By Cheryl Jahn

city hall

Two controversial motions defeated by City Council

Jun 9, 2025 | 10:26 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Two notices of motion by two City Councillors took well over two hours of the Council meeting last night.

The first sought to reinstate public notice advertising in the Prince George Citizen to the tune of $100,000.

“I was inspired by a motion I hadn’t voted for of bringing more of our procurement options to more locally-owned businesses,” explained Councillor Trudy Klassen, co-author of the motion. “And I thought here we have a more wholly, completely locally-owned paper of record in our city. And I think our Council got it wrong not to use our local newspaper as a paper of record.”

She noted that when the City puts public notices in the local newspaper, it is reaching a demographic with “the most collective knowledge.”

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“We can say all we want about the younger generation getting all their information online, but I think there is value in that paper record.”

But the question arose as to whether that is a subsidy of local media, as was noted by Councillor Kyle Sampson.

“I think we can spend this money across all media,” noted Councillor Tim Bennett.

Councillor Ron Polillo broke down where the City spends its money in terms of media. According to records, the City spent $230,651.78 between 2022 and 2025 wth the Prince George Citizen, $92,224.11 with CKPG Television for that same period and $184,610.48 with Vista Radio and $13,187.21 on Facebook.

“I find this motion as very flawed,” said Polillo. “One, it singles out one media. It’s not equitable. It’s not fair. Two, it’s ineffective. It doesn’t reach the entire audience you want to reach. Three, it’s not an effective way to spend taxpayer dollars.”

“Supporting any local media is good for the community,” noted Mayor Simon Yu. “We treasure our local media.”

Ultimately, the motion failed.

The second motion, also submitted jointly by Councillors Brian Skakun and Trudy Klassen sought to have a resolution move to the Union of BC Municipalities whereby it would require no more than a simple majority, rather than a super majority of Council to allow for the termination of a municipal officer.

Councillor Cori Ramsay called it “a significant decision by Council” to be a simple majority.

“I’m not going to support this because I think that the super majority serves its purpose.”

That motion also failed.