Quesnel's city council met Tuesday (Jan. 14) for a regular meeting. All members of council aside from Coun. Scott Elliott were present for the meeting.
Airport advisory committee report
In his airport advisory report, Coun. Tony Goulet explained council is trying to arrange a meeting with Central Mountain Air (CMA).
The report also included a spreadsheet showing passenger and flight numbers CMA had in and out of Quesnel. There were 2,400 arrivals and 2,523 departures from January to September 2024. Data for October to December was not included.
There were 13 flights in that eight-month range in 2024 that were cancelled, compared to eight in all of 2023. The airline also had a large number of delays with 102 of 224 flights being delayed in that span of 2024.
Goulet said there was no reasoning given for the delays and cancellations, whereas in 2023 the information detailed when flights were cancelled for weather.
They also have a lower load factor than previous years which is the percentage of available space that is being filled by passengers. In 2023 it was 66 per cent, in 2024 it was 46 per cent.
Coun. Laurey-Anne Roodenbug said she flew into Quesnel the evening of the meeting and the plane had a total of six passengers.
Coun. Mitch Vik said he's hoping to hear from CMA why the load factor is decreased.
Goulet said while there were some conversations about the possibility of council meeting with Pacific Coastal Airlines to possibly have another airline operate out of Quesnel, the airport committee thought it would be best to meet with CMA first.
"I don't know if you can do two airlines and it might cause some controversy," Goulet said.
Policy and bylaw committee report
In Coun. Martin Runge's policy and bylaw committee report, one of the biggest highlights was asking council to begin the process to create a protocol for having emergency warming shelters during extreme cold.
The city's director of development services, Tanya Turner, explained that warming centres are funded by Emergency Management B.C.
"They're only initiated during extreme weather events. Most communities now, however, have developed policies with respect to at what temperature those are done," Turner explained. She said the city currently only operates them when they have an Environment Canada warning for temperatures of -26ºC for several days. "Most communities have updated their policy to be at different temperatures more in line with what is recommended by Emergency Management B.C."
Council agreed to the recommendation unanimously.
Runge's report also included a policy on trail maintenance which focuses on safety precautions, risk management, environmental stewardship, resource allocation and community engagement. Runge said most of this is already done, but this would become an official policy of the city.
Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department's 2024 call numbers
Quesnel's fire chief Ron Richert reported on the calls the department received in 2024, with 825 calls it is the highest number of calls the department has seen.

The biggest increase between 2023 and 2024 was in the amount of burning complaint calls. In 2023 there 99 calls, in 2024 there were 153 calls. There was also an increase to both commercial and residential fire alarm calls, Richert said the positive of that is that it means people have working fire alarm systems.

Vik asked if those increases were bringing a higher workload onto the volunteers at the fire department.
"The increases this year didn't impact our (volunteer) firefighters so much," Richert said. He explained there are two types of call the department can receive, an officer page and a group page. Officer pages are less emergency situations where one of the four full-time staff members of the department responds. Those are for situations like burning complaints or fire alarms. Group pages, for more serious situations are when the volunteers are called in.
Art Walk
Council approved an application for a grant to the Northern Development Initiative Trust to create an Art Walk program in Quesnel. The Art Walk would be a walking route where people could see the various murals, sculptures and other works displayed around the city in public spaces. It would also create a page on the tourism website detailing the works of art.
"I encourage councillors support on this one. This is kind of special for me," Mayor Ron Paull said. "I made a promise to Bert (DeVink) before he passed away that we would initiate a public art program and this is a big part of that because we do have a lot of artwork around the community and it's worthy of recognition."
Remedial action requests
At the previous council meeting, council agreed to compel several properties to undergo actions to repair or demolish buildings that have been damaged by fires and are unsafe.
At the Jan. 14 meeting some of the information had to be updated. Council also discussed the problems with remedial action.
If the property owners do not do what council has requested, including maintaining fencing and getting a permit to demolish the buildings, the city will do it itself. This costs money to the taxpayer that council is supposed to be able to get back from property taxes on the problem property.
Turner stated that if the property sells in a tax sale at some point, the city would still get the money from it because the costs are associated with the property taxes.
"There is some reality that it might not get purchased, it might get left to us and then we would take those costs," Turner said.
Turner also informed council that remedial action is the only legislative course of action council has in this situation through the Community Charter and any changes would have to go through the province.
"We're in a unique position though because some of our property values are lower than neighbouring communities," Vik said. "If Vancouver were to do the same action and pay the $90K to remediate the building, they would sell that lot for a million dollars the next week. We can't do that."
Runge was especially concerned that if this continues to happen to properties in the future it will seriously affect the city's finances.
"This is a big cost to the city, I'm just hoping that there's some other way that if we have to step in to clean out this building that they realize it's not just 'I can wash my hands of this, walk away from the property and someone's going to buy it a tax sale' and we're going to be left with the $90K bill," Runge said. "That's my big fear."
Council agreed to the remedial action amendments to both properties at 340 Dawson Street and 505 Panorama Ridge.
Correspondence
Council received a letter from the Prospector's Car Club requesting a road closure for their annual car show in summer. Council agreed to add the car show to the list of pre-approved road closures along with events like the Pride Parade, Gold Dust Mall, Remembrance Day and other events that occur annually.
Council will have its next public meeting Jan. 28 at 5:30 p.m.