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TRADE: Getting temporary foreign workers from the U.S.
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CAKE SHOW
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Terry Fox Run breaks record
LNG forum set for October Allan WISHART/Free Press Maureen Faulkner stands next to the namesake of her show at the Rustad Galleria, Cake. Faulkner opened the show on Sept. 12 with an artists’s talk to a large audience.
Pay parking debate back before council Monday Bill Phillips editor@pgfreepress.com The recommendation is the same. In July city staff put forward a recommendation to council to approve awarding Aparc a $1.05 million contract to install pay parking and licence plate recognition equipment and that the total cost of the project, $1.24 million, be funded from the debt reduction fund. Meters were taken out of downtown in 2009 on a trial basis. Council has sought to bring back paid parking as a way to increase revenue for the city. The July motion was delayed as the Downtown Business Improvement Association and the Prince George Chamber of Commerce lobbied for council to meet with
Professional Theatre
them to discuss other options. The groups made presentations at a committee-of-thewhole meeting last month. However, that has not changed the motion council will consider on Monday, which is to proceed as originally recommended. Chamber president Derek Dougherty, in a letter to council, says there are three main issues regarding pay parking … attitude, the bylaw surrounding pay parking, and enforcement. “Pay parking in the downtown should never be about revenue generation for the city,” he writes. “It is about moving the vehicles along, to provide convenient parking for patrons in certain areas of the city.” He writes that free parking should be extended to four hours within a specified zone downtown. Dougherty suggests that if a vehicle is
at the Parkhill Centre
Tickets available at Books & Company 250.614.0039
A homespun comedy about the wacky neighbours on both sides of the fence.
found inside the zone with three unpaid or contested tickets past due by 30 days or more, the vehicle is towed. Vehicles that have a city parkade pass but still park on the street is also a problem that hasn’t been addressed. The chamber also opposes using the city’s debt reduction fund to pay for the program. “The chamber does not support the re-direction of funds that are purposed for retiring debt,” he wrote. Former Downtown Business Improvement Association president Kirk Gable has also voiced his concern to council in a letter. He says the return of pay parking will drive shoppers to the malls where parking is free. “If paid parking was such a great idea, every shopping mall in North America would have it,” he wrote. Council will debate the issue Monday.
The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council is inviting neighbouring First Nations communities, provincial and federal government representatives and proponents of natural gas developments to a B.C. First Nations Liquified Natural Gas Summit next month. The summit will be held October 9-10 at the Civic Centre. “We have been hearing from our members and other First Nation communities of all the challenges these projects impose on our people,” said Tribal Chief Terry Teegee. “We’d like to know more about natural gas policies, operations and the cumulative impacts that will occur on our traditional territories.” The event is invitation-only as it is geared towards building relationships and alliances among First Nations communities and address the challenges these projects present.
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