Theatre critic Martin Esslin is credited with having coined the phrase "Theatre of the Absurd," in reference to plays that featured characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of cliches, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive.
This definition aptly describes what took place at Monday night's council meeting-Prince George's own Theatre of the Absurd.
Following the recommendation of the Mayor's Task Force for a Better Downtown, now reinvented as The Downtown Partnership (wordplay), city staff hired a consultant to determine how best to apply tax exemptions to encourage businesses to locate downtown, and the merits of extending the maximum exemption period beyond the current 10 years.
Despite the fact that we have 19 studies on the downtown, and more staff at city hall than a Shriners' convention in Vegas, the city decided to spend $25,000 on two firms based in Kelowna and Victoria to tell us what we should have been able to determine using existing staff.
The problem with that however is, if someone at the city offered an opinion, they might actually be held accountable for it down the road if it proved to be wrong. And after all, this is neither a council nor an administration known for being accountable to anyone, as judged by the recent tax increases.
So what did the city get for its investment? Precious little by the looks of the 51 page report.
According to Alan Welch, from Nelson Welch Consulting Inc., and his partner Sherry Hirsh from "Leftside Partners" (we're not making this up), things are so bad in downtown P.G. that no self-respecting Toronto developer (they only spoke to Toronto and Vancouver developers), would locate in our city -- "even if the land were provided at zero cost." Really? It strains credibility to think that this firm did not talk to our real estate board, our construction association, the RCMP or local developers before producing this loopy report.
"In downtown Prince George, current market conditions preclude new private sector developments" -- try telling that to the owners of The Ramada, The Keg, Commonwealth Health Centre and UNBC, all of whom are investing millions of dollars developing and improving their properties in downtown P.G., along with Gordon Bliss, who is currently selling high-end condos in the downtown.
"Poor perceptions regarding safety and desirability undermine efforts to promote the downtown as a place to live, work and play." Had they bothered to talk to the RCMP, Mr. Welch and company would have discovered that the crime rate has dropped by 50 per cent since December when the P.G. Hotel closed its doors, and EMS calls to the downtown have plummeted.
"...the revitalization of downtown Prince George constitutes one of Initiatives Prince George's top priorities," which begs the question that if this is true, why neither the president, VP or chairman of the board of IPG even bothered to attend Monday's meeting.
"Subscription to the (existing) tax exemption program has been modest: eight projects with a combined construction value of $13.5 million have qualified for exemptions...the last one in 2008." Having said that, why is Neilson-Welch adamant that a 30-year abatement on land will not work? Desperate times call for desperate measures. Make no mistake, if we fail to attract new development and businesses downtown this time, we are hooped.
The solution to our downtown rests with the private sector, aided by government. If success were measured by the number of studies (unfortunately for us, some at City Hall subscribe to that mentality), Prince George would be the Warren Buffet of downtown development.
Finally, this report has more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese. If one accepts that the consultants weren't complete idiots, the logical conclusion is that whoever gave them their marching orders framed the terms of reference in such a way that the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
To their credit, councillors Green and Stolz refused to even accept the report, while others offered a slew of questions that left no doubt as to how embarrassed council felt after this latest fiasco.
Time will tell whether they were embarrassed enough to finally reign in the staff responsible.
