Prince George City Council hopefuls had their first all-candidates forum at the PG Public Library last night.
Mayoral hopeful Willy Ens was missing without explanation.
The panel fielded questions on supporting immigrants in the city, backyard chickens, public washrooms, affordable housing, reconciliation and crime, among others. Of the questions, Mayor Lyn Hall said he especially enjoyed being able to speak about crime in the community and how to reduce it.
“It gave me an opportunity to talk about the work the RCMP are doing in our downtown and all over our city,” he said.
“I talked about The Connaught for example, that was one hotel we took the business license away from because of the crime element.”
Hall said he “really wanted to get that message out to the community.”
On Ens’s absence, Hall said he wasn’t sure.
“Perhaps there was something that kept him from the debate this evening,”
“Whenever any of us go into politics you have the opportunities to come to debates and the decision to participate is yours.”
“My decision, of course, was to come to this debate and I’ll come to every other one because I think it’s important people hear what I have to say and that people have an opportunity to send questions my way,” said Hall.
The next public forum will be held at UNBC on October 9th.