Mayor Bill Powalinsky drew laughs, chuckles, and a smattering of applause when he described Tuesday’s State of the City address as “designed to combat WTF Prince Albert.”
Powalinsky opened his nearly 50 minute speech by outlining recent positive developments in the City, such as a recent police report showing an 8.8 per cent reduction in the number of businesses suffering break-and-enters. While much of the speech focused on challenges the city faces over the next calendar year, Powalinsky said it was important to push back against some of the posts on WFT Prince Albert, a public Facebook page with nearly 87,000 members.
“It’s the misinformation. It’s, I’ll be frank, the rudeness. It’s the lack of understanding,” Powalinsky said when asked what it was about the Facebook message board that concerned him. “Quite often it tends to express racial slurs (and) bigotry. I feel that this does not represent any considerable, significant amount of people in Prince Albert, but it’s disturbing enough to have to call it out.”’
WTF Prince Albert posts cover a range of issues. Posts range from typical community bulletin board messages, like one user asking for recommendations on where to get a new furnace, or another posting about finding a missing key near the East End outdoor rink.
Other posts focus on political or social issues. Since January, the list includes one from a user asking if there are any shelters men can stay in while looking for a job. Another is from someone who works at “the hospital” asking for donations of men’s boots and shoes to avoid sending patients away without footwear.
However, the comment sections can get heated. One post calls for inquiry after a video of security leaving a man in a snowbank outside Victoria Hospital went viral. In the comments, one poster wrote the SHA wouldn’t have this problem if they “hired Canadians that speak our official language” while another wrote that he was “sick of foreign security.”
Powalinsky said the negativity is an issue, but added that he often scrolls through WTF Prince Albert and “in a lot of cases” finds legitimate concerns. In the past, he’s encouraged posters to report their concerns to the City’s Solutions Hub. He’s also reached out to posters about their concerns, but said he rarely receives a response.
“I’ve said, ‘listen, you’ve got a concern. Get ahold of me. Please talk to me,’ and I’ve never had a reply back,” he said. “We’ve got keyboard warriors out there who feel strengthened and empowered because they can hide behind their keyboard.”
Powalinsky’s approach drew support from atleast one person. Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce CEO Patty Hughes said she avoids the Facebook page because of the negativity.
Hughes said she was glad to see a more positive approach taken to open the State of the City.
“Unfortunately, it (WTF Prince Albert) does not show the best,” she said. “I say it’s the lowest common denominator of our city. I do think that people can do better and our mayor’s address showed we have some great people in our community who do a tremendous job of making our community better and that’s what we need to celebrate.”
