Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson is sounding optimistic about Quesnel getting a new school, something the Board of Education has been asking for for more than a decade.
He raised the issue at this week’s City Council meeting noting that the Board of Education has been invited to move into what is called the project definition report that has to be submitted by October 31st of 2018.
Simpson says you don’t get invited to being this process unless you’re into the capital planning cycle…
“So when i talked to the ministerial assistant for education, she indicated that all of those invitations to move to this stage are an indicator that you are in the capital planning cycle, and so as this indicates that capital could be approved in the next capital budget which would be February 2019, which would mean then within two years, 2 1/2 years, you’d see a shovel in the ground.”
Simpson says that would also fit in with the plan to move the students from Quesnel Junior School up to Maple Drive for a few years.
Because Council weighed in on this issue, the Mayor felt that it should send a letter thanking both the Minister of Education and the local School Board for moving one step closer to getting a new school.