The two unions that didn’t support the City of Quesnel’s bid to host the 2024 BC Winter Games both say that they support hosting the games, as long as the concerns of their members are addressed.
Jeanette Beauvillier is the President of CUPE Local 4990.
“We are disappointed that a timeline of less than a month did not allow us the opportunity to work with the District to address our concerns that our members and their families not be negatively impacted.  Our understanding is that a bid submission normally takes months to prepare, and given more time we believe that a solution that did not have our members and their families suffer financial hardship could have been reached.”
Beauvillier says people were only going to be paid if they volunteered, and she says some members, including some single moms, couldn’t do that.
She says they would then lose out on two days pay.
Dawn Rodger, the President of the Quesnel District Teachers Association, says for her group the timeline was the biggest stumbling block as well.
“There wasn’t enough information available to us about what it would look like for our members. There is information that needs to be gathered before you can even take it to your members to say do you support this or do not support this.”
Rodger says it wasn’t brought to the Board until January 11th.
She says there were just too many unanswered questions for her members to make an informed decision.
Both groups say they will support a future bid for the games, provided their concerns are addressed.