[0:01] Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to council meeting number 23 for Tuesday,

[0:07] August 25, 2026. Uh before we get down to our official

[0:13] business, uh just want to express regrets from Councelor Elliot. Uh he's

[0:19] under the weather tonight, so we hope that he makes a speedy recovery. Um and

[0:26] um there's a couple of changes before I ask for um a motion to approve the

[0:31] agenda. And that is that given the fact that um uh councelor Elliot will not be

[0:38] here tonight, report number E1, housing solutions table report, that will be

[0:44] deferred until the next council meeting. And also item number G2, which is the um

[0:53] the Cornell minor hockey letter, that's deferred for staff and minor hockey to

[0:59] work out some details. So that'll be coming forward at a future meeting. So

[1:04] with those changes, could I have a motion to adopt the minute or drop the

[1:08] agenda as a as a as amended? Okay, councelor Rudenberg is moving and I saw

[1:14] councelor Runge is seconding. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Uh, now we look

[1:20] for a motion to adopt the regular minutes of the meeting held July 28,

[1:26] 2026. Moved. Councelor Goule, seconded. Councelor McCelie. All in favor?

[1:32] Opposed? Carried. Now we move to presentations and delegations.

[1:38] And uh it's my pleasure to um uh welcome our Cornell Ambassador Leadership

[1:45] Program outgoing presentation as well as a welcome to the new incoming um 2026

[1:52] ambassadors. It's my pleasure to welcome the Cornell Ambassador Leadership

[1:57] Society President Cindy Sherstan and the 2025 outgoing royalty and the new 2026

[2:06] royalty to tonight's council meeting. After I introduce each outgoing

[2:12] ambassador, please come to the front to receive your plaque and your rose. and

[2:17] please remain upfront until all presentations have been made so that we

[2:21] can get a group photograph. Now, Councelor McKelie has graciously agreed

[2:27] to help me with the with the presentation. So, I'm going to stay here

[2:31] uh and uh work the microphone and councelor McKelie is going to do the

[2:36] presentations. So, first of all, outgoing uh royalty,

[2:43] and if you could come up one at a time as I call your name for your rose and

[2:47] plaque presentation. Oia Woodruff, PLEASE.

[2:57] » HELLO. >> HI.

[3:00] » Thank you for everything you did.

[3:08] that will become a family heirloom. So, guard it jealously. Okay. And uh and

[3:14] next is um Grace Cassidy. Come on up, Grace.

[3:22] » Hi, Grace. Thank you for everything.

[3:30] Now I would like to introduce the new 2026 Cornell ambassadors. After I eat

[3:37] after I introduce each ambassador, please come to the front to receive your

[3:41] rows. Please remain up front until all presentations have been made so that we

[3:46] can take that uh group photo as well. So again, one at a time. 2026 Ambassadors

[3:53] incoming royalty Abigail Russell.

[4:03] Congratulations

[4:06] » and Nora Aziz.

[4:16] » Congratulations. Good luck this year. Now we have one for for Cindy.

[4:23] » Oh, for Cindy. Cindy, come on up. >> YES.

[4:31] » I finally get to meet the person behind the computer. Congratulations, Cindy.

[4:37] Thank you. and and thank you to uh to you and to um all of the uh the other

[4:43] movers and shakers of this because um I mean this dates back to the Quinnell

[4:49] leadership uh or the Quinnell Miss Quinnell leadership uh program and

[4:54] leadership certainly is the operative word because these young people are our

[5:00] future leaders. Okay. So, time for a group photograph.

[5:04] If uh any family members would like to come up and and capture this moment,

[5:09] please do that now.

[5:29] Pardon me. >> The outgoing and incoming.

[5:32] » Oh, separate. Separately. Okay. So, can you come up and Okay. So, we're

[5:38] going to have the outgoing um first and then and then the incoming. So, if

[5:45] you could sort of separate just for your is that what you wanted was uh to have

[5:48] them separated. >> Oh, I see. Okay, that's fine. Yeah,

[5:52] we'll carry on carrying on here. We don't have a playbook for this, so

[5:56] we're

[6:00] » maybe separate yourselves a little bit and then we take separate pictures.

[6:05] » You're going to have a few words. I have a few words. You're going to have a few

[6:07] words.

[6:28] We should just use the microphone over there.

[6:31] » That's a good idea.

[6:38] » Both of them like both sets. >> Okay. So, if if the gonna have a few

[6:42] words >> I I know. I'm just trying to sort out

[6:45] whether it's the outgoing or the incoming or both. Uh, we're all going to

[6:49] take turns. >> Okay.

[6:50] » Okay. >> Lead on.

[6:52] » I don't know what Okay. I'm Grace Cassidy. I am one of the 2025 Quinn

[6:56] Ambassadors. I just want to say how proud I am of Abby and Nora for becoming

[7:01] the 2026 Quinnel Ambassadors and how proud I am to be best friends with OIa.

[7:06] We celebrated our year together and it wouldn't be how great it was without the

[7:11] support of our city and the society. So, thank you everyone who supported us

[7:15] THROUGHOUT OUR REIGN.

[7:27] HI, I'M OSIA WOODRUFF, your 20 2025 Cornell Ambassador. And Nora and

[7:33] Abigail, you guys are so incredible and I hope you guys have an amazing year

[7:39] during your reign. Grace, I love you so much and I wouldn't have wanted to reign

[7:45] with anyone else. I want to say thank you to the society and to the city of

[7:49] Quinnell for everything they've done to keep this program an awesome and

[7:54] positive experience and I hope you guys enjoy your reign.

[8:06] » Now, would the incoming like to say a few words? You're certainly welcome

[8:10] here.

[8:14] » We're starting together. >> Okay. Starting.

[8:17] » All right. Good evening everyone. My name is Norah

[8:22] Aziz and I'm one of the new 2026 Cornell ambassadors.

[8:26] » And I'm Abigail Russell and I am the other 2026 Quinnell ambassador.

[8:32] We are incredibly honored to be representing Quinnell over the next

[8:35] year. There are so many incredible people in

[8:40] Quinnell and we cannot wait to be serving them by going to all of these

[8:44] events and stuff. We're so excited. >> We'll miss our former Cornell

[8:50] ambassadors dearly and so we'll do our best to take up their work.

[9:02] » Okay. So I think that basically concludes our our uh our presentation

[9:07] event. So uh so thank you ambassadors whether you're incoming or outgoing

[9:12] you're always ambassadors. So so thank you for that and and all best wishes.

[9:32] Okay. Thanks again ambassador program. Okay. Now we're going to go to item two

[9:39] under presentations and delegations. Cornell Health Services 2020 2026

[9:47] updates from Northern Health Authority. And we have Daryl Pzul, the senior

[9:52] operating officer for Northern Health Rural. And also um we have Michelle

[10:00] Lawrence, the special service specialized services executive director

[10:05] at Northern Health. So I I believe that you're you're both online. I see you

[10:10] there, Darl. So the floor is yours.

[10:21] I think you may be muted.

[10:51] Please bear with us while we sort out our technical technological glitches. It

[10:57] happens quite often. Not not necessarily here, but

[11:01] everywhere.

[11:23] Uh Michelle or Daryl, could one of you or both of you just say something to do

[11:28] a bit of a sound test? Okay. So Daryl, you're not coming

[11:33] through

[11:37] and neither are you, Michelle. So we're we'll keep working on this. We'll we'll

[11:42] get it done.

[12:04] while while we're doing this and we just of course had had the presentation to

[12:08] the Cornell ambassadors program and just after I was elected um I had the

[12:14] ambassadors into my mayor's office and they were each to ask me a question and

[12:20] uh one young lady says what's the most challenging part of being the mayor and

[12:26] I said technology ology. So here here it is proving itself out.

[12:45] Darl, can you hear us? Give us a thumbs up if you can hear us. Okay, so

[13:03] And so Darl, obviously you are not muted on your end, so perhaps it's originating

[13:09] at our end.

[13:22] Well, we'll give it another couple of minutes or else um if we can't get it

[13:26] resolved, we're going to have to move on.

[13:32] » Sure. Yeah.

[13:41] » Moving on. Let's

[13:56] side of things

[14:04] have to wait

[14:29] Hello.

[14:33] I thought that was an encouraging sound.

[14:41] » Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you, Darl.

[14:46] » Okay, I'm gonna just message Michelle to to join quickly here.

[14:53] » Good job, Laura. >> Yes, thank you, Laura.

[15:05] » And there's Michelle. And is the audio still good?

[15:09] » Well, we can hear you, Darl. Maybe Michelle if you could just

[15:13] » There you are in true flesh and blood reality. So um the floor is yours.

[15:20] » Excellent. Thank you very much, Mayor Paul. And good evening everyone.

[15:26] So I have a PowerPoint that I'm going to present. And as you mentioned, Mayor

[15:33] Paul, uh technology, I'm hoping this works because I rarely work in Zoom.

[15:38] Usually it's teams. So, I'm going to going to share my screen now.

[15:56] And now it's not Michelle, would you be able to try

[16:02] sharing yours and I'll talk?

