The North Cariboo Joint Committee has voted unanimously in favour of getting a primary liquor license for the West Fraser Centre.
That went against a staff report that suggested that it be put on the back burner for now.
Councillor Scott Elliott was among those who didn’t want to wait…
“I think we should take this on. It gives us the opportunity for adults to have a beer at an event if they would like to without volunteers having to go out and do the extra legwork of getting a liquor license for every event that happens. Right now the Roos, for example, have to get a license for every game that they do. It’s onerous, it’s a challenge and they have mentioned to me that they’re OK if the city takes it on.”
Mayor Bob Simpson, while he eventually voted in favour of the motion, was initially inclined to wait…
‘I think we need a little more experience under our belt, we need to resolve the concession situation, i think we need another year, we’re going to have the BC Curling Championships in there. Our intention with our Events Coordinator is get more utilization of that event space for different kinds of events and i would like to have that kind of experience, the concession resolved and then come back and re-visit this.”
Councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenburg, noting that Quesnel will host the 2019 Men’s Curling Championship in the new arena, felt that the time to move was now…
“The 7 to 12 months is based on government estimation for the license to come through. I think we have to start moving on this because if we are looking at an event, if we start now we’re going to just kind of get it ready and practice, if we’re going to have people practicing how this looks in our facilities, we’re going to have to do those test runs with smaller events.”