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Mark your calendar – one of the community’s most anticipated winter events is just around the corner. We’re in a deep freeze now, but why not celebrate a true Canadian winter by taking part in the fourth annual Quesnel Winter Carnival? This celebration of all things winter takes place at the West Fraser Timber Park on Saturday February 4 starting at 1:00pm.

The Winter Carnival encourages active living through cold-weather sports. And there’s a wide variety of sports for you to try this year. Come out and cross-country ski, snowshoe, toboggan, or skate – you can even borrow equipment if you don’t have your own. A new event this year is frisbee golf – take your best shot at coming in under par in this unique take on a centuries-old favourite.

Climate Action report reviewed

Council received the City's Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program's public report for 2011. The report lists a number of the City's sustainability initiatives and is one of the requirements that allows the City to be reimbursed for the carbon tax it pays annually.

Some of the highlights for 2011 include: Identifying Sustainability in all Planning as a 2011 Council strategic goal, completing three kilometres of pedestrian trails, completing a leak inspection survey of selected City water lines and repairing leaks, and video inspection of selected City sewer lines, planting 71 trees in West Fraser Timber Park, extending transit to a new multi-family area, adding a solar-powered trash compactor at Spirit Square, updating the City's Water Conservation Strategy, partnering with BC Hydro to promote energy efficiency retrofit programs in commercial buildings, ongoing efforts by the City staff-led "our Team" to actively promote workplace sustainability initiatives, working towards developing a transportation Master Plan, updating the community recycling guide.

 

Two Quesnel men have been airlifted to Vancouver General Hospital after a serious snowmobile crash which occurred on Saturday night.

Shortly after 10:00pm on Saturday, January 14, Quesnel RCMP and BC Ambulance Services responded to a report of a collision on Lombardie Drive.

Investigation revealed that an unlicensed snowmobile traveling at a high rate of speed struck a parked vehicle resulting in very serious injuries to the sled’s two occupants. The helmet of one of the men flew off during the collision and was located on the ground more than twenty feet away.

By now, most City of Quesnel residents and businesses should have received a special edition of the Q-City News. The West Quesnel Land Stability newsletter details the plans for the upcoming year, and provides a brief look at the progress to date and some next steps.

The full-scale dewatering program, designed to help reduce land movement in the West Quesnel Land Stability study area, is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2012. The $4.7 million project will see the installation of 14 pumping wells, nine horizontal drain sites consisting of more than 70 drains, and stormwater system improvements for West Quesnel and area residents.

Last year I was appointed to the government’s Bioeconomy Committee along with MLAs John Yap, John Rustad, Eric Foster and Ron Cantelon. We were given a mandate to determine if an opportunity exists for BC to take advantage of the emerging bioeconomy and, if so, recommend what initial steps government should take to maximize this opportunity.

This week the Bioeconomy Committee report was released at the Natural Resources’ Forum in Prince George: http://www.bcnaturalresourceforum.com/.