It was a whirlwind two-day trip for Mayor Lyn Hall on his first official visit to Ottawa.

Mayor Hall accepted two awards on behalf of the city for the 2015 Canada Winter Games. The Games were named event of the year and sustainable event of the year by the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance.

But the highlight of the trip was an impromptu meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, courtesy of MP Todd Doherty.

“It was a fascinating opportunity to be able to meet with the Prime Minister when we hadn’t planned on meeting with the Prime Minister.”

MP Todd Doherty arranged the impromptu meeting between Mayor Hall and Prime Minister Trudeau

MP Todd Doherty (far left) arranged the impromptu meeting between Mayor Hall and Prime Minister Trudeau (City of Prince George)

Hall spent a few minutes with the Prime Minister before Trudeau headed to Washington on his first official state visit to the US.

“We were able to talk to him about our infrastructure needs here in Prince George and we were also able to give him a personal invitation as a follow-up to the letter I sent inviting him to the bioenergy conference.”

The International Bioenergy Conference will take place in Prince George in June.

In addition to the Prime Minister, Hall says he met with various government officials and senior staff to discuss projects and priorities for Prince George.

“We had a meeting with the parliamentary secretary for the Ministry of Veterans Affairs where we talked about re-opening the Veterans Affairs office here in Prince George. We talked about broadband, we talked about redundancy.”

Hall calls the visit an exceptional success for the city.

“We were able to lay the groundwork on all of these important issues for the city, particularly around infrastructure. We’re going to hear specifics about that when the budget comes out in a couple of weeks. I think the timing for us was very, very good.”

The mayor says the trip was an opportunity to introduce movers and shakers in the nation’s capital to our city.

“I think it’s important that Prince George gets out there and shows ourself to the people on Parliament Hill and to let them know who we are and what this city is all about and how, in fact, we are able to be a real economic driver for this region.”

Hall says the trip far exceeded his expectations.