Quesnel, B.C. – The idea of running to become mayor of Quesnel was first planted in Bob Simpson’s head on May 14, 2013.

It was the night he lost his Cariboo-North seat to Liberal Coralee Oakes in the BC provincial election – and it was a notion he initially dismissed.

“People approached me that evening saying now that you’ve got some free time why don’t you consider running for mayor? And I rebuffed that.”

But not long after he says something happened in the forest sector that helped change his mind.

Bob Simpson – photo submitted

“The way that the mayor (Mary Sjostrom) reacted to the Canfor mill closure – her expression of shock and surprise – her comment that she was hoping that LNG would help save our community really shocked me.”

Simpson says there was no excuse for shock noting he’d been raising the issue of mill closures since 2005 and had tabled documents in the legislature warning that Quesnel was going to experience mill closures in about 18 months which sure enough happened.

“So there was no excuse for shock or surprise. And the real tragedy was no work had been done – no risk management scenarios run, no plans in place. That really upset and angered me.”

If elected, he says he”ll take a proactive approach to his job, which he says likely includes more turbulence in the forest sector.

“It’s not over yet. We haven’t even re-set the annual allowable cut. It’s going to come crashing down, most likely within the next couple of years. We’re going to experience more mill closures and job losses and the city and council has an obligation to plan for that.”

Simpson says if elected, he would spend his first year in office re-setting the city’s finances to plan for it.

“The City of Quesnel is far too dependent on its industrial tax base (64%). Only 19% on residential. Now that’s great for the residential rate payers as long as we have all those mills. The minute the mills start shutting down, residential rate payers are going to be shocked at how much of the tab they’re going to have to pick-up.”

He says a plan is needed to re-balance those taxes “so we’re not vulnerable to mill closures and to possible loss of services.”

Simpson says another of his goals will be to work with the community on what the options are to expand the city’s economic base out of forestry – something he says citizens shouldn’t be afraid of.

“We should not be afraid to embrace the challenge that is going to be coming at us. We should stop avoiding reality that we aren’t going to be going through a transition in our forest sector. Looking at history it’s when you actually say yes this crisis is upon us that human beings get the most creative.”