Quesnel Rallies For Rural Representation

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Crowd gathers for a rally at Four Corners Square in Quesnel

Quesnel, B.C. -  It was a small, but supportive crowd that braved the bitter cold to gather in Quesnel this afternoon, to listen to the concerns of municipal and provincial politicians, just prior to the start of the Electoral Boundaries Commission public hearing in the city.

Mayor Nate Bello did his best to fire up those gathered in the sidewalk courtyard.  

The commission’s preliminary report recommends combining the area’s two ridings -- Cariboo-North and Cariboo-South -- into a combined riding of Cariboo-Chilcotin.

Bello says, should that occur, the new riding would be the same size as New Brunswick - a province that has 55 MLAs.

Bello says he’s been told he’s a ’a little heated up’ about this issue, "Well, I think we all have to be heated up about this."

"We want Quesnel to be heard, we want Cariboo-North to be heard, we want the entire north to be heard, so we’re going to go over there (the public hearing at the Seniors Centre) and urge the commission to say ’Hey, maybe we have it a little bit wrong."

The MLA for Cariboo-North, Bob Simpson, is one of the presenters scheduled to go before the commission this afternoon. 

Simpson says rural representation is critical, particularly with the challenges facing his constituents.  He says he joked with ranchers the other day that, given the crisis in the forest industry, he just wasn’t sure he had the emotional fortitude to tackle another critical issue.

"And I have a difficult time, as hard as I try to work in this job, of getting around as it is."  He says expanding the territory would create an even greater challenge.

Cariboo-South MLA, Charlie Wyse, says with the mountain pine beetle crisis in the forest industry, the agriculture industry just coming off the BSE scare, and mining and natural gas exploration soaring - now is not the time to be reducing rural representation.

Other elected officials on-hand for the rally were from across the north - Terrace Mayor Jack Talstra, the president of the North Central Municipal Association, Eileen Benedict, Chair of the Fraser-Fort George Regional District, Art Kaehn, along with reps from Chetwynd and the Cariboo Regional District.

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