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FRIDAYJUNE 12
ELDERS: Ed John and Stuart Phillip address gathering
www.pgfreepress.com | newsline: 250.564.0005
ENTRY WAS GRAND
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Pride Parade entertains all
Pay parking back downtown Allan Wishart allanw@pgfreepress.com
Teresa MALLAM/Free Press Jo-Anne Kruger and Grace Greyeyes of the Penticton Indian Band drum their way in to CN Centre during the grand entry of bands during the 37th B.C. Elders Gathering Tuesday.
Fee increases
galore in core service report Allan Wishart allanw@pgfreepress.com Five appeared to be the magic number for Prince George city council on Monday. In a marathon special meeting, which ran into the main meeting, councillors dealt with recommendations for the Core Services Review report prepared by KPMG. And in a number of cases, numbers sug-
gested by administration based on the recommendations in the report were modified, with five being the most common number. The first item to see the new number was a recommendation that business licence fees be increased by 30 per cent, and Coun. Cameron Stolz had no problem with that. “We’re looking at cost recovery on a lot of the other items we’ll be covering today,” he said, “and this is an opportunity to look
at businesses as well. We’re going to discuss user fees which could increase 12 or 15 per cent a year, so this should be the baseline for all.” Coun. Albert Koehler eventually suggested five per cent increases in each of the next three years, which was passed. On other items, especially user pay fee increases, councillors apparently took both
The meters are coming back to downtown, and Rod Holmes isn’t impressed. Holmes, the president of the Downtown Business Improvement Association (DBIA), doesn’t agree with city council’s decision to have a bylaw brought back from staff, putting parking meters back in the downtown area, with a charge of $1 an hour. “We don’t think it’s time to bring back the meters,” Holmes said. “In Kamloops, the DBIA talked with the city and came up with a plan. They wanted more pay parking, and we think we have lots of parking downtown. “The downtown is coming back, and this isn’t going to help.” The discussion at Monday’s special coun-
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