Quesnel City Council has endorsed an application to the BC Rural Dividend Fund for a quarter of a million dollars to further advance the work coming out of this year’s Forestry Think Tank in Quesnel.
Mayor Bob Simpson says the money would be used to pay for two people…
“So they’re re-thinking forest management, landscape level planning, coordinating all of the research activities necessary around that. That is in full flight, that project is advancing.”
Simpson says all of that work is being done off the side of a desk right now.
He says they need someone to own this project to make sure that everybody is delivering on what they need to deliver on, that meetings are facilitated and research is coordinated.
Simpson says the second person would focus on the re-inventing of the forest sector to match the changing fibre coming off of the landbase…
“And can we look at what we’ve got in Quesnel and see how it needs to evolve to that changing fibre, so we need somebody to really work on that, work with FP Innovations, Forest Investment, Northern Development Trust, UNBC, CNC, etc and that person will manage that project and the two individuals if we’re successful, would coordinate together.”
He says the final piece of the funding would pay for communication…
“Internal, so we can communicate with government, First Nations, funding agencies, what we’re all about, what we’re trying to achieve and attract more interest internally, and then externally to explain to the public what our overall objectives are, what we’re trying to achieve and why it’s so important to Quesnel that we do this.”