[16:10] I will pray.

[16:30] Yeah. Uh, councelor Vic has come up with a suggestion here. We have the

[16:36] PowerPoint here in front of us on hard copy.

[16:40] So if Oh, I think we're I think we're looking good here. I I see it on the

[16:44] screen now. So I'll let you carry on. >> Okay.

[16:48] » Thank you very much. Apologies for the for the delays. So uh good evening

[16:53] everyone. Uh uh as Mayor Paul mentioned, my name is Daryl Pzel. I work as the

[16:58] senior operating officer for the rural region surrounding Prince George. So

[17:04] that would include Burns Lake and area east to Veil Mountain from McKenzie

[17:10] south to us here in Cornell. Um uh I live in Cornell with my family. Um

[17:17] myself and that's where I am tonight. Um and Michelle, if you want and Michelle,

[17:25] why don't you introduce yourself quick if you don't mind?

[17:28] » Sure. Thanks. Um thanks for having us. My name is Michelle Lawrence. and the

[17:32] executive director for specialized services for Northern Health. Um, and

[17:36] I'm calling in from the unseated traditional territory of the Clayton

[17:38] today and Prince George. Um, and my areas uh cover uh the whole region uh

[17:44] for specialized services which includes complex medically frail mental health

[17:48] and substance use, child and youth um specialized services and some

[17:52] specialized clinics. >> Thank you, Michelle. If you don't mind

[17:56] going to slide three to start it off. So, I have quite a lengthy presentation

[18:05] and due to time constraints, I'm really going to have to go through this quick

[18:09] because I want to hear questions at the end, which I suspect is probably most

[18:15] important to the folks in the room tonight. So, I'll start by by setting

[18:20] sort of the stage and the context of where health care is right now in

[18:24] general. My PowerPoint has a lot of good news stories and more light-hearted uh

[18:32] content, but make no mistake, uh healthc care is in a a real tough situation

[18:38] right now across the province and across the country. Um as you're probably all

[18:44] aware, um when I last came to council to present, it would have been a little

[18:49] over a year ago. And I would say that things in Quinnel have improved

[18:54] slightly. there's a long way to go. Um, but we're sitting we're sitting a little

[19:00] better in in certain circumstances than than we were uh roughly this time last

[19:05] year. So, not a surprise to anyone, but we're dealing with a pretty significant

[19:12] workforce shortage. Uh we're dealing with changes in the workforce in terms

[19:17] of what people want out of their careers. Uh we're dealing with the

[19:22] oldest population Canada has ever had in its history. We're dealing with

[19:27] declining significantly declining birth rates. Um increased complexity with

[19:33] people that are coming to the hospital. Uh plugged up hospitals, uh not enough

[19:39] long-term care beds or assisted living beds. Um and a variety increased

[19:45] violence. Uh that's another thing that uh can't be forgotten about. H we are

[19:50] seeing doesn't matter what hospital you're working in we're seeing

[19:54] significantly more in uh numbers of violent incidents and just a less civil

[20:01] society I would say in general. So we're at a we're at a tough spot

[20:06] right now. So um you know ever since CO hit six years or so ago it it's it's

[20:14] been a tough go with things. Um it's led to some changes in the way we deliver

[20:20] health care and some opportunities. We're really getting into virtual

[20:24] delivery of health care. Uh currently in our at our UPCC, our urgent primary care

[20:31] center in the hospital, we're using what's called TEDOC where we have a

[20:36] physician on a video screen who's able to talk and see patients and even listen

[20:42] to uh through a stethoscope and and other things like that. So that stuff is

[20:48] really cutting edge and it will always have a place in health care. I think

[20:53] we're starting to see AI being used in healthcare. So, a lot of exciting stuff

[20:59] is coming. Um, but we have a uh for sure have a ways to go. Michelle, if you can

[21:05] go on to the next slide, please.

[21:09] So, this is a very busy slide of I always get asked about the physician uh

[21:15] shortages in Cornell and this is a busy and rather confusing slide. It comes

[21:22] from the the physician human resource uh folks, the ones that deal with

[21:27] recruitment on a full-time basis. Um, long story short, in terms of

[21:34] comparisons to other many other communities in Northern BC, Cornell is

[21:38] doing well. We're still short probably a good six or so family doctors. Um, we've

[21:48] received the number this year. We uh we have a couple more arriving very shortly

[21:53] and we have at least two confirmed for next year as well. So our recruitment um

[21:59] efforts are are paying dividends. Now we again we have a ways to go. Um I know

[22:06] what it's like not to have a family doctor. I went through quite a time

[22:10] myself with one. Um as did some family members and it's uh it's a very it's not

[22:16] a good place to be. So um but we've uh we've got quite a

[22:21] complement of specialists in Cornell. We've got a couple of general surgeons,

[22:25] ear nose and throat surgeon, uh couple of internists, uh couple of doctors who

[22:30] specialize just in emergency medicine, a psychiatrist, and quite a number 20 that

[22:37] 21 is actually a little more than that now. So quite a number of family

[22:42] doctors. Next slide, Michelle.

[22:48] Um, just something to note and some of the folks at the city will be aware of

[22:52] this, but we're seeing a real change in terms of how doctors are practicing. So,

[22:59] gone are the days where doctors would finish school and then buy a medical

[23:03] practice and want to run that business. Um, we're not seeing that at all

[23:09] anymore. Um, so what we're doing is we're contracting with physicians and

[23:14] they're working on a alternative payment plan basically where they work in a

[23:19] Northern Health run and staffed clinic like the one on Front Street there. So

[23:24] right now I'm in the middle of uh if it's not out already, there's going to

[23:29] be one soon. An expression of interest to the community because we need to

[23:33] acquire more space to to accommodate the uh the physicians that are coming.

[23:39] Next slide.

[23:44] Uh I'm going to quickly brief uh through this. So I'll just say in the interest

[23:49] of time that we are constantly training our nurses in Quinnel in specialty areas

[23:56] like emergency, ICU, maternity, and other programs. Uh I've already

[24:02] mentioned we have two emergency physicians that both work full-time in

[24:06] our emergency. Um and that last uh point is more about uh post-secondary learning

[24:13] and I won't get into that right now. You can go to the next one.

[24:20] Um more of the same. Uh you know we're we're we're

[24:25] training uh more o nurses along with the other specialties. We currently run two

[24:31] operating room room rooms uh simultaneously in Cornell uh which is

[24:36] good. Um weight lists are not that bad. If you need surgery and you live in

[24:41] Cornell and it's general surgery or even ear, nose, and throat uh your weights

[24:46] will not be that long compared to the rest of the province. The Ministry of

[24:51] Health sets provincial benchmarks that we must or we should strive to hit in

[24:58] terms of different types of surgeries. And the vast majority of that time in

[25:02] Cornell, we're meeting those. Uh it's it's actually impossible to hit them

[25:08] 100% of the time because there's uh there's a number of factors outside of

[25:12] our control. Next slide. uh you know we we have very skilled and

[25:20] experienced staff who have retired. So we we our recruitment not only is about

[25:26] getting students and people from outside of the region but bringing people back

[25:30] into work who have a wealth of knowledge. Uh uh we have a new uh family

[25:36] doctor who's starting oncology or cancer care training this fall. So another

[25:41] person locally physician will be trained in in oncological medicine. So that's uh

[25:47] very positive for Cornell. Next slide.

[25:52] Uh some ideas uh a little snapshot of some of the other work going on. Um lot

[25:59] of acronyms in this by the way and my apologies. I got to remember that people

[26:04] that don't work in healthcare aren't going to know what all these letters

[26:07] mean. ESN there refers to employed student nurses. So these are nurses that

[26:13] are in their second year or higher of training and we can hire them um as paid

[26:20] staff. So they get to learn and uh learn the people they're working with, learn

[26:26] nursing skills and make a make an income. So we're doing that constantly.

[26:31] Um, we've got a provincial maternity project to reduce C-section rates, uh,

[26:38] ongoing right now. And of course, we opened our maternity clinic last year in

[26:42] March. Next slide. I've already talked about TEDoc at UPCC.

[26:49] Um, we've, uh, we've been successful in recruiting new doctors to UPCC uh, over

[26:56] the past eight months or so. So, we've tripled our our visits. Um

[27:02] last year at this time we were hitting around 250 individual visits per day um

[27:08] or per per month I mean and uh now we're well over 600 if not over 700 uh

[27:15] individual visits per month at our UPCC. And we can go to the next slide.

