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IINCE GEORGE BC
AUGUST 23-26. 2012
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House taxes set to jump
Council opts to ease burden on major industry; bylaw needs one more reading
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Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgctizen.ca
By a narrow 5-4 vote, city council passed an option Monday night to increase the property tax bill for the average home in Prince George by 3.95 per cent and give major industry a slight break.
The bylaw must clear one more reading before it can be enacted.
Mayor Shari Green and councillors Frank Everitt, Lyn Hall, Cameron Stolz and Murry Krause voted in favour of the option, which would see the rate per $1,000 for major industry decline by $1 to $46.88, although it will still translate into a 0.73-per-cent increase for the average major industrial property
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once assessed values are taken into account.
Those against were councillors Brian Skakun, Garth Frizzell, Dave Wilbur and Albert Koehler.
The move is part of a 10-year-plan to bring the levy on major industrial in Prince George in line with that of the rest of the province, said Stolz, who chairs the finance and audit committee.
If it clears final reading, the option will also limit the increase for the average light industrial property to 3.95 per cent while the average bill for small business property will rise by 5.7 per cent and, for utilities, by 26.28 per cent.
Skakun said he opposed the option because major industry is already subject to the lowest corporate tax rate in Canada and
m Mayor Shari Green and councillors Frank Everitt, Lyn Hall, Cameron Stolz and Murry Krause voted in favour of the option, which would see the rate per $1,000 for major industry decline by $1 to $46.88...
because Canfor Pulp received extensive government subsidies for upgrades to the company’s Prince George operations.
Frizzell wanted further consideration of an option that would spread the increase in the tax levy more evenly across the classes and Wilbur said homeowners deserve a break reflective of the decline in the
assessed values of their homes.
Koehler supported
another of the four options presented to council that called for a 2.77-per-cent increase to the average residential property, while major industrial would take a 2.43-per-cent hit and increases for small business would be 5.83, light industry, 8.71 and utilities, 26.41.
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Abandoned or false 911 calls were up 60 per cent in Prince George in 2011.
Mounties on the hook for dud calls
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Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Prince George police officers are wasting thousands of hours per year chasing down calls to 911 when there’s no one on the other end of
the phone.
According to statistics from the RCMP’s Operational Communications Centre, the number of false or abandoned 911 calls in Prince George jumped by more than 60 per cent in 2011 over the year before.
There were 1,216 empty calls last year versus 753 in 2010.
“The Prince George RCMP believe that a large portion of this increase can be attributed to the increase in smart phone usage in our community,” said police
spokesman Cpl. Craig Douglass.
“These more advanced phones have a built-in emergency button that allow everyone to call 911 with the push of two buttons, even when the phone is password protected.
In many cases these safety buttons are accidentally pushed from inside a user’s pocket.
“This is known as ‘pocket dialing’ 911.”
Since Mounties are obligated to investigate all 911 calls, the average time is about 30 minutes per abandoned call for a general duty member, plus the time of the dispatchers, civilian support staff, the use of the police vehicle, and so on.
“The operator must assume that the caller is in need of help and therefore police officers are dispatched to the location of the call in order to protect the public,” said Douglass.
“Imagine if officers did not attend and someone was in fact needing help.”
The commitment to these calls is so serious for police, they will converge land line addresses, triangulate cell calls and move in on its position, or, if the dropped 911 call is from a vehicle, police will dispatch members from other towns to intercept the vehicle using GPS technology.
“Each situation is different, and that requires a judgment call, but the officer has to justify not going in as opposed to going in,” said Douglass.
“If it turns out something happened, but it wasn’t checked, there is a lot more danger to the public at stake and that is reflected in our protocols.
“Almost always, the officer, and ideally two officers, will check over the place where the call came from.”
Dialing do's and don'ts
Here are some tips to help prevent unnecessary 911 calls:
• Use keyboard locks to prevent your phone from calling 911
• Keep your phone in a case or holster
• Ensure SIM cards are securely installed.
Cards that are not properly installed are only able to call 911
• If you’ve placed a pocket 911 call, don’t panic and stay on the line to speak to the dispatcher.
If you find yourself disconnected, answer the subsequent follow-up call
— Peebles, Citizen
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