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EDITOR’S COLUMN: Optimism at council

Cassidy Dankochik enjoyed the news from the City of Quesnel’s most recent meeting
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Cassidy Dankochik joined the Observer’s staff in Aug. of 2020 by way of Gimli, Altona, and Flin Flon, Manitoba. (Photo by Tracey Roberts)

Rarely have I enjoyed a city/town/municipal council meeting more than I did on Feb. 16.

Four separate development projects were moved forward, and hints of more on the way. Three of those projects were higher density housing plans.

Quesnel has a housing shortage. As stated in one of the project’s justification letters, Quesnel’s rental rate for one and two-bedroom apartments is around two per cent.

The only way to fix Quesnel’s housing problems is to build more homes. Big ones, small ones, affordable, expensive — there just needs to be more in Quesnel.

That’s what many of these projects will do.

I am a big believer in accepting gradual improvement. We won’t be able to fix all of Quesnel’s problems with one project, but we can improve on them slowly.

The next plans for Quesnel seem to be better uses for the Cariboo Fields space and figure out what to do with the old school location.

City staff appear to be working on plans for further housing projects in those two locations.

While I agree with many people advocating for a senior’s centre at one of those two locations, any improvement is still an improvement, and should help Quesnel improve when it comes to housing.

How would you like to see those spaces used?

Feel free to send a letter to the editor with your suggestions to editor@quesnelobserver.com.

COLUMN: Filling in Quesnel’s blanks

Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email: cassidy.dankochik@quesnelobserver.com


@GimliJetsMan
cassidy.dankochik@quesnelobserver.com

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