Mayor Bob Simpson says one of the top priorities is to continue with the Forestry Think Tank process that is designed to avoid the so-called new normal of season after season of unprecedented wildfires…
“In 2019, early 2019, we’ll begin to do fuel management treatments in the city area, in the surrounding area where its built up, so up around March Road, down around Dragon Mountain, around the airport, to try and make sure the community is safe and we’re working with the Ministry of Forests and Lands, our First Nations partners, BC Timber Sales, the Wildfire Branch, to make sure that the areas where the fires may come at us, will also be treated.”
Simpson says other priorities in the coming year include developing the riverfront.
He says they will hold more consultations in the spring.
Simpson says the City is also working with First Nations on a couple of projects…
“With the successful public works referendum we have the opportunity to do something significant around where the current public works are. We’re working with Lhtako on a very exciting project, the First Nations Education Cultural Centre at Ceal Tingley Park and we’re also working with the Tsilhqot’in, just beginning to look at a commemorative site up by the helipad where the plaque is for the chiefs that were hung and buried in that area.”
Simpson says the overall goal is make Quesnel a community that people want to come to, rather than just drive through.