PG 4 Public Good

12/21/2025

Here's some information you folks may find helpful when your considering who to vote for come October 17th 2026. This covers "Facilitated Meetings" (someone's favorite way of steering the conversation). These can been "Tools" or "Traps" depending on how they are conducted.

Facilitated public meetings are often presented as a “tool” for democratic engagement, but without careful design, they can quickly transform into a “trap” for both the organizers and the participants. The distinction between the two depends on whether the facilitation is used to open up a c...

11/15/2025

https://youtu.be/QQ3pjJI7B2c

2025 is coming to a close, 2026 is the last year for sitting Council before our civic election in October. This is a primer video.

10/19/2024

We did our thing, get out and do yours!

09/19/2024

Now you know:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/YgKhEYcsKwaKoMxc/?mibextid=WC7FNe

When I read my opponent, BC Conservative Kiel Giddens, worked in "public affairs" with TransCanada Energy, I assumed that meant he wrote press releases.

In fact he worked as an in-house lobbyist for Trans Canada Energy and is registered as a lobbyist 29 times on the BC Lobbyist registry. One of those reports says he lobbied with Liam Iliffe on May 15, 2023, a guy who brought disrepute to our democracy and government by getting caught on tape bragging about how TC Energy lobbyists have corrupted our regulatory process to carve out billions in special privileges for the oil and gas industry.

Kiel Giddens is not just a lobbyist for a massive mega corporation that is busy laying waste to the Anzac watershed and countless habitats in between, which will leave us with a herbicide sprayed pipeline and no real local jobs. He was also a senior public servant under the former BC Liberal government before that. He was chief of staff in the Ministry of Environment.

In other words, Kiel Giddens is the classic example of the revolving door between industry and the bureaucracy that people are sick of. Which the NDP tolerated and were part of.

First step is have the public pay your wage as you work in government and make buddies. Second step is turn around and get a job with a massive corporation you used to supposedly regulate and use your connections to cash in a second time by lobbying your former fellow public servants for favourable regulatory decisions.

It's worked out well for TC Energy, which Iliffe bragged about. This company won billions in special regulatory treatments from the BC NDP so a foreign pipeline could make more money.

There are actually laws against doing that within a certain time-frame, a required "cooling off" period, and Kiel no doubt abided by that law. But it should be illegal period. There should be no lobbyist labelled as Kiel is here: a "former public office holder in BC". Either you work for the public or you work for industry. You can't have it both ways. That's how government turns into a Banana Republic. That's how our Ministry of Forests has turned into an absolute joke and destroyed our forest industry.

I was just as disgusted when NDP Premier John Horgan tried to take a plum job with a coal company on whose behalf he had advocated against pollution allegations while premier, which I wrote about in a widely-read op-ed last year.

This is nothing less than the corruption of our democracy and the coarsening of the integrity and legitimacy of our institutions. It's the dirtying of government.

It should not be tolerated.

When you vote on October 19th, you want to vote for the candidate who works for you and who believes in a democracy that is fair and clean. You want to vote for someone who thinks backroom dealings should be more transparent and more regulated. People are sick of government rigged in favour of the wealthy and privileged with back-room back slapping and insider deals.

That's what I thought the BC Conservatives stood against.

I guess not.

09/12/2024

This has got to stop, it's unsustainable and inhuman to believe this is how people want to live. Business owners are not in "this sort of business"..

Addict drops on sidewalk, we assist and call EHS.

09/11/2024

What is going on in our downtown core, if it isn't the addicted dropping on the sidewalks, it's the street folks brawling in the alleyways. Recorded today Sept. 11th 2024 [https://youtu.be/AKjir2z-InE](https://youtu.be/AKjir2z-InE)

09/09/2024

This is "not how" we should be putting Prince George on the map. But it is, what it is, till things change for our City.

This is the GlobalTV news article about our downtown situation over the long weekend.

09/04/2024

Who says lightening doesn't strike twice in the same spot? Here's what happened Tuesday night in our downtown core business district, same fellow from Monday morning. The RCMP were notified, case number 2024-29408. I took some heat for the last video I posted, guess what, that's what I do. I post information for the public to be aware of our current situation in our community. I speak for the small business owners who have no real voice, if this makes some folks uncomfortable, so be it. I don't own a pair of rose coloured glasses, sorry.

Who says lightening doesn't strike twice. This is a follow up to the Monday morning attempted forced entry into buildings in the downtown Prince George busin...

09/03/2024

At some point someone has got to start listening then acting, the hand sitting and acting "concerned" is wearing very thin. This is behind my business this morning at 3:00 a.m. Sept 2nd 2024.

Monday morning stat holiday, fairly well dressed individual attempting to force entry into businesses at 4:00 a.m. in the morning.

08/17/2024

Word of warning to alarm system owners, there are individuals wandering around pretending to be "equipment suppliers" for Curtis Elite (now Telus Security). Equipment suppliers do not go door to door checking alarm systems. They are not licensed to do this in any way shape or form. This is a SCAM to get into your home and case your premise out. DO NOT allow them access inside your home, get a good description of them and report it to the RCMP without delay. They will have no Provincial Security License nor will they have a City of Prince George Business License.

08/10/2024

Check out the PG citizen for this article. Thank you Brian for raising the fact local taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars for this hospital expansion, and nobody has a say on it really. I wrote about this earlier this year. Local accountability is absent despite local taxpayers forking over huge amounts of money.

05/22/2024

Inaugural meeting of the Mayor's standing Committee for Public Safety. May 21st 2024.

We covered the terms and conditions for the Committee and the finer details around committee operations and meetings. Mayor Yu is the Chair of the Committee and the Vice Chair is Councillor Brian Skakun. In the interest of time, we will be following the Roberts Rules of Order for voting and motions. The public is welcome to attend to observe, or if any group or individual wishes to present to the Committee (10 minute maximum), you may be able to do so by submitting an application to be on the agenda (I will post the link when it's made available). This is not going to be quick, this will take some time as you can well imaging the portfolio of Public Safety is huge. So we intend on hitting the most actionable items first, and over the coming days we will know when our next scheduled meeting will be set.

I will be attending the Community Town Hall on the 28th from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. I will be listening and taking notes from community members. I do have a exhaustive list of items, I will be submitting for consideration and discussions, but I will await the results of the Town Hall and see where that goes before doing so.

The only two on the committee who are aware of the results of the previous Mayor's Safe, Clean, Inclusive Downtown Committee is Brian Skakun and I. That report was tabled as reference material so as to avoid running down a dead end path again. I came away from the first meeting with some encouragement and a bit more resolve, finding solutions takes discussions and understanding, both of these seem to be available and abundant with this committee so far.
Sincerely John Zukowski

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