There have been extensive studies, particularly in the United States, of urban areas known as food deserts. These are parts of a city where there is little to no easy, walking-distance access to healthy food at fair market prices. These areas are disproportionately populated by vulnerable people dealing with everything from poverty and crime to mental health and addictions. Having to travel much further than more affluent residents to put groceries in the fridge for themselves and their dependents adds strain to an already precarious existence. The outcome is tragic. Residents of food deserts end up being forced to spend more on lesser quality food. While residents in more affluent neighbourhoods shop in vast supermarkets with huge produce sections, people living in food deserts are left with picking up groceries at convenience stores, where the fruit and vegetables section are a few apples and bananas. Diets suffer, with health consequences for children and seniors in particu
Perhaps worst of all, Shaw showed a guarded acceptance of the damage he caused the boy during pre-sentence assessments, provincial court judge Michael Brecknell told the court. In other words, Shaw knew he had done something wrong, but doesn t seem fully convinced he is completely at fault. The boy, meanwhile, has suffered significant and lasting trauma, Breckhell said. Now nearly 16, the boy s outbursts at home have become so violent that RCMP has had to intervene multiple times. At school, he has targeted students and teachers with homophobic attacks. Furthermore, after the boy s mother found out about Shaw s messages and turned over her son s electronic devices to police, the boy was reluctant to help with the investigation. Certainly part of that was sympathy, due to Shaw s battle with brain cancer, but it also smacks of the well-documented concern many victims develop towards their abusers.
Less than 25 per cent of the eligible voting population actually voted in the 2018 municipal election, according to Civic Info BC. The vast majority (over 75 per cent) of Prince George residents didn’t care who was handling the city’s business. Our civic leaders in turn acted as anybody lacking oversight would do. The cost overrun is a prime example of what a lack in oversight leads to. Whether Mayor Hall allowed the parkade ordeal to get this far due to pure incompetence or some malicious intent is unknown but the fact is that millions of taxpayer money is now down the drain.
Ian Wells, then the general manager of planning development, and Kris Dalio, the city’s finance director, were CC’ed in the email. Attached was an email sent the previous day by Frank Quinn of A & T Project Development Inc., the Park House condominium developer, about the rapidly rising costs of the adjacent parkade the company had agreed to build as part of its deal with the city. The emails were released to The Citizen last Friday afternoon after a Freedom of Information request was made Dec. 9 to the City of Prince George for all documents pertaining to the construction of the George Street parkade.
Mayor Hall should resign. I must say Neil Godbout got it right and said what many people think about Hall. Like Neil said, the mayor is a full-time employee who needs to be more hands-on and be. . .