Quesnel Council Column News
 
City Council News
February 7, 2018 
 Becoming an age-friendly community
Quesnel’s population is ageing and, as a result, we must proactively adapt our community’s infrastructure, amenities, and core programs to the needs of seniors. Some of the necessary adaptations we must undertake are within the control of the City alone or in partnership with the Cariboo Regional District through functions like North Cariboo Recreation or the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District. Some of the improvements and supports we’ll need to better serve our seniors are entirely in the domain of the Provincial and Federal governments, and Council can only act as advocates for the changes we’ll need.
For example, creating more seniors’ supportive housing complexes and assisted living and long term care facilities is solely in the domain of the Provincial government. Council and the City of Quesnel are not in the housing business and we do not have the financial wherewithal to fund such facilities. However, Council is in continuous dialogue with Northern Health, BC Housing, and not for profit housing agencies to make the case for more housing options for seniors to be provided in our City. We have also put in place housing incentive bylaws to attract more investment (the Lions Club’s senior’s housing project was assisted financially by this bylaw) and we’re now looking at developable properties the City owns as opportunities to attract both private and public sector investment in seniors’ housing facilities.
The City has taken direct steps to accommodate the needs of seniors in our infrastructure programs as we attempt to make our community more accessible. The new downtown accessible washroom facility is a direct response to a long term lobby effort by seniors’ advocates. Council has also deliberately maintained funding for the end of driveway snow clearing program and increased the overall snow removal budget in order to maintain the highest possible standards of snow removal with our seniors in mind.
The North Cariboo Joint Planning Committee continues to fund the seniors walking program at the indoor soccer complex and the West Fraser Centre, and plans are in place to rubberize the walking track at the new arena to make it a more comfortable and accommodating walking surface for seniors using that facility. While accessibility was a key consideration in the design of the new arena, we are now taking feedback from the seniors’ community as to how we improve on the current design to better accommodate their needs and those improvements will be made as soon as possible.
Quesnel Council has been seeking ways to pull all these disparate initiatives together into a cogent and comprehensive plan to make our community age-friendly. Towards this end, a Standing Committee of Council was struck last year and it has been successful in obtaining two grants, one form the Province and one from the Federal government. The Provincial grant will enable us to develop a detailed strategy to address seniors’ health care and lifestyle needs in order to obtain an age-friendly designation from the Province (which makes our community eligible for ongoing grant funding). The Federal grant provides funding to update our seniors’ resource guide and to host a senior’s resource fair.
Ultimately, with a strategy and an updated resource guide in place, we hope that Council’s Standing Committee will move into a community-based Council for seniors that will become the champion for seniors in our community. With the ongoing help and advice of this Council, the City will continue to ensure we make the right investments to make Quesnel a community where people can be active and engaged in their senior years.
 Mayor Bob Simpson

 

Council Column News

City Council News – January 31, 2018

Complicated Issues

Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on two wildfire debrief sessions with former Liberal MLA and Cabinet Minister George Abbott, who has been tasked by the NDP government to review how the provincial government plans for and handles emergency situations. Mr. Abbott and Chief Maureen Chapman are conducting a formal review of last year’s flood and forest fire events and must present an interim report to the provincial government in mid-March and a final report by the end of April; a very tight timeline.

The initial debriefing sessions were held with the Cariboo Regional District Board and with the City of Quesnel’s emergency management team along with a representative from our Wildlife Recovery Team. Public sessions will be held in February and we will get the word out as soon as we have the dates.

It was clear from the initial sessions with Mr. Abbott that he has a good grasp of the complexities of the issues he and Chief Chapman need to explore, condense and give government advice on. The essence of the challenge the review needs to focus on is that our provincial emergency planning and response system is built to deal with single, short term, and geographically localized events not the long duration, multi-event, simultaneous, and widely dispersed floods and fi res we experienced this summer and that are supposed to be our “new normal.”

Dealing with any emergency situation is complicated by many factors, not the least of which are the multiple agencies and jurisdictional authorities that are generally involved in the planning and response. Emergencies that occur over longer time frames and larger geographic areas simply magnify the complexities and I don’t envy Mr. Abbott and Chief Chapman their task of cutting through this complexity in order to give the government practical advice to improve our current system.

It seems to me that the number and complexity of the issues we are confronting is increasing.
Somedays it really feels like they are increasing exponentially! Right now, Council is dealing with
multiple complex issues that we have limited financial and staff resources to address.

Increasing property crime, the opioid crisis, insufficient mental health and addictions resources, and limited resources to quickly address social housing needs are all interrelated issues that Council is forced, by default, to try and play a leadership role in despite the fact that they fall squarely within the domain of the provincial and federal governments.

The upcoming legalization of Cannabis will only add to local government’s resource challenges,
as the burden of making sense out of the federal and provincial legislation and enforcing them
will fall to local governments while, so far, it appears the revenue will accrue to the provincial
and federal governments.

An aging demographic, the need for more diverse housing options, increasing demands to create a more accessible community, and the need for more health care supports for seniors and people with more challenging health care needs are also predominantly within the provincial domain to address, but local governments find that they must pick up the responsibility to champion these issues as well, especially in rural communities.

