Let’s continue to exercise the social distancing, sanitation, and mask wearing discipline and patience we’ve demonstrated to date as it appears to be limiting the spread of COVID-19 in the North Cariboo. Last week, we saw our first vaccinations of targeted populations in Quesnel, so progress on that front is being made and, hopefully, the end of this pandemic is getting closer.
Against the backdrop of this global pandemic it can be hard to think and plan strategically and proactively. The pandemic’s impacts on our social and economic systems alone are hard to predict, never mind trying to assess them in the context of all the other major economic, social, and environmental dynamics that were already at play and disrupting the status quo.
As a Council, we have no choice but to lead our community through this significant transition period and to do so as strategically and proactively as possible. To that end, Council has begun to engage in dialogue about the major issues confronting our community and the options and opportunities they present. These strategic conversations will be occurring during our open Council meetings and Council will be looking at ways to engage Quesnel residents in these conversations; seeking informed input as we make decisions about the future of our City’s services, programs, and infrastructure.
At last week’s Council meeting we started two of these strategic discussions: the future of the airport, and the future of waste management and the Quesnel landfill.
As I’ve noted in a previous column, the conversation about the airport is long overdue and has been brought to a head by the cancellation of scheduled passenger service due to COVID-19. Quesnel residents have subsidized the airport for a long time, and now Cariboo Regional District residents living in the North Cariboo are subsidizing its operations too. At last week’s Council meeting, staff brought forward a report to Council outlining options and opportunities to improve the utilization of our airport and better integrate it into our overall economic transition strategy. A recommendation about how we might attempt to entice scheduled passenger service back to the airport once the pandemic is over was also included in the report.
- View the City Staff Report.
- View the preliminary action plan.
The changes currently underway at the landfill and Council’s need to explore all zero waste options are driven by new regulations, a fundamental shift in the recycling markets, and steeply increasing financial costs, especially to cover landfill closure liabilities. The initial report to Council delivered last week was very preliminary and a lot of further research will be needed to determine if we can take advantage of potential zero waste and materials recovery opportunities and technologies at our landfill.
- View the City Staff Report.
- View the presentation.
We live in a time when some people constantly complain that politicians make decisions that aren’t transparent or that don’t make sense to them. Social media keyboard warriors are particularly prone to propagating uninformed opinions as facts.
As we embark on these complex and strategic conversations about the future of our community, I hope you’ll make the time to read the background reports and join Council in these important discussions in an informed and thoughtful way.
No comments:
Post a Comment