City Council touts successful meetings with Premier, Ministers at BC Natural Resource Forum

Prince George City Council says they held several successful meetings with provincial and federal representatives last week.

These took place during the BC Natural Resources Forum at the Civic Centre.

Meetings were held with five ministers and Premier David Eby, on topics including:

• Premier David Eby: to request more information on the Prince George involuntary care facility, discuss challenges in B.C.’s forest industry and request continued provincial advocacy, more information about the North District Uniform Gang Enforcement Team, and reducing downloaded responsibilities and costs to local governments.
• Honourable Brittny Anderson, Minister of State for Local Governments and Rural Communities: similar topics as above with the Premier were raised with the Minister of State.
• Minister Jagrup Brar, Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals: to recognize Prince George as northern B.C.’s mining supply and logistics hub and prioritize local and regional infrastructure investments to support mining supply chains.
• Deputy Minister Peter Pokorny, Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions: to request a BC-Low Carbon Fuel Standard initiative agreement to support Tidewater Renewables Ltd. in the development of a sustainable aviation fuels project and to develop a clean fuels corridor along Highway 16 to create domestic supply and demand for clean fuel projects.
• Minister Ravi Kahlon, Ministry of Jobs and Economic Growth: to request support in response to U.S. tariffs for B.C. businesses, support for communities’ new industry attraction efforts to diversify local economies, and involving Prince George in the military industrial strategy for B.C.
• Minister Ravi Parmar, Ministry of Forests: to request support for B.C. forest companies seeking federal loan guarantees and continued advocacy to the federal government for a Minister of Forestry, making forestry agreements a top national priority.

Mayor Simon Yu said Council is pleased with the meetings that took place.

“This was a great opportunity to meet with our provincial counterparts face to face to continue to advocate for our local economy and get more information about recent announcements from the B.C. Government, including the involuntary care facility planned for Prince George and the North District Uniform Gang Enforcement Team,” Yu said.

“These investments have been much needed in our community, and we look forward to the province sharing more information publicly about the future of these programs in the weeks to come.”