Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson has confirmed that his City, Williams Lake and 100 Mile House have now joined the Cariboo Regional District in getting the funding needed for a Recovery Coordinator.
Simpson says they will now coordinate those activities and the individuals who fill those roles over the next few months…
“The intent is to begin to understand what the commercial impact, what the impact on tourism, what the impact is the ranching and agriculture community, the guide outfitters, trappers etc, so that we understand from the ground, not some provincial process that’s trying to reach out to all of these folks, but someone on the ground capturing those stories trying to make sense out of what the social-economic impact is in our community.”
Simpson says the idea is to then help that individual turn that into specific asks of the Provincial Government…
“So we want to take the challenges that we are presented with and turn them into options and opportunities that Council and the Regional District and the MLA can take forward to government that are basically ground up programs to help us to get through the initial shock.”
Simpson says that will then lead to longer term strategies to get the economy back on track.
Simpson says in Quesnel, the Recovery Coordinator will work out of the community promotions space in Spirit Square downtown, which is where the wildfire branch was during the actual fire emergency.
He says they hope to have the resources in place in early October.