[27:20] Michelle

[27:25] I've talked about that first point a little bit. Uh nurse triage system. I

[27:30] won't get into this too much, but it's regarding UPCC and uh we no longer have

[27:36] to a patient can come in and they no longer have to see a physician before

[27:40] they leave. Nurses can make a determination to to book them based on

[27:45] urgency uh the next day or a couple days from now or hand them off to a social

[27:50] worker or a nurse that's skilled in a certain uh specialty um just to make it

[27:57] a little more efficient for for the public. and we're getting some positive

[28:00] comments about that. We're going to roll that out in it's called clear triage and

[28:05] we're going to roll that out in other communities in Northern Health. Next

[28:10] slide, Michelle. I'm not going to get into this. The one

[28:14] thing about this this this shows you some of the the increase in visits at

[28:19] our UPCC, but you can go to the next slide. It's a little

[28:24] more useful. So the purpose of our UPCC is to reduce pressure on an emermergency

[28:32] department and for years it wasn't doing that. Um but with some of the changes

[28:38] we've made in this year um it's actually finally started to take the pressure off

[28:43] our emergency department so we can protect our emergency

[28:48] uh room for people that need truly need emergency care. So that's actually it's

[28:53] the first time we've shown that uh bias statistic. So we're going to be keeping

[28:59] an eye on that as we go forward. Next slide.

[29:05] Okay. Uh hospital auxiliary. So just an example of some of the equipment the

[29:10] auxiliary has purchased and we're ever so thankful for our auxiliary who have

[29:15] been around for a long time. Um yeah, I won't get into the details about this,

[29:22] but we also have some uh televisions being installed in uh all the inpatient

[29:28] rooms uh thanks to the Cornell Community Foundation. So those two groups have

[29:33] helped us immensely. Next slide, Michelle.

[29:37] Little bit more about some of the equipment. So we constantly are buying

[29:43] equipment. uh stuff gets used 24/7 365 and it end either ends up getting to end

[29:50] of life or not be being able to be supported from a technological

[29:54] standpoint. So always buying new equipment and of course the regional

[29:59] hospital district uh funds a significant amount of this equipment. So here's some

[30:04] examples. Next slide. More examples uh probably won't make a

[30:12] lot of sense. So uh ECG is kind of heart monitor system

[30:17] um medical imaging software. So just to give you an example of the the high cost

[30:23] of anything healthcare related I mean just the software alone can be upwards

[30:28] of $100,000 and that's for our ultrasound and MRI units uh in the X-ray

[30:35] department. Couple of other things there and then an ECT is electrocombulsive

[30:40] therapy. So that's used uh in the O for people with certain types of mental

[30:46] illness. Next slide.

[30:56] And a couple more examples of changes. Dunroen. There's a few things going on

[31:00] there. Um won't get into it too much. You a couple of examples there. We also

[31:05] have some uh redundant uh generators being installed and some the nurse call

[31:11] system uh being redone as well. So, next slide.

[31:17] Okay, getting into this is Michelle's area and it uh I'm sure it's of uh great

[31:23] interest uh to folks in the room. So, this is getting into our mental health

[31:27] and addiction stuff. So, just just a quick brief highle overview. So, we have

[31:32] our assertive community treatment team um where we have folks out in the

[31:38] streets uh meeting up with people with with known illness um uh you know being

[31:44] proactive about things. We have our mobile crisis intervention team. That's

[31:48] where we have our CMP and a nurse. Uh that's been a very successful program

[31:54] over quite a number of years. Um and then mobile support team. This is in

[31:59] partnership with First Nations Health Authority and they provide outreach

[32:03] treatment in our local indigenous communities.

[32:09] Next slide.

[32:13] And then so some of the other things. So overdose prevention services or ops,

[32:19] this is what was formerly at Elliot Street. Um, this is now being performed

[32:26] uh on a as a mobile treatment. So, we have the team going out in a van with

[32:33] supplies and meeting people where they're at out and about in the

[32:36] community. Um, or people, patients, clients can phone a number and uh have

[32:43] the the team come to their place wherever that may be. So right now it's

[32:48] uh it's being managed uh you know on an outreach basis. Opioid agonist therapy

[32:54] is what folks think when they or yeah what you think when you hear methadone

[32:59] program. So there's other treatments other than methadone but um just think

[33:04] of it like that. Uh so that is currently happening at the the uh the building I

[33:11] think it's MLAN Street uh by Dr. C's office there. Um, so that's when people

[33:17] come in, see a uh a specialist prescriber and get monitored with those

[33:22] medications. We also have our Grace Young activity center at that building

[33:27] and currently we have around 58 people belonging to that program and we have

[33:33] psychosocial rehab, vocational rehab and uh community uh engagement in that

[33:40] program. Next slide.

[33:44] quick. Um I won't because of time I'm not going to get into this but uh due to

[33:48] a number of recruitment incentives uh you know it's really helped people in

[33:54] Northern are us in Northern Health attract and and retain staff. So we're

[33:59] hoping that kind of stuff uh continues on into the future. Next slide.

[34:06] I will say that us in Northern Health, Quinnell included, we're at a

[34:11] disadvantage compared to people in the southern areas of the province because

[34:15] we we struggle to attract people in general, no matter what industry you're

[34:20] in. Um, and so, yeah, I'm I'm just really hopeful that some of these

[34:26] recruitment incentives will continue and we won't know more from the ministry

[34:30] until the fall. Uh you can see here uh numbers of new

[34:35] grads we've hired across Northern Health and what these numbers are not

[34:40] completely accurate because they're a couple months old. So you can assume 15

[34:45] to 20 new grads hired this year. Uh so that's work in progress all the time.

[34:52] Quinnel has has had for five years one of the lower vacancy rates in terms of

[34:58] all positions in Northern Health. And I think that's due to a number of reasons.

[35:03] And it's still quite uh quite nice compared to to other communities. Um and

[35:09] 26 applicants to date have received the the recruitment incentives that that are

[35:14] being rolled out. Next slide, please, Michelle.

[35:18] Uh we're this is big. So we're doing this around Northern Health. And so

[35:23] we're paying people basically to attend school. We're paying for the education

[35:29] and giving them a stipen to live on while they take this training. And

[35:32] there's six different things we're doing right now. The healthcare assistant

[35:37] program has absolutely saved our bacon in terms of enabling us to staff

[35:42] long-term care. So, that has been unbelievably successful. We are now

[35:48] doing practical nursing, the same thing. We're about to start our second cohort

[35:53] of of students through that program. And then you can see some other uh

[35:58] professions here. Rehab assistants, pharmacy techs, mental health support,

[36:02] and x-ray and lab technologists. Next slide.

[36:08] Couple of uh more examples of equipment. And I had to include that that middle

[36:14] one, the transport bike bicycle. So that's at Dunroven. I thought that was

[36:18] really cool. Never seen that before. But uh so that'll be at Dunroven if it isn't

[36:24] already. and it gets people and a bit a chance to get outside in some fresh air

[36:29] and go for a go for a little burn through the neighborhood. The pickline

[36:33] and equipment insertion that's big for Cornell. Prior to just recently, we had

[36:38] to send all patients to Prince George to get that inserted and now we can do it

[36:43] in in Cornell. So, won't get into details. Happy to answer them if there's

[36:48] any questions. Next slide. And then finishing up. So we're we're

[36:55] always in contact with post-secary institutions and high schools. So this

[37:00] is some pictures from Coraloo um where the staff the team local team took over

[37:06] some equipment and did some scenarios with the uh with the high school

[37:10] students. So trying to encourage folks to go into health care and uh hopefully

[37:16] were successful. But they do this every year.

[37:19] So sorry to whip through that so quickly. Um but uh there was a lot to

[37:25] get through and I'm I I think people will be more excited or interested in

[37:30] asking questions. So over to uh to the room.

[37:36] » Okay. Thank you um Daryl and Michelle for that. Um yes, I'm going to open up

[37:41] the floor to questions. So I'll start over on this side. Anyone?

[37:46] Go ahead. Councelor Vic. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hey, Daryl. How

[37:50] you doing? Nice to see you.

[37:54] » I just got a couple of questions, Darl, and I and I understand if it's too early

[37:58] to give some answers on a couple of my questions, but I'm just curious and I

[38:02] maybe the community is. Um, as you know, we have the major development occurring

[38:07] at Caribou Field from Providence Living. It's going to add a lot of uh capacity

[38:12] to our system for uh long-term care. How how do you see that uh interacting with

[38:19] what's available at Dun Roven? What's Dun Roven's role going to be in the

[38:22] future? >> So, Dun Roven is not

[38:27] Yeah. So, I'm glad you brought that up. I had that on my notes to talk about and

[38:31] I I missed that uh being in a rush, but So, that project is absolutely going

[38:37] ahead as you know. Um it's expected to be open in 2030. So, construction

[38:44] supposed to start in the new year. Um, Dun Roven, the new part of Dun Roven

[38:51] will remain as is. Uh, so that new expansion that came about in 2008, that

[38:58] will carry on as a long-term care home. The old part of Dun Roven,

[39:03] the the decision hasn't been made yet as to what that's going to be. And just for

[39:10] folks awareness, the reason that they're building this

[39:14] new one is a because we definitely need more beds. There is absolutely no doubt

[39:19] about it. And that facility will bring 200 net new beds um to Cornell. Uh 144

[39:29] are uh are long-term care and 144 are assisted living. And once you factor out

[39:35] the old part of Dunroin that will close, we'll end up with 200 net new beds. Um,

[39:41] so Mitch, that uh the decision has not been made. I have absolutely nothing to

[39:48] unfortunately say about that. It is a number of years out. The reason it's uh

[39:54] going to stop being used as a as a care facility is because when we get into the

[40:00] I mean that's a 50 something year old building and it becomes very very

[40:05] difficult and very very expensive to to keep running at the the standards uh we

[40:12] need it to run at. Um, and it's, you know, it doesn't it doesn't meet a lot

[40:18] of needs, uh, in terms of what expectations are nowadays for long-term

[40:24] care. I mean, it's better than nothing, but uh, I'm just quite thankful we're

[40:29] getting this new build. I We need it so bad.