Quesnel City Council is embracing these complicated issues and we have a number of initiatives underway to understand them better and attempt to address them. But, it would be very helpful when the provincial and federal governments download these complicated issues to local governments to champion they would also fl ow some additional financial resources our way so we could truly tackle them in a more timely and robust fashion.

Mayor Bob Simpson

Email: bsimpson@quesnel.ca

Mayor and Council write Council News columns to provide residents information and updates regarding Council and City projects, initiatives, committees and business. This column is published in Quesnel Cariboo Observer on Wednesdays.

Quesnel Council Highlights

Council Highlights – January 30, 2018

College of New Caledonia – Annual Update

Council received an annual update for the College of New Caledonia “CNC”, Quesnel Campus, from Henry Reiser, President, Alyson-Gourley Cramer, Executive Director Communication Services and Morgan Ross, Campus Principal. The annual update provided an overview of:

·         Six different CNC campuses located in the communities of Burns Lake, Fort St. James, Mackenzie, Quesnel, Prince George and Vanderhoof.

·         CNC programs offered in the areas of: Health Sciences, Trades and Technology, Business & Management, Social Services, University Studies and Upgrading and Access.

·         Students are reporting that 73% are in jobs directly related to CNC training, 83% are finding the CNC education they are taking useful in getting a job, and 83% say the skills and knowledge they are learning at CNC are useful in performing jobs. All of these percentages are slightly higher than the provincial average (BC Student Outcomes Dashboard 2016).

·         CNC Quesnel currently has 19% Aboriginal declared heritage of students. The Aboriginal room, implemented in 2015, is being well-used increasing the Quesnel Campus Indigenousness learning environment.

·         CNC allocates its budget to the campuses as follows: 83% Prince George, 7% Quesnel, 4% Burns Lake, 3% Mackenzie, 2% Vanderhoof and 1% Fort St. James.

·         CNC Quesnel campus had 668 students enrolled in 2014/15 and in 2016/17 there were 956 student enrolled.

Emergency Operations Centres & Training Grant

Council approved the City Staff to submit a grant to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities Community Preparedness Fund for an Emergency Operations Centres & Training Grant that would update equipment and staff training for dealing with emergency situations. The City will submit a grant application for:

·         City staff to receive Emergency Operations Centre training.

·         Equipment for the Emergency Operations Centre such as telephones and laptop computers

·         Emergency Operation Centre workers sleeping necessities such as cots, blankets and pillows

·         Evacuation Planning Consultant to assist the City in developing an updated Evacuation Plan as part of the City’s Emergency Plan. The Evacuation Plan needs to be coordinated with Northern Health, School District #28, Cariboo Regional District, seniors groups and other community groups.

The anticipated cost of this project is approximately $35,000 with the Union of British Columbia Municipalities Emergency Operations Centres & Training Grant covering up to $25,000 of this project.

Quesnel Regional Airport – LED Lighting Upgrades

Council approved City staff to submit a grant application to update the Quesnel Regional Airport LED runway lighting and Precision Approach Path Indicator. The estimated cost of this project is $160,000 with the grant funding covering up to 75% of this project.

Bylaw of the Month Program – Non Smoking Areas

The purpose of the City of Quesnel Smoking Regulation Bylaw 1767 is to protect public health from the adverse effects of second-hand smoke in frequented public spaces, particularly for children who are more vulnerable to second-hand smoke. The public is reminded the non-smoking areas within the City are:

·         Spirit Square

·         Fraser River Foot Bridge (both entrances)

·         West Fraser Timber Park and LeBourdais Park

·         Quesnel Youth Soccer playing fields

·         All playing fields and all playgrounds

Next Meeting

·         7:00 pm, February 6, 2018 – Regular Council Meeting

·         5:30 pm, February 13, 2018 – North Cariboo Joint Planning Committee

Council Highlights provide a summary of business conducted by Council at Regular Council meetings. For specific details, visit www.quesnel.ca. Contact: Gina Albers, Deputy Corporate Administrator at 250-991-7471.

CUPE National Executive Board Meeting Highlights

Highlights of the December 2017 National Executive Board Meeting

View the NEB Meeting highlights.

National President’s Report and National Secretary-Treasurer’s Report to the December 2017 National Executive Board Meeting

Circulate the reports to members of the executive and make them available to interested members for their information.

Read the National President’s Report online

Read the National Secretary Treasurer’s Report online

 

CUPE BC President’s Statement

Statement from Mark Hancock and Charles Fleury reacting to the disaffiliation of Unifor from the CLC
It is regrettable that earlier today Unifor announced it will disaffiliate from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). CUPE firmly believes a united house of labour is much stronger than a divided one.

Trade unionists have always been stronger when we work together, and CUPE and the rest of the CLC’s affiliates will continue to work together to defend our members’ interests and build a better society for all.

It is our view that whatever difficulties led to Unifor leaving the CLC should not be insurmountable ones, and we encourage their leadership to sit down with representatives of the CLC and try to work out those differences, for the good of the labour movement.

As the implications of this decision become known over the coming days, CUPE will be steadfast in our resolve to represent our members, organize unorganized workers, and defend a strong, united labour movement.