• The College of New Caledonia (CNC) hosted a virtual convocation on Thursday, June 25 to celebrate its graduating students while still abiding by social distancing health and safety protocols due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to the virtual ceremony CNC held a lively grad bag pickup event at its Quesnel campus on June 23, 2020 in which graduating students were celebrated individually as the picked up their grad cap and tassel, commemorative program, alumni pin, and CNC gift bag.
• Quesnel City Council received a report providing an update as to the activities and results of the Business Support Team and the results of the Business Support Hotline program during a virtual council meeting on June 23.
The Quesnel Business Support Hotline launched on April 8, in partnership with Community Futures North Cariboo, along with phone support from the City, the Quesnel and District Chamber of Commerce, the West Quesnel Business Association, the Quesnel Downtown Association and the District of Wells staff.
“We connected with 218 businesses that completed an intake form, made 113 referrals and just about all of those have been followed up on now,” said Amy Reid, manager of economic development and tourism for the city of Quesnel. “We are up to 147 follow-up connections, so we’ve called back and checked in with those businesses that we originally provided support to, and of those, we are at an average of about $16,415 that those businesses were able to get — when we apply that out to the 218, we are at about $3.6 million that was brought into Quesnel in funding support.”
• Representatives from the governments of Lhtako Dené, Nazko, Lhoosk’uz, ?Esdilagh, the City of Quesnel and the Cariboo Regional District, along with staff from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD) and the BC Community Forest Association (BCCFA) met June 24 to discuss next steps in the community forest process.
At the meeting, participants shared their visions and aspirations for a CFA, which include: employment, economic development, reinvesting in the local communities, promoting better fibre utilization, wildfire protection, protecting all ecosystem values, and working collaboratively toward sustainable forest management.
• C&C Wood Products Ltd. and Westside Logging Ltd. filed for bankruptcy.
The closure of C&C Wood Company will mean the loss of between 100 and 130 full-time jobs in Quesnel.
• Quesnel residents came together to make a stand against racism in a peaceful protest on Friday, June 12.
Roughly 60 people braved the rain and joined the anti-racism rally to show their support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The protest was organized by 19-year-old Quesnel resident Desiray Turrell, who wanted to raise awareness not only to BLM but also to give Indigenous people and all people of color a voice.
READ MORE: Quesnel community makes a stand against racism
On June 13, residents in Wells held a Black Lives Matter Peace March.
“With everything that’s going on in the world it’s come into focus more that there is, in fact, racism in rural British Columbia, much like in all of B.C. and North America,” said Poppy Anders, who put on the event alongside fellow Wells resident Oryanna Ross. “People are invited to just come out to march in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as for Indigenous rights.”
• Eight weeks into repairs of flood damaged roads from the Cariboo region’s 2020 freshet have cost more than $12 million to date.
A total of 229 sites in the Cariboo transportation district were impacted, said Todd Hubner, Cariboo area manager with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Friday.
Across the district there are still about 60 pieces of equipment working in the 100 Mile House, Quesnel and Williams Lake areas.
• City of Quesnel council officially introduce Darren Dodge as the new Staff Sgt. of the Quesnel RCMP during a virtual council meeting on June 17.
editor@quesnelobserver.com
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