video analyst and a data processing supervisor, both to work in police protection, and an additional city planner to help speed the approval process for building projects, which hit record levels in 2019.
The video analyst will help police deal with an increasing amount of video evidence stored on cell phones and computers. The position will pay $101,476 and represents a .09 per cent increase in the tax levy, while the data processing position pays a $91,070 salary, resulting in a .08 tax increase. The new city planner will make $94,559, a .09 per cent tax increase. Without those enhancements, the tax rate increase would have been held to 1.89 per cent.
Council deferred decisions on further enhancements until late February, including one which would fund initiatives to make downtown cleaner and safer and cost as much as $2.6 million. The other would create a full-time climate change and energy coordinator which would pay a salary of $100,559. Council will base its downtown strategy budget decisions on the recommendations of task force which will be formed later this week and will meet for the first time next week.
City staff recommended no budget increases for road rehabilitation, general infrastructure or snow removal. The road budget allocation for 2020 is $7.325 million, with $5.65 million set aside of road rehabilitation; $1.05 million for existing sidewalks/pathways and new sidewalks; $150,000 for pedestrian crossings and traffic safety improvements and $375,000 for intersection cameras for signal detection/traffic pattern statistics.
The $8.5 million snow levy alone amounts to 4.5 per cent of the city’s total budget.
“From my perspective we provide very good snow removal and so when you set the bar as high as we have the last few years, residents want us to maintain that and it’s a tremendous cost,” said Mayor Lyn Hall.
“(Over the past decade) we put more millions into road rehabilitation, which was not just paving but also rebuilding some of our major arterial roads that go through the city. We had to do a great deal of work on that and make sure we don’t downgrade that particular budget allotment.”
A $1.9 million expansion of the city administration building at 3940 18th Ave., is part of the $3.923 million approved for civic facility improvements. The addition will replace portable buildings now used by city staff on the site. Other civic projects passed in the budget include city hall window replacement ($530,000); Civic Centre floor replacements ($297,000); replacement of the arena floor at Kin 3 ($145,000); switching the city hall transformer from a city-owned unit to a BC Hydro unit ($310,000); a new score clock for Rolling Mix Concrete Arena ($100,000); improving accessibility at all city-owned facilities and properties ($100,000), replacing the existing lift at the Elder Citizens Recreation Centre ($75,000) and the purchase of a civic facility/general maintenance van ($70,000).
Police and fire services received modest increases in their budgets. RCMP Supt. Shaun Wright told council wages and benefits account for most of the $263,278 police budget increase, from $26.936 million in 2019 to $27.150 million in 2020.
With construction of a replacement for the No. 1 downtown fire hall slated for a fall completion, Prince George Fire Rescue chief John Iverson highlighted some of the improvements coming to the force, including a new communications centre and high-angle rescue equipment. The budget council approved Monday will also cover the cost of two rescue watercraft ($35,000) and a wildland rescue utility vehicle ($65,000). The fire protection budget will jump to $1.599 million in 2020, up $17,550 from 2019.
Other expenditures highlighted in the plan include parks ($2.655 million), fleet services ($2.412 million), engineering ($1.6 million), information technology services ($1.09 million), events and Civic Centre ($118,000), and development planning/administration ($500,000).
A new $547,000 storage facility to house the Little Prince miniature train at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park is also on the list of civic expenditures. The existing Quonset hut is prone to flooding and the lack of space in the structure is a safety concern for the volunteers who maintain the train. A larger building could also be used to house and display historical firefighting equipment.
“That’s a lot of money,” said Coun. Kyle Sampson. “I struggle with paying for a train which perhaps shouldn’t be owned by the City of Prince George.”
Sampson suggested the city consider transferring ownership as a gift to The Exploration Place museum, which oversees maintenance of the train, or to the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George. Mayor Hall did not share Sampson’s concerns and anticipates grants will help defray the cost of running the train, a popular summertime draw to the park for tourists and residents.
“It was passed in the budget knowing full well that once we take a look at secondary funding and, perhaps, funding from the feds and the province, it will come back to us,” said Hall. “Staff are looking at other potentials for that location too. We have a very old fire engine up at hall No. 2 that needs to be taken out of the garage and displayed as part of our history.”
Park improvements proposed in the budget include Cottonwood Island riverbank stabilization/Heritage river trail refurbishment ($925,000), washroom refurbishment at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial, Freeman and Gyro parks ($300,000), removal/replacement of three playgrounds annually ($250,000), conversion of horseshoe pits at Carrie Jane Gray Park to beach volleyball courts for the 2022 B.C. Summer Games ($250,000), parks water truck ($300,000), trails rehabilitation ($250,000), boulevard restoration, focused in 2020 on Tyner Boulevard/Tabor Boulevard ($160,000), tree planting ($100,000), nature park improvements at Shane Lake/Ferguson Lake ($75,000), off-leash dog areas/parks ($25,000) and parks signage ($20,000).
Council postponed a decision on whether to create a new division within public works, which would cost $280,000.
The tax bylaw, which cannot show a deficit, must be finalized by May 15.
