“You don’t have a none of the above,”
That’s from Prince George mayoral candidate Lisa Mitchell who is encouraging the public to get out and vote during next month’s civic election (October 15th).
Mitchell has 15 years of experience as a legal secretary and moved to Prince George from Victoria in 2014.
She told MyPGNow.com that a more hands-on approach is needed when attempting to eradicate homelessness and the illicit drug crisis.
“It’s not a happy subject, it’s not a comfortable subject but it’s something that has to be dealt with. We can’t just keep putting our heads in the sand and hope that it is going away, it’s not and we can’t expect someone else to solve our problems for us. We have to do it ourselves.”
“We have a lot of experienced people in the city who we are paying a lot of money for and I don’t understand how they are not being utilized. Do they not have any input? Do none of the employees in the city have any ideas of anything to help with the situation downtown? They are the ones in the trenches, they are the ones that are seeing it.”
“We need to talk to the people who are dealing with it first hand and then figure out solutions from there. The time for committees is sort of over,” added Mitchell.
Simply put, Mitchell is of the opinion the city’s harm reduction model isn’t working, especially when it comes to the needle exchange program.
“To me, we don’t have a needle exchange, we have a needle give out. I walk my dog every morning and yet I am constantly picking up needles in either the needle disposal case or just needles on the ground. The government gives out the needles but then it’s the city that’s paying for the clean-up. The government isn’t doing us any service by handing out the needles.”
“Basically, we are going to have to call on the community. We can’t keep doing what we have been doing, it’s not working and I think the problem is we are expecting the provincial and federal governments to fix this for us and they can’t.”
Mitchell stated city administration needs to get their heads out of the sand and restore the community spirit that has recently evaporated.
“We need to get some of our community pride back. I don’t think it’s realistic that we need to live in a rose-coloured glasses kind of world but we need to start looking after all the citizens not just the ones screaming the loudest.”
In addition, Mitchell believes the less-than-frugal approach when it comes to city spending is causing an unfair burden on a lot of our young professionals.
“People aren’t even aware of the millions of dollars that the citizens are on the hook for in the next 13, 14, 15 years. The city keeps getting loans paid over 15 years and it’s on the taxpayers. Children who don’t even have houses yet already have a burden of expense before they even purchase a house.”
“We have a special opportunity this year with all these candidates in this election and I am really hoping we can get the citizens to come out and vote. This could really be the first time we have an election where we don’t have a none of the above option.”
Mitchell is one of six candidates vying for the mayor’s chair in PG.
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