[40:32] » Thank you, Darl. I really appreciate that. And then the

[40:35] » I will say, Mitch, >> sorry. I I will say that when I do hear

[40:40] about what the plans are for that part of the field facility, I I will

[40:45] absolutely let the city know. Um yeah, but nothing

[40:50] yet. >> Perfect. That's great. Thanks for that.

[40:53] And then the second question, if you'll permit me, Mr. Mayor, I I understand uh

[40:58] we've got uh a renewal of the clean team coordinator position, which is not I

[41:04] know that's a slightly different relationship we have with you on what

[41:07] the role of that coordinator is, and we certainly appreciate that. I'm wondering

[41:11] if you could speak to long-term sustainability of that coordinator

[41:15] position. >> Yeah, that's uh that's come up a number

[41:20] of times uh for a few reasons. one because I from what I hear of that

[41:26] position, it's very much very very much appreciated by the community of Cornell

[41:32] for a number of reasons. Um that of course uh is ministry funding that we

[41:38] contract out with the with the city and we Michelle may have the most upto-date

[41:44] information on this as it falls a little bit more to to her. All I know is that

[41:50] 2627 was a go. I have not heard that uh there

[41:55] will be funding pulled beyond that and I will turn it over to Michelle if you

[42:01] have anything else to add. Thanks. This is a direct funding

[42:05] initiative through the Ministry of Health. Um and so it is year to year at

[42:10] this time but we've been advocating for the funding to be sustained and

[42:14] specifically um for this particular contract because we've seen such great

[42:18] success. So, it is covered for this year and we are working towards stabilizing

[42:22] and ongoing funding. >> Thanks for your help with that. Really

[42:25] appreciate it. >> Okay. Thank you. Anyone else at this

[42:30] point? Go ahead, Councelor Rudenberg. >> Thank you. And good evening you guys.

[42:35] Appreciate the uh update. Um I'm just going to tag off of um the counselor

[42:42] here who just spoke about the clean team funding. So, thank you for that. We know

[42:46] that you know this is a good program in Cornell and we appreciate how you can

[42:50] advocate for us outside of the advocating that we do as a council. So,

[42:53] thank you very much for that. Um, so you talked a little bit about the incentive

[42:59] that you provide to applicants in Quinnell around the rural and remote

[43:04] recruitment incentive. Is that the um 30,000 that you're talking about?

[43:09] Okay. So that's um you know that's uh you asked them to stay for 24 months. Uh

[43:16] you've said you've had 26 new applicants that um have been uh able to get the

[43:21] incentive dollars. Have we managed to keep them after the 24 months or is this

[43:27] they are still in that 24-month period? >> Yeah. So, I mean that's a good question

[43:33] and this if I had more time I wanted to get into this a little bit but we are

[43:38] seeing and I might be kind of long- winded with this but across the board

[43:44] whether it's physicians, nurses, technologists, whatever the workforce

[43:49] has changed what the workforce wants in their jobs and how they practice has

[43:54] changed. Um almost all of our physicians are now international physicians. Um and

[44:02] same with nursing by the way we are recruiting an awful lot of international

[44:07] nurses right now particularly via the US. So to answer your question are we

[44:13] retaining folks? I can unequivocally say yes we are um both physicians and

[44:21] nursing and other staff. However, it is absolutely not 100% either. Uh, off the

[44:28] top of my head, I I I can't give you a figure, but that's why it's so important

[44:34] and the local team knows this. It is so important to make the community and the

[44:41] work with the with the city recruiter for example the welcoming the the the

[44:46] wraparound welcome to the community the help the the attention to their spouses

[44:52] partners children all of the make them welcome all of that helps no matter what

[44:58] and yes we do keep a lot um a little bit less so with physicians in general but

[45:05] certainly staff best. >> Well, thank you. That's appreciative.

[45:10] It's better than zero, right? And I think that anytime we can keep them here

[45:14] longer than their two years, um, Quinnel starts to grow on you and they want to

[45:18] stay here. So, um, I appreciate the fact that you actually offered them

[45:22] incentives because I know years ago when this healthc care crisis was starting, I

[45:27] can remember Fort St. John offering an incredible amount of money to keep

[45:31] physicians in their communities for up to two years. and then those guys took

[45:34] their 100,000 or whatever it was because it was the city and they just left. So,

[45:39] it's good to hear that we're managing to keep some of them. So, thanks a lot,

[45:42] Darl. >> Okay. Thank you, councelor Roenberg.

[45:46] Councelor Runge. >> Yeah, thanks Darl and Michelle for the

[45:48] presentation. It's uh it's actually really nice and positive for in a lot of

[45:53] things. uh with regards to I'm just tagging on to our the last counselor's

[45:57] uh question here. Did do you ever hear about any additional supports that our

[46:03] community uh you know engagement team could do?

[46:07] Like I mean that's what we as a council you know if there's something else that

[46:10] we're missing. I'd love that you share that with our staff so that we it comes

[46:14] out so we can find a way to keep you know keep that support going.

[46:20] So that's >> yeah that

[46:23] thank you for the question and I I think that's a great question for the the

[46:29] local team including our chief of staff and I am happy to to set up a meeting

[46:36] with Karen Keys as administrator and Dr. Nicole Robbins who have the finger on

[46:41] the pulse about what is happening in our hospital because that to answer that

[46:47] question we have to hear directly from the folks that are arriving here and

[46:52] that have been here for a little while to see if we're missing anything or we

[46:56] could do something differently. So I all I've heard to be frank is that

[47:02] position and the the work with the city has been very very much appreciated and

[47:08] I've heard it myself from physicians in particular. They feel welcome in

[47:13] Cornell. Um and I I can't recall to be honest a a a single concern beyond

[47:20] housing. Now that brings me to my my next point is one of the things that

[47:27] comes up repeatedly and it's actually come up very recently with a physician

[47:32] is lack of of housing

[47:38] and I know that I'm preaching to the choir and I've sat on many in a a

[47:43] meeting with uh with folks in the city about this issue but uh yeah it's still

[47:48] it still comes up as a as an issue. Thank you. And I hope some of these new

[47:53] buildings that are being built are going to help out there. Uh my f other

[47:57] question if I if I can with regards to the u earn and learn programs uh for for

[48:03] me uh because I was actually very involved with that school program. Uh

[48:07] you know it was it came out of actually our accessibility committee meeting and

[48:11] then from there it went to the school this year. I sometimes feel that we are

[48:16] missing the link in between the city, the school board and the high school to

[48:22] let the students know that these things are available going forward, you know,

[48:27] so that our grade 11 and 12 students can actually start planning for that. So,

[48:32] you know, I I'm no longer in that role in career

[48:35] programs, uh, but, you know, Cheryl McFarland has taken over that role for

[48:39] me at at the school district. And I I really think it's really extremely

[48:43] important. And if there's anything else that I can do to help with that, just

[48:46] let me know and I'll push some buttons at the school board or or wherever

[48:50] because for me that's the step that I feel we're kind of missing for our local

[48:55] students so that they know that there's a a path for them into what a lot of

[49:01] kids do like to do. And that was just I guess a kind of a statement. Thank you.

[49:07] » Uh excellent excellent point. Um it it I I need to ask Karen Keys if if when

[49:16] they are going to the schools if they are exploring these earn and learn

[49:20] programs with students. I I'm not sure if they are. So I will absolutely take

[49:25] that away and uh see what we're doing. But I completely agree with you if we

[49:30] aren't doing that is it is a real missed opportunity. So I'll get on that and

[49:35] find out. And just sorry just one quick add- on to that just because they work

[49:40] on a semester program uh when they had this we had this in December last year

[49:45] beginning of December so we hit the first semester students it was fabulous

[49:48] uh but we missed the second semester students that you know some of the

[49:51] students in the science classes so just that you keep that in the back of your

[49:54] head that there's also there's two semesters in the high school there so if

[49:58] we can hit them twice I think that's going to be really beneficial thank you

[50:02] » okay thank you councelor Range I'm now going to go to councelor McKelie

[50:07] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hi, Darl and Michelle. Thank you for this incredible

[50:12] presentation. It's always nice to get this one. I know I certainly look

[50:15] forward to it, and I'm sure the public does, too. It's nice to see that we're

[50:19] getting a lot of new equipment in the hospital. That's positive. Um, I want to

[50:24] draw your attention to the UPCC, the urgent primary care graph that goes

[50:32] from December of 25 to January. and it jumped from uh UPCC visits from 700 up

[50:42] to,00 in January. What do you attribute that to? That is a is quite a jump. I'm

[50:49] just wondering if you you can uh tell us why you there's such a an increase in

[50:55] visits. >> Oh, I see which one. I see which one

[51:01] you're looking. >> Yeah. Thank you.

