Prince George City Council unanimously agreed a 311 service should be applied for at Monday’s regular council meeting.
The service works as a single point of access to municipal government services, such as what day garbage is picked up.
Councillor Garth Frizzell was vocal about the success of this service in places like Toronto and Calgary and says this will simplify the process for residents.
“Imagine that you’ve got a pothole or you’ve seen that there is a streetlight dangling or some serious problem and you want to call in, it’s easy to remember 911 for emergencies, 411 for the directory, and [Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications] has said that 311 is reserved for municipals.
“What was presented tonight was a really simple decision,” continues Frizzell on what he sees as a low risk, high reward situation.
“There were some big gains in terms of the recognition of the number and people knowing it off heart, but also very few pains; we aren’t changing our infrastructure fundamentally, we’re just changing the phone number.”
The City is anticipating the service to be implemented early 2019. It will not cost the City any money.