An open letter to Prince George city council and City of Prince George administration:
In regards to the Mayor’s motion with respect to the publication of public notices in the local paper, I must point out that this is a legislated “requirement” under the provincial Community Charter, section 94.1.
This does not give a municipality the option to “opt out” of publication in a local paper if one exists, which in the case of Prince George, we have a local paper. This legislation is a legal requirement that must be followed by every municipality in the province.
Latitude was given by the province to communities that do not have a local paper under 94.1ss 3 to use an alternate means of posting public notices following very clear guidelines. The choice to use social media platforms is not an ideal choice as many community members do not use these platforms. A majority of the community will seek out “news” via a physical newspaper or the newspapers website after all that’s where “news” is found and public notices are “news” and not “advertising” as was portrayed by some uniformed individuals.
With the current prohibition by many social media platforms from posting “news” from news outlets, the access to public notices online is at most difficult. The community should be able to access news in relation to the city and public notices via a respected local news outlet, not a subscription social media platform or a city-run website. The excuse has been offered that the public can “subscribe” to emails for the city’s public notices from the City’s website.
With the current security breaches to many large firm’s data centres, some folks would choose not to be “subscribed” to another service that may be breached by outside parties. Making the public hunt for city public notices is counter intuitive to the legislation currently in place. I feel I must remind council that it’s your responsibility to “uphold” any and all current legislation until it’s formally amended by the province.
Until such time, our local newspaper is the “legislated outlet” for public notices as per the Community Charter and the keeper of the public record. It is council’s responsibility to uphold the existing legislation and continue posting public notices in the “local paper.” This is a matter that should be handled in a pragmatic manner by everyone on council. It’s not about you, it’s about what is right for the community as a whole. Ensuring the public is informed and have easy access to pertinent “information” is the duty of everyone on council.
It is every council member’s responsibility to address each and every issue on its own unique merits. The discussion around this piece of legislation has been anything but transparent, with opinions and misinformation from the city’s communications department to back this statement up. Facebook is not a “public platform,” you cannot access information on the site without a user account. Yet again, I repeat that not everyone in our community uses electronic devices or computers to stay informed.
So it’s with these points in mind that I encourage you to do the job you were elected to do, represent the people of the City of Prince George. Uphold the current legislation in place and return the “news of public notices” to the local newspaper. It is not advertising, it’s a public notification which is “news” and that is usually always found in newspapers.
John Zukowski is a Prince George writer.
