Here are some highlights from the July 10, 2023, City Council meeting. For more information – including the full agenda listing – read the Regular Council Meeting Agenda and its attachments.
Extra training and tools for Bylaw staff
Council was presented a report around best practices for Bylaw services staff and discussed some upcoming changes. The changes are intended to bolster employee safety by training and equipping all bylaw officers with batons, OC (pepper) spray and handcuffs. The changes bring the City in line with other provincial municipalities such as Penticton, Nanaimo, Kelowna and Maple Ridge.
There will also be an expansion of the Naloxone Pilot program which has seen 21 lives saved since November 2022. Training will commence next week for use of the defensive tools, as well as de-escalation training and administering Naloxone.
Council received the report, and a motion was approved to come back to city council with an update after the policy has been in place for a year.
Asset Management Strategy update
Council received an update on the Asset Management strategy for the City. The City has committed to a variety of actions to improve asset management, with these actions aligning with the City’s Asset Management Strategy & Roadmap.
The presentation showed the good work done in 2022 and how the City is meeting its requirements in progressing the planned improvements.
Condition assessments continue to be a focus for the City. Civic facilities, Utility facilities, paved roads, sidewalks, trails, hard surface courts, parking lots, streetlights, major bridges, playgrounds, and some sanitary and storm sewer pipe have been inspected for condition over the last several years. In 2022, condition re-assessments were completed for 13 civic facilities.
An important action item identified in the roadmap is to define and document current levels of service for each major infrastructure asset category (i.e. drinking water, sewer, transportation). Asset condition data is a crucial piece of information to use when deciding on where and when to spend funds and to keep the City’s assets in good working order.
Asset management plans provide the actions required for the responsive management of assets (and services provided from those assets), compliance with regulatory requirements, and funding needed to provide the required levels of service over a 20-year planning period.
STRIVE program update
Council received an update on the Building Safer Communities Fund Grant. The grant, for $1.8 million over 4 years, was obtained last year from the Government of Canada and has been used towards creating and implementing a program called STRIVE (Strength Through Resilience and Independence via Empowerment).
The junior STRIVE program is focused on elementary school aged children from high-crime neighborhoods. The program provides education about gang life, gun crime, drug and alcohol awareness, online safety and restorative justice principles.
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Claire Thwaites, senior communications advisor
Mobile: 778-349-1386
Email: media@princegeorge.ca