Fees for some city services may be going up slightly in Prince George.
At last night’s (Monday) meeting, Prince George City Council gave the first three readings of a bylaw altering some fees over the next four years proposed by the City’s Standing Committee on Finance and Audit.
The full report with all proposed changes can be found here.
“The committee spent an extensive amount of time at our committee meeting last month going through fees and charges with staff asking a number of questions that have come up throughout the last year of this term,” said Councillor Cori Ramsay, who is the Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Audit.
“We felt the amendments were in good order, and are recommending approval to council.”
Two items from the extensive list were brought up during last night’s meeting; the food services contract at the Civic Centre, which is expiring soon, and cemetery burial services.
“The next [food services] contract will give consideration to making sure that cultural sensitivities, as the committee defined, are more accessible for outside parties,” Ramsay said.
“We also did raise this issue regarding cemetery burial, as many of those cemetery burials occur on a Saturday or have some cultural sensitivities associated with them where burials require a certain amount of time.”
Councillor Tim Bennett inquired about the costs for burials remaining the same on Saturday.
“Staff did look at comparables, Monday to Friday is the industry standard, typically, for unionized staff and scheduling,” replied Director of Civic Operations Blake McIntosh.
“In our ten kind of sister peer communities, they all have a weekend stat surcharge. The plan would to be to bring back a more detailed report to express what those changes may look like should we start staffing on a Saturday and how that would affect scheduling as it relates to the collective agreement.”
The first three readings of the bylaw were carried, with Councillor Brian Skakun the lone opposer.
Final reading and adoption will be given at a later date.