Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson, speaking at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, said that topic was front and center when he toured the site with BC’s Education Minister last week…
“The daycare that’s at the northwest end of the property, the community garden that is in the center of the property and then there is an after school program on the southwest corner of the property as well, although that building also needs to be deconstructed at some point, it’s a very aged building.”
Simpson said the way the current system works is in order for the school district to return that property to the province it has to be restored to what is called vacant crown land, which basically means that it has to be bulldozed and the ground to be developed from scratch.
Simpson said the city will work with the Education Ministry to try and protect the daycare and do what they can around the community garden.
He said he also let the Minister know that, post deconstruction, that the city has desires for that property…
“That is a critical piece of property for the future development of our downtown core, for housing development, for green space development and also the potential to give options for people who may be dislocated from the interconnector project the opportunity to remain in North Quesnel, because we don’t have a lot of development lots in North Quesnel if they want to stay here, so it was great to be able to walk the property with him and show all the moving pieces while we physically stood there and looked at the building. He inherently got what the issues are, and I think we’ve now got an open dialogue with his Ministry.”
Simpson also noted however, that there were other groups interested in the property as well…
“The Southern Dakehl alliance for example that’s made up of Lhtako, Nazko, Kluskus and Ulkatcho, they’ve indicated an interest in the property if it becomes vacant crown land, so there is a lot of moving pieces.”
Simpson said their first priority is the deconstruction of the current buildings and making sure the property is ready for redevelopment while they work out the legal aspects of the disposition.