Mayor Simon Yu and his new city council are facing a difficult first budget in early 2023.
The best way to let local taxpayers know they’re going to face these challenges head-on would be to implement a temporary hiring freeze at the City of Prince George during their first regular council meeting on Nov. 21.
Along with the hiring freeze, council should direct administration to prepare a report to be ready for budget discussions in the new year detailing the efforts the City of Prince George is making to reduce operating costs in 2023 and beyond. That report should show saving options across the board, not just in a few targeted departments and portfolios.
Senior city staff will almost certainly be bringing forward a budget in the new year with a whopping tax increase. History shows mayor and council will almost certainly approve such an increase because it’ll be long forgotten by the time the next election rolls around in the fall of 2026.
The least city administration can be asked to do is show how they are willing to share the pain along with everybody else. It can be decided during the budget decisions whether that hiring freeze needs to be extended and what that might look like.
For example, it would be quite reasonable for council to make the hiring freeze indefinite and order the city manager to bring a quarterly request for new hires to be considered at an open public meeting. Behind the scenes, the city manager would have to prioritize which jobs are brought forward to council for approval. That way, the elected city council, and not the city manager, would decide what are essential hires at the City of Prince George.
A hiring freeze at the city is necessary because city council will likely be hiring more RCMP officers next year.
An analysis is already in the works assessing officer workloads and policing costs compared to other similar-sized B.C. municipalities. City council voted earlier this year to maintain police service at 2021 levels. But with crime rates and calls for service on the rise, mayor and council will be under enormous pressure when that report arrives to add to the contingent at the local detachment.
More cops or more city workers? With so many tough decisions ahead, this choice is one of the easier ones.
Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
