The long-term project of a gymnastics facility and indoor court addition to the Quesnel Arts and Recreation Center has been pulled off the books.
The North Cariboo Joint Advisory Committee removed the projects from the North Cariboo Recreation and Parks Business Plan in the Cariboo Regional District’s Board meeting on June 18 and 19.
“We knew that within the next four or five years, we wouldn’t have the money to build a facility,” Jim Glassford, Electoral Area I Director, said. “Parks and Recreation felt that the bill to the taxpayer was getting high enough. We just felt there was no point in kicking the can down the road year after year.”
Glassford says the Advisory Committee decided instead to focus on existing services and upgrades, as well as putting funds away to build up capital reserves in case of a major emergency. The Committee and the City of Quesnel will also focus on continuing to pay down existing debts, such as the West Fraser Center. Which currently has just over $5.3 million remaining on the Arena’s debt.
An additional issue to the indoor facilities was operating costs. Glassford said even if the Committee and City of Quesnel were able to build the facility, they wouldn’t have the funding to hire enough employees and maintenance to run the facility at this point in time.
Global and provincial issues such as economic uncertainty with tariffs, the forestry and mining sectors, as well as population demographics also played a hand in the City’s and Committee’s final decision to pull the project “off the books.”
According to Glassford, the gymnastics and indoor court addition “still remains a priority” for the committee; however, Glassford doesn’t believe the project will be revisited in the near future.
“I have no idea when that would come back on the books at this point in time. Not in the near future, I wouldn’t say in the next five years for sure.”
One of the City of Quesnel’s and North Cariboo Joint Committee’s repeat goals has been to make Quesnel an events hosting location.
While removing projects such as a gymnastics facility and an indoor court, which had a proposed pickleball court, two of the Canada’s largest growing indoor sports, does make that goal of being an events hosting place seem less pheasible. Glassford says that is a concern for the Committee and City, but their goal remains the same. It just may take a little more time as the governing boards build their reserves and upgrade the current infrastructure.
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