Prince George City Council “Prince George Council Chambers: Where today’s decisions shape our city’s future.”
A New Vision for Prince George
Prince George City Council ; Having called Prince George home since 2005, I have witnessed the significant and concerning shift in our downtown core and the community at large over the past decade. My campaign is built on the belief that city hall should serve you, not the other way around. Together, we can restore accountability and focus on the priorities that actually impact our daily lives.
1. Prince George City Council; Restoring Public Safety
Crime, vandalism, and open drug use have become all too common, leaving residents feeling unsafe in their own neighborhoods. This has been a downward spiral since 2017 that is no longer tolerable or acceptable to the citizens of Prince George.
The 2026 Framework: Four Pillars of Governance
| Pillar | Core Focus |
| Accountability | Bringing an end to “closed-door” culture. Decisions made for the citizens must be answered for by those in power. |
| Transparency | No more hidden agendas or “administrative caucuses.” Every dollar should be trackable. |
| Fiscal Responsibility | Prioritizing Life Safety Equipment and essential infrastructure over vanity projects and bureaucratic bloat. |
| Common Sense | Practical solutions for real-world problems. If a policy doesn’t pass the “average taxpayer” test, it doesn’t pass at all. |
My Plan:
- Prioritize public safety. We will mandate that bylaw officers respond immediately to safety hazards, such as drug paraphernalia on school grounds, regardless of jurisdiction. The City will subsequently invoice the school district for these services, enforcing accountability for their failure to maintain safe environments and ensure after-hours availability.
- Support Local Enforcement: I will advocate for increased, visible police presence in high-traffic and residential areas to deter property crime.
- Tackle Root Causes: By working with provincial partners, we will push for better mental health and addiction support services that are actually effective, ensuring these issues are addressed rather than ignored.
- Upgrade Surveillance Infrastructure: I will modernize and expand the downtown video pilot program, integrating AI-assisted monitoring to provide real-time data for law enforcement, ensuring faster response times and better coverage for our businesses.
- Community Safety Officers: Launch a dedicated force to handle mundane, non-emergency tasks, allowing the RCMP to focus on high-priority enforcement. This shift reduces city policing costs while ensuring more efficient, specialized attention for daily public safety concerns.
- Boost coverage. By reallocating the budget of a single RCMP constable, we can field two Community Safety Officers. This strategy doubles our boots-on-the-ground presence for daily safety tasks while reducing overall policing costs.
- Community Vigilance: We will empower Neighborhood Watch programs and improve street lighting to reclaim our streets for families and business owners.
2. Prince George City Council ; Restoring Fiscal Responsibility
Currently, our city is being run from the top down, with administrators dictating policy while City Council acts as a rubber stamp. This is the exact opposite of how local government should function.
My Plan:
- Executive Accountability: I will enforce strict oversight of city administration to ensure they are executing the will of the elected Council, not setting the agenda themselves.
- Audit and Review: We will conduct a line-by-line review of municipal spending to identify and eliminate wasteful projects that do not provide direct value to taxpayers.
- Demand detailed reporting. Replace high-level summaries with granular, department-level audits to expose hidden “off-the-rail” spending and enforce real accountability. This ensures every budget line item is transparent and subject to the direct scrutiny necessary to eliminate waste.
- Eliminate inefficiency. We will audit every department to cut redundant processes and wasted steps, ensuring your tax dollars stop funding bureaucratic bloat and instead support essential services.
- Freeze Tax Hikes: I will vote against further tax increases until we can demonstrate that existing resources are being managed with maximum efficiency and transparency.
- Transparent Budgeting: Every major capital expenditure will be subject to a public review process, ensuring residents understand exactly where their money is going before it is spent.
3. Prince George City Council ; Restoring Accountability
City Hall has become disconnected from the people it represents, operating with a lack of transparency that erodes public trust. I believe your representatives should be accessible, answerable, and focused on the needs of every resident.
