Quesnel City Council isn’t giving up on the north-south interconnector project

Quesnel City Council is planning a full court press when it comes to getting the north-south interconnector project back on track.

That’s despite the fact that they have been told by the Ministry of Transportation that there were numerous other priorities in the region due to land stability issues and washouts, and that it would prefer to rehabilitate the Rail Bridge and the Quesnel River Bridge than replace them at this point.

City Manager Byron Johnson made three suggestions at Tuesday night’s Council meeting.

“We can continue our lobbying campaign to encourage the province to move this project forward, we had talked earlier about a letter from the Mayor to the various local governments situated in the vicinity of Quesnel and up north and to any other key stakeholders in transportation asking for their support on this issue, Council could also meet with the province to determine their priorities possibly at UBCM, or arrange a meeting with the MOTI (Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure), including the Minister, outside of the UBCM window.”

Council liked all three ideas.

Councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenburg.

“I think that all 3 options have a role in us moving forward.   I think when we talk about the north I think we include all of NCLGA (North Central Local Government Association). I mean we do represent 60 percent plus of the province.  I do think we need to start that conversation at UBCM with the caveat, as we’re about to head out the door, is we’re going to be setting a meeting afterwards to further discuss what this looks like.   Because we know those 15 minute meetings at UBCM, we know there is never going to be any solid give to us as a community.”

Councillor Martin Runge suggested taking it one step further.

“Rather than meet in Victoria.  For me a better case is actually to get the Minister up here to look at the bridge themselves because they would then see the condition that the bridge is in, it would actually add a little bit of credence to what the issue is.”