[51:04] What happened uh around that time last year was we recruited uh a couple of

[51:10] international medical graduates. So these are foreign trained physicians

[51:15] that have their licenses that come to Canada. Um and we they have to be

[51:20] supervised for a couple of years uh before they get full Canadian lensure.

[51:25] Um so we managed to recruit two uh to Quinnell, not full-time but but a good

[51:32] chunk of the time. So the visits just skyrocketed.

[51:35] Um yeah, so and that's still in effect. One

[51:40] of them is on a leave right now. I I can't remember uh what type of leave,

[51:45] but one of them is on a leave. Um but we have backfilled some of that with that

[51:50] TEDoc that I talked about, that virtual physician service.

[51:57] » Thank you very much and keep up the great work.

[52:00] » Okay. Thank you, Councelor McKelby. Any go ahead, councelor Goule.

[52:06] » Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks, Darl and Michelle. Uh, great information in here.

[52:10] Just want to tag on to the last one with the with the Coraloo Senior Secondary. I

[52:15] just want to make mention of the Rotary and what they've done with Adventures in

[52:18] Healthcare and taking the kids to the CNC for some um almost if you could say

[52:24] book work and then a tour of the actual hospital and the facilities and ER and

[52:28] what's happening that life experience. Um listening to some of the u the the

[52:33] kids that took the program um they were quite excited. It's not just about

[52:37] nursing and doctoring. There's other things. There's lab technicians. There's

[52:40] all these other pieces that they could get interested into. So, it's a

[52:44] wonderful program and we hope to see that going as as we continue and a great

[52:48] job for just want to shout out to the Rotary Club of Point. My other um

[52:52] comment and it was mentioned already housing and I was going to ask that when

[52:55] I had that on my list but you had already mentioned one of the one of the

[52:58] major was you know recruitment and retention the housing piece. So glad

[53:03] that that's on the radar and I think we can work through different things but I

[53:07] just wanted to make a comment about the the Rotary exchange and adventures in

[53:10] healthcare. So thanks. >> Okay. Thank you, Councelor Goule. I've

[53:14] got a couple I don't really have any questions, but but a couple of comments

[53:17] and and that is that as the mayor, I'm um constantly inundate inundated with um

[53:24] more um bouques than beefs about health care generally in Quinnell. And I and I

[53:32] a lot of it goes to uh GR Baker and and Dun Roven and and basically the whole

[53:38] healthc care picture generally. So again, keep up the good work and when we

[53:43] turn on the news and see what what other communities are going through, uh we are

[53:47] very thankful that um that we've got um you know basically zero um touch wood um

[53:56] er closures. So so keep up the good work. Um also I was going to put in a a

[54:03] comment about the good news on the clean team, but that's already being covered

[54:07] off. I just want to mention that um my daughter is is a recent graduate of the

[54:14] um the healthc care assistant program. She moved over from education to to

[54:19] healthc care and she absolutely loves her new job. So so thank you for that.

[54:25] And finally, I've got a little story for you, and that is um when I go to see my

[54:30] family doctor occasionally, uh he likes to hear my stories about basically um

[54:36] snowmmoiling and fishing. And I said to him one day, I says, "Hey, doc, have you

[54:40] ever been fishing here in the caribou?" And he says, "No." And I says, "Well,

[54:44] how would you like to go?" And he says, "Yeah, I'd love that." So, uh, Pat and I

[54:48] were busy setting up a fishing trip out to Tensicut Lake for he and his, um,

[54:54] wife and and three kids and get everything loaded up and ready to go and

[54:59] got the res the, um, the the reservation at the resort because we we didn't want

[55:05] to take a chance. We were at Tensicut Lake and didn't want to take a chance

[55:09] with the forestry campsite and all ready to go. And then at the last minute, I

[55:14] get the phone call. Oh, I'm sorry. I got called in to work. So, he's on the

[55:19] waiting list for uh for another fishing trip. So, um I understand the problems

[55:24] and and um we're going to get that fishing trip um looked after as soon as

[55:29] possible. So, any more questions or comments?

[55:34] Okay, seeing none, I thank you Darl and Michelle for your presentation and we'll

[55:38] just give you a minute to to clear the technology and and get the new tech.

[55:42] Well, we've got them in in in true true flesh and blood reality here. So

[55:47] hopefully we don't have to rely on technology. So thank you again.

[55:52] » Thank you.

[56:25] Okay. Are we ready to go? >> Yes, sir.

[56:28] » We are. We have Amy Faker, um, CEO of the Caribou Chilcoten Coast. I remember

[56:34] when it was the Caribou Tourism Association. And I'm really dating

[56:37] myself when I say that. So the triple CTA and Amy, if you could uh use your

[56:42] loud voice because uh some of us are a little hearing impaired. So not me, but

[56:48] » not you. Not me. I can do that. I've been told I have a mom voice and can

[56:52] project. >> So the floor is yours, Amy.

[56:55] » Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you everyone for having me. I just want to

[56:59] acknowledge um two quick things before I get started today. our team member Patty

[57:03] Jiardi, who's normally with you, is in the gallery with me today. Um, and a

[57:08] shout out to Amy and her team for helping put together numbers that matter

[57:13] and leading the other economic development officers across the Caribou

[57:17] Regional District. So, thank you very much.

[57:20] So, in the next 12 minutes, I have a script to stay on topic because I too

[57:25] talk often and long. I'm going to walk through some of the things that the

[57:29] municipal regional district tax program otherwise known as MRDT has delivered

[57:35] for tourism across the Caribage Cotton Coast region. So, no picture asked for

[57:39] you today and not your regular marketing update meeting, but a report on the

[57:43] overall MRDT results across the region since inception.

[57:49] So, let's start where we began. A decade ago, destination BC had pulled back all

[57:55] its marketing programs and funding support for your from your rural

[57:59] communities and tourism operators. Our regional communities had limited budgets

[58:04] to replace these funds and most were not significantly investing in tourism

[58:09] marketing on its own. Tourism operator budgets were stretched thin. The Tourism

[58:14] Accommodation Assessment Relief Act was outdated and underresourcing tourism

[58:19] operators. BC fairies had even cancelled the Bellakula to Port Hardy route,

[58:24] cutting off a key access point for travelers to the region. And the result

[58:29] was predictable. It was serious. This region was losing tourism businesses. We

[58:34] were losing market share to the rest of the province. And there were no

[58:38] marketing programs left to help our operators recover.

[58:43] Here's what that looked like in numbers from Destination BC's own regional

[58:48] profile for the Caribou Chukoten Coast. In January of 2015,

[58:53] the region held 1% of BC's population, but less than 1% of the province's

[58:59] tourism revenue. Room revenue across the entire region sat at $21.2 million. We

[59:06] were pulling 3% of BC's visitors with 2% of overnight stays, but less than 1% was

[59:13] staying in business's pockets as revenue. The average daily room rate

[59:18] then was just $12469.

[59:23] One of the strong regional goals we heard across businesses was that we

[59:28] needed to generate at least 5% annual growth and take back 1% of the

[59:34] province's tourism revenue share to help them be viable. This became a

[59:39] foundational goal in the first MRDT collection plan.

[59:45] Getting there took years of persistence and was not a single decision as many of

[59:49] you in the room know. In 2015, tourism operators across the region asked

[59:55] Caribou Chukoten Coast for a solution. Research and industry input was

[1:00:00] undertaken. In 2016, our board took to ask local governments if they would be

[1:00:06] willing to take on MRDT. Most of them said no, but businesses continued to

[1:00:12] push the organization. By 2017, the first regional collection

[1:00:17] plan was in place. And in May of 2018, MRDT was launched across the majority of

[1:00:23] the region with 141 businesses remitting in that first year. In 2019, we launched

[1:00:31] the land without limits consumer website to give the region a real marketing home

[1:00:36] again. And in May 2023 on our first MRDT renewal, it expanded to cover the entire

[1:00:43] Caribbean coast with 166 remitting businesses.

[1:00:50] With that funding finally in place in 2017, here is what was set out for us to

[1:00:56] do in that first plan and has been accomplished. We used destination BC's

[1:01:02] open pool funding to extend reach into existing markets. Invested in key travel

[1:01:07] corridors like the gold rush trail. Built regional branded marketing

[1:01:12] initiatives that were aimed squarely at those goals of growing room occupancy

[1:01:17] and rate across the region. We ran targeted campaigns. We advocated for

[1:01:23] better transportation across access, including road, rail, air, and that darn

[1:01:28] ferry. We grew funding for destination development, secured marketing staff for

[1:01:34] the region to execute the plans, and kept the businesses engaged in shaping

[1:01:38] those plans every step of the way. Most recently, we introduced responsible

[1:01:44] travel campaigns to protect what makes the region and our communities worth

[1:01:49] visiting. We've also started work that is still

[1:01:53] building momentum today from that plan, including investing in third-party media

[1:01:58] rights on behalf of operators and communities, and putting real research

[1:02:02] and performance monitoring behind decisions instead of marketing

[1:02:06] guesswork. We support new tourism products and experiences, are investing

[1:02:12] in strengthening industry knowledge and business skills, and are tightening how

[1:02:16] we measure the return on every marketing dollar.

