The future of Quesnel’s Clean Team, responsible for picking up garbage and discarded needles and other drug paraphernalia around the city, appears to be up in the air.
The City has set aside around $75,000 in the city’s operating budget for this year to fund the workers in the program, but Northern Health has yet to commit to paying for a coordinator to supervise the clean team.
A commitment for a Decriminalization Community Engagement Coordinator runs out on March 31st.
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Quesnel’s Safety and Security Committee, representing businesses in the area, appeared before Quesnel City Council back in November.
Parveen Pannu, Vice President of the Quesnel Downtown Association, highlighted the importance of the Clean Team and described the work they did in August, September and October of last year.
“In that three month time period the Clean Team collected 1,700 small white garbage bags and 106 large black garbage bags full of debris and other garbage across the entire city, and they safely removed 730 needles, so that just shows a snapshot of how significant this service really is.”
Pannu noted that without the Clean Team, Quesnel would face a significant public safety and health risk.
The group also requested that the City work with them to secure long term funding for the program.
City Councillor Martin Runge said that they needed to look at ways to fund it without further burdening taxpayers.
“I’m always scared to just keep raising taxes, in my case, to pay for something that’s actually a health issue that should be paid for by Northern Health in my mind. You know the supplies come out and yet we’re responsible for picking them up and taking care of them. I think we should have a community discussion with regards to how this is going to be funded. I don’t think it should just permanently come from the city.”
Vista Radio has put a request into Northern Health to confirm whether or not it intends to fund this position in the future.
