By Colin Slark – Prince George Citizen
A Prince George financial advisor launched his campaign for city council on Tuesday, July 21 by pledging to fight for a two-year property tax break and to hire lawyers to pursue private prosecutions on the city’s behalf.
Dan McLaren, president of Commonwealth Financial, made the announcement in the lobby of the company’s Victoria Street offices.
With most of council present — including councillors Tim Bennett, Garth Frizzell, Ron Polillo, Kyle Sampson, Susan Scott and Brian Skakun, as well as former mayor Colin Kinsley — McLaren said he didn’t make his decision to run because he thinks the current members are doing a bad job and that he wouldn’t run a negative campaign.
Rather, he said he thought he could run a positive campaign. He laid out three pillars of his campaign: cost of living, safe streets and attracting investment.
On cost of living, he brought up Canfor’s recent announcement that it will close Northwood Pulp Mill by the end of the year, saying it will have consequences for the city’s tax base and for the workers losing their jobs.
Using his own home as an example, he said inflation has gone up by 34 per cent but his property taxes have increased by 67 per cent.
“I say taxpayers in Prince George need a break and to this end, I’m calling for a two-year relief in tax increases,” McLaren said.
“Furthermore, during the two years that we are calling for no tax increases, I’m asking that we undertake a thorough operational review of how we run the city so we might actually see some outright tax reductions.”
He clarified he didn’t want to see savings through the reduction of frontline city workers, including police officers, firefighters and other unionized staff.
“What I am asking for is a flattening of the organizational chart, an end to operational duplication and an end to what I will call intentional over-taxation,” McLaren said.
On public safety, McLaren quoted former U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s axiom that a government’s first duty is to uphold the law.
He said like many business owners in downtown Prince George, he has been a victim of crime, with three buildings blown up or destroyed by fire, including the former Achillion Restaurant on Dominion Street.
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British Columbia, he said, lags behind many other provinces in terms of the number of people incarcerated per capita. McLaren said this was due to the fact that BC requires Crown prosecutors to lay charges while other provinces allow police officers to directly lay charges.
He said if elected, he would advocate for that policy to be changed but in the meantime, he would also advocate for the city to hire four lawyers to pursue private prosecutions as is allowed under the Criminal Code of Canada and assist the local RCMP detachment.
On economic development, he said he felt it was a mistake for the city to shutter Initiatives Prince George and bring that work in-house.
“I’d like to see our city making old-fashioned sales calls on businesses that we want to locate here in town,” he said, using an Amazon distribution centre as one example.
“I believe that we are overtaxed and I want to change that,” McLaren said. “I believe that the streets are not safe enough and I want to change that. I believe that we need to economically reinvent ourselves and I want to be a part of that.”
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