[1:02:20] The team is reinforcing the identity of the region as an outdoor recreation

[1:02:26] destination based on business's direction, exploring new co-op and

[1:02:31] corporate partnerships, working directly with the region's indigenous tourism

[1:02:35] operators, and growing programs in sustainability, accessibility, and

[1:02:41] overnight stays across the board. But our work from that first plan is still

[1:02:47] not done. We need more training for frontline and visitor center staff so

[1:02:52] that every visitor to the region gets a warm welcome and a quality experience

[1:02:57] start to fish finish. We need a real signage strategy for our offhighway

[1:03:02] routes and remote destinations. And beyond that, we're actively asking

[1:03:07] operators what are the new opportunities in front of us today in the shifting

[1:03:13] landscape. So is it actually working? Let's look at

[1:03:18] the numbers. This is the heart of what we put together to come and share with

[1:03:22] you today. Starting with business success in 2018,

[1:03:27] 141 accommodation properties were remitting MRDT.

[1:03:31] By 2022, that had grown to 166. And in 2025, it's 194 properties. 53 more

[1:03:41] businesses eligible and remitting in 7 years. Now to be fair, we can't fully

[1:03:47] separate new businesses growing the new businesses joining the program from

[1:03:52] natural growth because the increase in 2024 included that inclusion of Quinnel

[1:03:59] and Wells into the new collection. But the trend underneath it is real and

[1:04:04] positive. Despite business transitions across the region, we can say we've

[1:04:10] reversed the trend of losing tourism businesses despite CO and other

[1:04:14] emergency impacts. Referrals and leads to tourism

[1:04:18] businesses have grown even faster. In our first year from 2017 to 18, the

[1:04:25] organization generated 9,678 referrals to business. This past year

[1:04:31] from 2025 to 26 that number was 54,685 and was up 12% from the year previous.

[1:04:40] These are real qualified business leads being driven by marketing and handed

[1:04:45] directly to businesses in the region every year.

[1:04:49] Now to room revenue. From where our core target at the beginning was 5% annual

[1:04:54] growth in the first five years of collection from 18 to 22 room revenue

[1:05:00] grew from $21.2 million to nearly 35 65% growth more than $9 million ahead of our

[1:05:10] target while the rest of British Columbia grew at only 36% in the same

[1:05:15] time period. In our current MRDT term, between 2023 and 2025, we've added

[1:05:22] another 20% growth from 44.6 million to 53.7 million.

[1:05:30] The growth is beginning to moderate and businesses are starting to tell the team

[1:05:34] that they are fully booked at certain times of year. And this is exactly the

[1:05:38] kind of problem that we want to have. This conversation will be an important

[1:05:43] one with operators when we begin to set new targets in the next 5-year plan. And

[1:05:49] on to that provincial share. The original goal was to take back 1% of

[1:05:54] BC's tourism revenue. In 2018, the region held 0.75%

[1:06:01] and in 2025 we'd earned back to 1.08%. 43% growth or roughly a third of a

[1:06:09] percentage point of real hard one market share taken back one campaign at a time.

[1:06:15] But we're not done yet. With revenue growth exceeding expectations and more

[1:06:20] than doubling regional room revenue in eight years of marketing and programs,

[1:06:26] our board feels that marketing is actually making a difference.

[1:06:31] So, I'm going to move quickly through the next few slides because this is

[1:06:34] where we're headed, not where we've been. I mentioned research, and this is

[1:06:39] some personabased visitor profiling from Environics Analytics. It maps out

[1:06:44] exactly who the core and opportunity travel segments are across British

[1:06:50] Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario as our core domestic markets. and the same

[1:06:55] profiling for our secondary US markets in Washington, Oregon, California,

[1:07:02] Florida, Texas, and Colorado. This data is the foundation for the new generation

[1:07:07] of targeted marketing for this region. Reaching the right travelers with the

[1:07:12] right message instead of marketing broadly and hoping it continues to land.

[1:07:19] None of this works without the operators and businesses. 92% of tourism

[1:07:24] businesses in this province are small businesses and they are the backbone of

[1:07:28] local economies right across this region. In 2023, BC's tourism industry

[1:07:34] employed 125,700 people, up 7.9% from 2022, and paid out

[1:07:42] 5.9 billion in wages and salary, up 11.8%

[1:07:47] from the year before. These businesses and employees in our communities are the

[1:07:53] backbone of tourism and who we're proud to continue to serve.

[1:07:58] A strong criticism we've heard repeatedly is that we refuse to share

[1:08:03] local details on collection. So that's all very nice, but what actually gets

[1:08:08] collected right here in Quinnel. And I've shared before our frustrations that

[1:08:12] we actually can't share that information. So here is an MRDT

[1:08:16] statement in black and white. This is what we get monthly in our dispersement

[1:08:21] letter from the provincial government. The net payments on that letter

[1:08:26] represent local businesses across the region that remit MRDT directly via

[1:08:31] their PST returns. The OAP line is online accommodation platform

[1:08:38] allocations where a local business may pay that fee to a platform such as

[1:08:42] Airbnb or VRBO and then they remit to the province on their behalf. The

[1:08:48] province then takes their admin fee for administering the program. They take the

[1:08:53] tourism events deduction fee which funds fairs, festivals and event programs

[1:08:58] across the province including in our communities. And the bottom balance are

[1:09:03] the real dollars that are transferred directly to support the tourism

[1:09:06] marketing we've shared. As frustrating as it may be, and our team shares the

[1:09:12] frustration when we're planning, there is no way for us to carve out of those

[1:09:16] numbers what comes from right here in Quinnel.

[1:09:21] So in closing, where does that leave us today? In 2025, the Caribbean coast held

[1:09:28] 1% of BC's population and 1 08% of its tourism revenue. 43% growth in our

[1:09:35] provincial share since we began. Room revenues are up to 53.7 million, more

[1:09:42] than double where we started in 2018. And there are more than 20% more

[1:09:48] accommodation businesses remitting MRDT than when the current term began.

[1:09:54] We're overindexed on exactly the right visitor profiles that we want coming to

[1:09:59] the communities and businesses in our region. We're generating more than

[1:10:04] 50,000 warm qualified leads to businesses every year. And last year,

[1:10:09] the program also created over $1.7 million in free media advertising at no

[1:10:17] additional cost and not out of our MRDT budget. That's what a decade of

[1:10:22] investment, persistence, and partnership with communities like yourself has

[1:10:26] built. Thank you very much for your time and your continued partnership and

[1:10:31] leadership in your community. The contacts on the screen, but I'd be happy

[1:10:35] to answer any questions. >> Okay, thank you for that. Uh I think

[1:10:39] it's bundled up to be good news. So, so thank you very much for that. I'm going

[1:10:44] to open the floor to questions. Uh councelor Runge.

[1:10:47] » Yeah, thanks for the report. And yeah, I do have questions. So, you you were able

[1:10:52] to give us uh that number of pe of businesses that are submitting uh the

[1:10:57] MRDT text from 166 to 192 in 2024 that included our local area. Do you know how

[1:11:03] many are from here? >> No.

[1:11:06] » So, so that number that is given to you by the province, the 166 to the 192.

[1:11:13] » No. Great question. uh we figure out that number because we know what the per

[1:11:17] property submission fee for the admin fee is. So I showed you that letter and

[1:11:22] we see what they take. If you divide it by their per property submission admin

[1:11:27] fee then each month I can see the number of businesses that remitted and average

[1:11:32] it over the year because of privacy and PST they won't release any business

[1:11:37] information. almost fair but you know it's too bad uh because you know what

[1:11:42] for me my my question is actually goes back to the you know the triple C you

[1:11:46] know what are you hearing from our local operators and once again from a city's

[1:11:50] perspective is there something that we are missing here at the city costless of

[1:11:56] course that we can support these business with businesses with you know

[1:12:01] from my past experiences with some of our hotels and things and asking for

[1:12:05] funding during fairs and things like that a lot of replies were, "Oh, it's

[1:12:09] not helping." But, you know, these numbers actually speak a very different

[1:12:14] story. And it's a real positive story. But I, you know, for me, it's still if

[1:12:17] there's something that you're hearing that you communicate it, not with me,

[1:12:21] with staff so that they can come back to us, right? And we can find a way to

[1:12:25] continue to support things. It's, you know, for me it's really unfortunate

[1:12:28] that we can't get better numbers because we're actually I'm not sure what of that

[1:12:34] 1% we are that Barkerville is that, you know, where that support is. So, it

[1:12:38] becomes a a feel-good story, but one that is ultimately just a feel-good

[1:12:43] story. Thank you. >> Okay, Councelor McKelby.

[1:12:49] » Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have a comment. I just want to thank uh you Amy

[1:12:53] and Patty for being here and I this is really encouraging and thank you for

[1:12:59] your hard work. It's all in the numbers and they're proving that it's working.