My Plan:
- Direct Engagement: I will hold regular, accessible City Hall based town hall meetings to ensure your concerns are heard directly by those making the decisions.
- Live-Answer Mandate: We will end departmental voicemail by requiring a staff member to answer every call during business hours, ensuring your concerns are logged by a human who takes direct responsibility for follow-up.
- Cancel the “facilitated” model. Host Town Halls directly in Council Chambers with an open-mic format, ensuring genuine, unfiltered dialogue between residents and Council without wasting funds on expensive, performative events.
- Open Governance: I will push to modernize city communications, ensuring all major policy shifts and spending decisions are clearly explained to the public before they are enacted.
- Council-Led Policy: I will work to re-establish the proper order of government, where Council sets the strategic direction and holds the administration strictly accountable for results.
- Secrecy & Prince George: We will end the culture of secrecy that once earned Prince George the title of Canada’s most secretive municipality; my Council will lead with the transparency our residents deserve because accountability counts.
- Establish an independent FOI office: Outside the City Manager’s chain of command to ensure neutral, transparent access to records. By shielding information requests from administrative interference, you prevent censorship and guarantee that public data remains truly public.
- Independent Oversight: We will create a protected, third-party channel for whistle-blower complaints, ensuring all reports bypass City Management entirely. This guarantees that staff can expose wrongdoing safely, fostering a culture of integrity without fear of retaliation or suppression.
4. Prince George City Council ; Economic Stability & Development
Our local economy is facing an affordability crisis, and we need a council that actively promotes growth while supporting our existing businesses.
My Plan:
- Business-First Approach: I will work to cut unnecessary red tape that hinders small business growth and prevents new investment in our community.
- Sustainable Growth: By focusing on smart development and supporting local industry, we will create stable, long-term jobs for Prince George residents.
- Broad-based tax reduction: By lowering rates for residents and businesses, we will stimulate economic growth, attract new investment, and increase total revenue through a larger, more vibrant tax base.
- Leverage the airport by establishing a bonded warehouse to streamline regional customs clearance, creating a powerful logistics hub for Northern BC. This project, coordinated with provincial and municipal partners, directly boosts our economic stability by attracting new industry and reducing overhead for local businesses.
- Regional Hub. This bonded warehouse positions Prince George as the essential logistics leader for Northern BC, supporting the industrial growth of surrounding communities. By acting as the central gateway for our neighbors, we foster a collaborative regional economy where their development directly fuels our shared prosperity.
- Affordability Focus: I will prioritize projects that stabilize the cost of living, ensuring Prince George remains an affordable and attractive place to raise a family.
5. Prince George City Council ; Municipal Mandate: Staying in Our Own Lane
We will focus strictly on our core responsibilities, infrastructure, permits, and zoning, while leaving housing construction and social service delivery to the provincial and federal partners who hold the mandate and funding for these areas.
Our role is to act as an efficient facilitator, providing land and rapid approvals to empower our partners to do their work, ensuring city resources remain dedicated to essential local services.
Join the Movement for a Better Prince George
Real change begins when we stand together. I am asking for your support to bring common sense, transparency, and accountability back to City Hall.
- Connect: Follow my social media channels for campaign updates and upcoming town hall dates.
- Get Involved: Sign up to volunteer or share your priorities with me directly, your voice is the most important part of this campaign.
- As before, I am running a lean campaign: By maximizing every dollar raised, I demonstrate the same fiscal discipline and efficiency I will apply to city funds and operations once elected.
- Support: I know times are tough with rising costs and taxes, so please contribute only what you can. Even $10 or $20 helps immensely, small donations from many people keep this campaign independent and truly representative of our community.
- Vote: Mark your calendar for election day (Sat. October 17th 2026) and help me build a future that works for every resident of this city.
Let’s get to work.
Donations can be made at this link
John Zukowski can be reached directly at 250 640-1999
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