Deadline for Select Poverty Committee to submit recommendations pushed till 2021

Prince George City Council opted to extend the term and membership appointments for the Select Committee on Poverty Reduction for an additional year due to the pandemic.

Council approved the amendment at tonight’s meeting, meaning the committee will have until June 2021 to submit its recommendations.

Members of the committee were originally appointed for a nine-month term, scheduled to end June 30 of this year.

“Due to COVID-19 restrictions the Committee was not able to complete its work by this date,” reads the report.

Councilor Garth Frizzell says the extra time will help the Committee refocus.

“Since the pandemic hit, it’s thrown schedules off course but it’s also introduced new challenges,” he said.

“These are issues that are hitting every local government across Canada.”

Council approved the formation of the committee in October 2019, with priorities including affordability of housing, childcare, transportation, food security planning, and reducing household food insecurity.

A comprehensive public engagement process (funded by a UBCM Poverty Reduction Planning & Action Grant) is planned to gather feedback, particularly from those with living or lived experience, regarding the recommendations proposed by the Committee.

“It’s taken a serious problem and made it so much worse,” Frizzell said, adding it will take some time before the magnitude of the pandemic is truly known.

Following the consultation period, the Committee will reconvene to consider feedback.

A final set of recommendations will be presented to Council later in 2021.

Also discussed in the meeting; the city is dealing with an an annual infrastructure funding gap of $16.9 million per year, according to a report to council.

The city owns about $3.7 billion in infrastructure, like roads, sewers and buildings.

The cost to maintain has been increasing, and the need to replace aging infrastructure is imminent, Council said.