[1:13:02] Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Councelor McKelby.

[1:13:06] Councelor Rudenberg, >> thanks and good evening you guys. Good

[1:13:11] to see you again. Um, so I know you touched on a couple things like uh

[1:13:15] signage strategy, which I totally get because I we actually traveled over to

[1:13:21] uh Velmont last weekend and I know that's outside of the triple CTA, but

[1:13:26] it'd be really nice if the province, you know, if we could get that that one

[1:13:29] style of signage for everybody, so you knew exactly what you were looking for

[1:13:32] when you're looking at signage. Just saying might be something you can talk

[1:13:36] to your colleagues about. Um, I know this might be outside of the the scope

[1:13:41] of what you're doing, what you're presenting today, but I'm kind of

[1:13:44] curious of what your wildfire strategy is because we know that when people see,

[1:13:50] oh my god, the, you know, Colona is on fire, they avoid the entire area all

[1:13:55] summer. So when we talk about our area, what type of strategy have you in place

[1:14:00] that you know encourage people to come when it's safe and that it's okay to

[1:14:05] come because everything's still in place and we can still offer what you're

[1:14:09] looking for as a as a visitor. >> Yeah, really great question. Um, we've

[1:14:14] done a lot of research. We've had a lot of experience collectively together over

[1:14:19] the years. Um so the first step is because we do so much digital targeted

[1:14:25] marketing now our marketing doesn't turn off collectively like you had to turn

[1:14:30] off a program. It turns off an area that's being impacted and continues to

[1:14:35] support the surrounding areas. So we're better able to manage that flow and

[1:14:40] response. The media team um within our wildfire strategy does a lot of media

[1:14:46] monitoring and education about the size of the region, the size of British

[1:14:51] Columbia, the distance between communities, sort of all of that to your

[1:14:55] point of just because there's a fire in Colona doesn't mean you can't come to

[1:14:59] Quinnell or Prince George or Bella. Um and they have a full-time monitoring

[1:15:04] strategy that corrects misinformation in media. um so that we can

[1:15:10] you know retractions don't always change what people saw but sometimes we can get

[1:15:15] a positive story out of that in an education piece u and then we work very

[1:15:19] closely with the emergency management team and British Columbia on people

[1:15:24] movement um ensuring those businesses that are impacted have access toss and

[1:15:29] logistics and opportunities should they choose to to have a different revenue

[1:15:34] stream during the interruption and then finally the marketing team works on

[1:15:38] recovery marketing and messaging. So, they're just getting ready to deploy new

[1:15:43] toolkits. Um, we shared information with our operators this year about using

[1:15:47] social media to showcase real time. Well, the North Caribou had blue skies

[1:15:52] and everybody thought there were smoke advisories. We're encouraging businesses

[1:15:55] to show those daily photos and, you know, use the power of people to break

[1:16:01] the misinformation that's in media. And I think that's that's one of the

[1:16:05] important things is getting, you know, the the local people who are in the

[1:16:09] midst of this. Um I just think there's probably other opportunities and I can't

[1:16:15] tell you them off the top of my head how the triplect can really reinforce the

[1:16:20] fact that you know the caribou and the you know is doing well. You know it's

[1:16:25] almost like you know you put that blast out there. It's not about following the

[1:16:29] online stuff, but it's about being proactive and saying, "Listen, we know

[1:16:33] there are fires here, but check out what's going on here." It's almost like

[1:16:36] you have to have those preemptive kind of messaging to go out so that people

[1:16:40] really do get it because it takes more than once for people to understand. So,

[1:16:44] I do appreciate that you have a fire strategy, but I think that it's about

[1:16:49] being out ahead of the game more than anything else in my mind's eye. So,

[1:16:53] thank you. >> Thank you.

[1:16:55] » Okay. Thank you, Councelor Rudenberg. Councelor Vic.

[1:16:58] » Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hi. >> Hi.

[1:17:00] » Uh, definitely the it seems the results show to a lot of improvement at large

[1:17:06] for the entire region and and I think what where we've had questions in the

[1:17:11] past is trying to drill down to see what local businesses, local entrepreneurs in

[1:17:17] this space are saying. Have you given any thought or any um consideration for

[1:17:25] creating data points from your office to focus on

[1:17:30] nucleuses like Quinnell might be a nucleus, Williams Lake might be on what

[1:17:34] the local operators are saying about how things are going. Um have just so we can

[1:17:41] this is good data and it I'm proud of that that our region writ large is doing

[1:17:46] well. But ultimately, as councelor Rush sort of alluded to, it it's it's not

[1:17:51] in-depth enough for our community. >> Yeah, I completely understand and thank

[1:17:56] you for the question. We do have operators that share financials with our

[1:18:01] team um and share what's going on and share details and we have that

[1:18:06] internally for decision making. We've worked with the BCO tele association

[1:18:11] about trying to get some of that data clustered. And what uh we run into both

[1:18:16] at that level and at our level is the moment we say we want to roll it up and

[1:18:20] share it, but they're willing to share becomes very much less because of

[1:18:25] competition. Um, so we don't have a dashboard sort of being invested in at

[1:18:31] this point because of the challenges of the number it takes to report without it

[1:18:37] being obvious that you're like, "Oh, I know who that was." Um, for data

[1:18:42] security across it, but it is an ongoing conversation that happens around our

[1:18:46] table and our marketing board all of the time.

[1:18:49] » Yeah. >> Just a quick followup, Mr. Mayor, and

[1:18:51] that and I I respect that. Um, but I know Amy's team quite frequently sends

[1:18:57] out surveys to the business community in Quinnell and I think that data has ended

[1:19:02] up being shared at large to the whole community um during council meetings. So

[1:19:07] is there a way to draft a survey which doesn't get into the weeds on financials

[1:19:14] for a business where they don't feel comfortable sharing but at least gets a

[1:19:17] sense on how they feel about the direction of your organization about the

[1:19:22] state of the world and and in business. >> Yeah, absolutely. I can take back. We do

[1:19:28] um an industry satisfaction survey and so does destination BC every year that

[1:19:34] asks not like less the financial of how they're doing in business but what they

[1:19:38] think and familiarity with programs and value. I can definitely ask the data

[1:19:42] teams how finely we're allowed to slice that or whether they could change the

[1:19:46] wording when it goes out to ask it to be shared at a community level.

[1:19:50] » Yeah, you're welcome.

[1:19:55] Okay, we're good to go. Anyone else? Well, well, thank you, Amy. And uh I

[1:20:01] just want to put a bug in your ear that uh 2028 is Quinnel's 100th anniversary.

[1:20:09] A great year to have your AGM here in Q Town. So,

[1:20:13] » all right, put that in the book. >> I'll talk to the team.

[1:20:16] » Thank you. >> Okay. And again, uh thank you to you and

[1:20:19] Patty for uh for the presentation. As I said, it's it it's very positive and uh

[1:20:25] that's all a tribute to to your hard work and your due diligence. So, thank

[1:20:29] you again and we'll we'll stay in touch. >> Thank you, Mayor. It takes a team.

[1:20:38] » Okay. So, we have no items arising from previous

[1:20:46] special closed meetings. Now we will go to reports and note that uh committee

[1:20:52] report regarding the housing solutions table uh will be deferred until the next

[1:20:57] council meeting when um councelor Elliot is back again. So I'll now go to

[1:21:04] committee report August 18th 2026 financial sustainability and audit

[1:21:10] committee councelor Vic to report. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. Uh we had a pretty

[1:21:16] thick agenda at our last meeting. So understanding that council's probably

[1:21:21] read this report, I'll try and zip through it a little quicker. Um so the

[1:21:26] first order of business was uh we took a first pass at comprehensive fees bylaw

[1:21:31] for for the upcoming year. Um basically no no big surprises. We do have some

[1:21:38] typical inflationary pressures. So things like our utility rates will rise

[1:21:43] marginally for inflationary reasons but nothing that uh we haven't seen in the

[1:21:49] past. Um the bigger discussion on this part was regarding our cemetery rates.

