Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson is back from meetings with the Provincial Government in Vancouver.
He says they were follow-ups to the ones he had at the Union of BC Municipalities Convention and were much more productive…
“It was great to get that much exposure outside of the Union of BC Municipalities where everybody is coming at the minister with all of their requests. I was able to take the work that we did at UBCM and advance it with some quieter time with the ministers to talk through what some of the options and opportunities that we have here.”
Simpson says he met with the Premier and several cabinet ministers as well as with the Green Party caucus.
He say the message he had for them was that Quesnel is a community in transition and was even before the fires, that they have a game plan to make that economic transition, and that they need funding…
“We need some assistance with respect to evolving our forest sector away from a sawlog, you know sawmilling process, to more into a fibre and digesting process. We need public sector investments in our community so we’re creating real jobs, just like what’s going on now with the two housing projects in North Quesnel or what happened with the arena.
Simpson says they also need some assistance on branding to make the community resilient and attractive so visitors are coming to Quesnel and spending their money, and to let people know that it’s not all char and ruins from the wildfires.