Mr. PG will have to wait a while longer to hear if he’s being moved to a new home.
Prince George City Council discussed the possibility of moving the mascot at tonight’s (Monday) meeting.
A staff report to council stated increased development in the area of the intersection of Highways 16 and 97 has made it difficult to access Mr. PG for tourists and for city staff to maintain him.
An internal working group presented relocating Mr. PG to Canada Games Plaza to realign him with the new Visitor Information Centre.
City staff noted the location attracts 500,000 visitors a year.
Director of Civic Facilities and Events Andy Beesley added they don’t know the cost for the move yet, but estimated it’s in the “tens of thousands of dollars range.”
“People in the community, they’re not happy with this decision, they’re attached to Mr. PG, even at the place it’s at,” said Councillor Brian Skakun.
“Years ago when we talked about this, I did the traffic count at that intersection, it’s like 60-some thousand vehicles a day, and it’s gone up. It’s a high visibility spot, it’s our brand, and people with motorhomes and the rubber tire traffic, I can’t see them going downtown, trying to park in the Civic Centre parking lot, as opposed to somewhere where it’s easy to pull in.”
“I love Mr. PG by the side of the highway, I think he’s great, I remember when we were battling out with the Coombs goats on the roof for who was going to be BC’s best roadside attraction, we lost by half a basis point, it was so close, everyone loves Mr. PG,” said Councillor Cori Ramsay.
“But the question is his purpose, his intent, is it that 60,000 people drive by him a day and don’t stop in Prince George? They don’t go downtown? I would much prefer that Mr. PG was downtown and drawing in 100 people a day instead of having 60,000 people drive past.”
Mayor Simon Yu put out the idea of possibly having a second Mr. PG, something Councillor Ron Polillo agreed with.
“Why not? We have a very popular asset to the city, why can’t we have a more accessible larger Mr. PG welcoming 60,000 plus visitors every day, or residents, Highway 16 and 97,” Polillo said.
“Why can’t we have the best of both worlds and think out of the box a bit? It used to live downtown, why can’t we have both? Why can’t we have a Mr. PG downtown, to reactivate and really take over the Canada Games Plaza with the vision that is already started, and have a Mr. PG there, really to activate, that’s where probably the selfies and more of the engagement would happen, and then have another Mr. PG that would welcome visitors to our city, and residents would see every day.”
Polillo called for a report to see what that cost would be to have two Mr. PGs, that motion was passed 5-2, with Councillor Tim Bennett and Kyle Sampson opposed.
“I think there can only be one Mr. PG, I think it takes the magic away from it a little bit if we just start duplicating,” Sampson said.
“However, I’m not opposed to some sort of cut out or interactive version that we could have in the plaza, if that’s going to be an activated space more frequently with tourism, if that’s going to be a place where we draw more tourists, some sort of, obviously not the “not not original,” but obviously not the Mr. PG, but some sort of interactive cut out version you could get a picture with, still kind of iconic, still large in nature, I think that I could get on board with.”
Councillor Trudy Klassen added she felt they were jumping the gun on the move, as the Civic Core Plan is still incomplete.
Council ultimately unanimously decided to have administration return a report with more community engagement and information.
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