Quesnel, B.C. – Quesnel City Council were unable to put the brakes on pay parking for users of its North Cariboo Community Campus at a special open meeting in Council Chambers last night.

Mayor Bob Simpson says the City has limited options now that they’ve found out the College of New Caledonia has signed a five year contract with Impark.

Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson

“They’re locked into that contract and they’re punitive measures if either party wants to withdraw from that contact,” he says, adding the deal was signed without the knowledge of the City. “So we basically pleaded with the college president and board chair not to repeat that kind of decision making in the future.”

As an interim measure, he says the City has already provided students of the campus free bus passes for the fall semester and says further plans are in the works to help deal with the issue.

“Well our staff are working with the (CNC) student union out of Prince George to look at a U-Pass for transit here in Quesnel, says Simpson. “We don’t currently have that so our preference would be to switch over to a U-Pass and give students a permanent, in their fee, access to transit.”

Also last night, Simpson says Council denied a request from the college to put up no parking signs along the street and laneway where approximately 50 cars can be parked.

“We’re just going to allow that to occur organically and give people some options right beside the college there.”

Moving forward, he hopes Council can “turn this parking debacle” into a positive.

“We just gave permission to our staff to hire a consultant to help us look at an active trails network plan to go after some provincial infrastructure to build better bike trails and walking commuter trails.”

Simpson says the campus is actually the hub of a number of those trails and are hoping to use the issue to meet a number of other City objectives surrounding “climate change and healthier lifestyles.”