The Provincial Government announced 500 thousand dollars in funding for a new regional food hub back in July of last year, and the search for a location has been on ever since.
City Manager Byron Johnson ended the speculation at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting…
“The good news is we have found what we think is an appropriate space to locate this food hub, and the space summary is as follow, it’s in the former Spartan Printing building just over the bridge in West Quesnel.  The space that we’re intending to lease is 2,689 square feet, civic address 101 Marsh Drive.”
Johnson also went over what made the space the right choice…
“That space includes parking, a roll up delivery door, 26-hundred and 89 feet of open space, high visibility and three phase power.”
Quesnel City Council approved a five year lease at the location.
In addition to half a million dollars from the BC Agriculture Ministry, Quesnel also received 250 thousand dollars from the Northern Development Initiative Trust.
A food hub is a centralized shared-use food and beverage processing facility that provides food entrepreneurs with affordable access to production facilities, specialized processing equipment, new technology, research and development and business expertise to help them along the way.
According to government stats, approximately 16-hundred farms operate in the North Cariboo.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham announced back in July of 2019 that Quesnel was just the second food hub in BC, and the first in rural BC.
The other was in Vancouver.