Results of March 2014 Public Mtgs for NC Arena Replacement project released

Earlier this week - I noted that the North Cariboo Joint Committee has made the decision to go to referendum on June 14th to ask for voter assent to borrow up to $7.5 million for a new Arena 1 in Quesnel which will be built by way of engineering steel with wood accents.  This matter will be finalized at the April 8th meeting of the North Cariboo Joint Committee prior to the CRD Board taking up the matter, likely at the April 17th Board meeting

At their March 26th meeting - the North Cariboo Joint Committee received the results of the public meetings held in March for the proposed North Cariboo Arena Replacement project.  You can read that information here

In the report - 218 people provided a comment on the project which roughly 98% expressed qualified or outright support whereas the remaining 2% did not support the project, either due to other priorities like the Highway 97 Alternate Truck Route, some wanted to see investments in Rural Recreation facilities like at Bouchie Lake or because some were concerned about the current statement of the economy.  One interesting comment submitted was a request to consider using a parcel tax on every property for this project rather than the traditional method to assigning cost for the long term borrowing for this type of project though property taxation.  It is an interesting concept I myself would like to see information on - both pros and cons...

Based on the vast majority of positive submitted comments for this project- it is now clear that this project will see a solid 'Yes' vote on June 14th.  However, this could change depending on how hard the No side pushes but I'm not sure it will matter given the 98% level of submitted written support for this project

~SF