[1:21:55] The the fee structure is going to change. um residents in the city will

[1:22:00] not see a change but regional district residents will see a change and that's

[1:22:04] by virtue of the fact that their contribution to the cemetery function

[1:22:09] their contribution has lowered. So that has resulted in a change to the fees

[1:22:15] that those residents will pay for plots at the cemetery. Uh next we went into

[1:22:21] nonprofit permissive tax exemptions. So there um BA basically uh there's two

[1:22:29] changes primarily this time around. One of them is we'll be removing the tax

[1:22:33] exemption for the SPCA as they are no longer acting as our city pound and that

[1:22:38] was a prerequisite for them to receive the permissive tax exemption. Also the

[1:22:43] TICOM society has uh has a lot flurry of activity with their folios. So there'll

[1:22:49] be a degree of consolidation um to clean that up. Uh next we talked

[1:22:55] about funding to outside groups which there are uh to my math there are six

[1:23:00] outside groups that we provide funding to with the new council coming in. Uh

[1:23:05] we'll be asking each of these groups to explain uh their needs uh how things are

[1:23:10] going so they can uh educate the new council on their function and why uh

[1:23:15] they're receiving money from the city of Cornell. Um, the big the big ticket item

[1:23:21] that we talked about at this meeting was capital prioritization. I'm not going to

[1:23:25] get in too much depth on this because Director Bolton will be covering this

[1:23:29] off in a staff report in a few minutes, but basically this was the real meat and

[1:23:33] potatoes of the meeting. We have several high priority capital projects uh coming

[1:23:39] to bear and we had to uh prioritize or sort of have a function and a and a and

[1:23:48] a series of criteria to prioritize these um projects. In the end, one of the key

[1:23:55] um factors in prioritization was regulatory um compliance and that

[1:24:04] ultimately leads to a discussion on water treatment as we are uh required to

[1:24:10] uh treat our water because of the manganesees issue that sort of trumps

[1:24:14] other issues. So in the end, this committee uh will recommend that that

[1:24:19] project receives priority and director Bolton will talk a little bit more about

[1:24:24] that in her report. Um

[1:24:28] basically that's that's about it. A little bit of good news. Uh Director

[1:24:31] Bolton uh informed us that they were able to rebuild a loader. I know it's a

[1:24:35] small detail, but I think it's good news. We were able to re rebuild one of

[1:24:39] our loaders, and that uh may save us $375,000 in borrowing. uh this year

[1:24:45] because we didn't have to buy a new loader. So I thought that was great news

[1:24:48] and I thank the team for that and uh there are the three uh for reference

[1:24:54] only the the recommendations that the finance has made but that will be

[1:24:58] covered off in director Bolton's report and the next scheduled meeting is the

[1:25:03] middle of September. I'll take any questions if anyone has any.

[1:25:06] » Okay. Thank you councelor Vic. questions from the from the council comments?

[1:25:13] Anyone? Okay, seeing none, I'll um and you have

[1:25:18] no no recommendations that we need to follow up as a result.

[1:25:23] » Not from this report. They're all for reference only. They're going to be

[1:25:25] covered off from Director Pton's report. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So I'll go

[1:25:29] to the next item and that is a report from myself uh on the excuse me June

[1:25:36] 19th Caribou Regional District Board meeting and I apologize because this

[1:25:42] report I'm been re being relying on the CRD for their uh reports that come out

[1:25:49] and this just came into our office. So, I think what I'm going to have to do is

[1:25:54] craft a a report immediately after uh attending a CRD meeting rather than

[1:26:00] relying on waiting for the Caribou Regional District's report because this

[1:26:05] goes back about 3 months and uh we need to do better than that. So um very

[1:26:12] briefly um regarding the um the nil Hitzel eco

[1:26:20] um wind wind project uh that that uh there was a a letter or pardon me the

[1:26:26] board received a presentation and um I understand that the board has uh uh

[1:26:32] submitted a letter in support of that and actually we have um a staff report

[1:26:38] coming up immedi immediately following this. So there there will be some more

[1:26:42] business uh on that particular project. Um the 2025 statement of financial

[1:26:49] information came out as it as it does for all municipalities and regional

[1:26:54] districts uh in the car or in the in the province. Uh the board approved

[1:26:59] sponsorship funding for the Williams Lake First Nation annual POW and um

[1:27:04] performances in the park partnership renewal. That is again a Williams Lake

[1:27:10] event that the uh the board approved. And there were a bunch of other um

[1:27:15] pieces of business that dealt with um South Caribou uh Regional Airport and

[1:27:21] Esler Recreation Capital projects. Uh so I'll conclude right there and if there's

[1:27:26] any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

[1:27:32] Okay, seeing none, let's move on to staff report uh 6426.

[1:27:38] And this this is on the Hixon I can't pronounce that. I'm sorry, the wind

[1:27:42] project at Hixon. And um so I'm going to go to manager Reed for this report.

[1:27:50] » Thank you, Mayor. The purpose of this report is to provide clarification

[1:27:53] regarding the Nili Eco wind project's planned use of the Quinnell landfill.

[1:27:58] And if it's okay, I'll just say wind project going forward. At the July 28th

[1:28:03] council meeting, council requested staff bring further information regarding the

[1:28:07] use of the Cornell landfill by the wind project. The draft socioeconomic impact

[1:28:13] assessment summary states non-hazardous materials will be collected and also

[1:28:18] disposed of in accordance with applicable provincial and federal

[1:28:22] regulatory requirements. The Quinnell landfill is the closest landfill to the

[1:28:26] project site and it is anticipated the bulk of non-hazardous materials will be

[1:28:31] transported there depending on the ability of the landfill to accept

[1:28:35] project related waste at the time of construction. If project needs cannot be

[1:28:40] easily accommodated by existing landfill capacity,

[1:28:44] NET Ecoenter will explore alternative disposal locations with local and

[1:28:49] regional authorities in adherence with local permitting requirements.

[1:28:54] I did reach out to the project manager and he couldn't provide an accurate

[1:28:57] volume estimate at this time, but his email noted that it would likely be a

[1:29:02] few construction bins per month. He also confirmed that if capacity was a

[1:29:07] concern, an alternate location for waste disposal could be identified. Once

[1:29:11] volumes can be confirmed, the city may deny access to the landfill. A letter of

[1:29:16] support for the project will not be considered approval to use the landfill

[1:29:19] for waste generated during construction. So the recommendation is that council

[1:29:25] provide a letter of support for the wind project for their energy regulator

[1:29:29] activities act permit application. >> Okay. Thank you.

[1:29:47] » Yes. Thank you. Thank you for putting that call out because it was us that

[1:29:50] requested uh the the landfill question and and I do I'm really happy to hear

[1:29:55] that it the amounts here and like I said before, you know, as long as it's been

[1:30:00] it's been approved, we're not worried about end of life things right now, but

[1:30:03] I see that the city can at any time if if it's stuff that we can't deal with,

[1:30:07] they can just say no. So, I do appreciate you reaching out. If there's

[1:30:10] a chance for me ever to talk to them, I'd love to find out more about this. Uh

[1:30:13] but thank you very much for for checking in on us for for this.

[1:30:19] » Okay, thank you for that. Any further questions before I call the question on

[1:30:23] the question? Okay, seeing no further comment or

[1:30:28] question. Are we all in favor? Opposed? One opposed. You wish your vote

[1:30:34] recorded. Uh so please record councelor McKelby's vote.

[1:30:39] Okay, thank you for that. And then we will go now to staff report 65/26

[1:30:50] city staff report local government climate action program reporting local

[1:30:55] government intermuel to report. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. The purpose of this

[1:31:02] report is to provide council and the public with a copy of the local

[1:31:05] government climate action report submitted by the city for 2025's

[1:31:10] greenhouse gas emissions. The local government climate action

[1:31:14] program LGCAP provides stable funding to local

[1:31:19] governments and modern treaty nations. This funding supports local climate

[1:31:23] actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Municip mi municipalities

[1:31:29] with a population exceeding 5,000 residents must measure and report their

[1:31:34] corporate emissions profiles for traditional services to remain eligible

[1:31:38] for funding. The most recent statistics Canada data for 2021 states the

[1:31:44] population of Cornell census subdivision is 9,889.

[1:31:50] The survey requires greenhouse gas emissions to be reported as tons of CO2

[1:31:54] equivalent. In 2025, the greenhouse gas emissions

[1:31:59] for traditional services directly delivered and contracted services as

[1:32:04] defined by LGCAP were 1,144.37

[1:32:10] TCO2E, which is a 3% increase from 2024's

[1:32:16] 11,000 sorry 1,11.44

[1:32:20] TCO2E. the it's my sorry it's the recommend the

[1:32:26] point of this proposal is just for the council to receive this report for

[1:32:30] information only. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you for that. So um yeah

[1:32:35] we've been advised that uh this is for for council information. So therefore uh

[1:32:40] no um resolution is required but I will open the floor to questions from anyone

[1:32:46] that uh that wishes. Okay. seeing you're you're you're

[1:32:50] getting off easy here tonight. So So thank you for your report. Okay. So the

[1:32:55] next one is staff report

[1:32:59] uh 66/26 capital prioritization. Director Bolton

[1:33:06] to report. >> Thank you. The purpose of this report is

[1:33:10] to discuss the prioritization of major projects in the 20-year capital plan and

[1:33:14] articulate some recommendations for the new council arriving this fall. The

[1:33:18] financial sustainability and audit committee has reviewed this report and

[1:33:21] recommends the resolutions included in the report. So, a major challenge facing

[1:33:26] the community is that infrastructure costs continue to rise without a

[1:33:29] matching increase in revenue. With the city's assessment base remaining

[1:33:32] relatively stable, these costs are generally passed on to residents through

[1:33:35] higher taxes taxes and user fees. At the same time, the city faces ongoing

[1:33:40] pressure to direct more operating funds towards social and other needs. The

[1:33:44] challenge is not expected to ease significantly in the near future through

[1:33:47] growth, new revenue sources, or additional provincial funding. As a

[1:33:50] result, council will need to consider how much taxes and fees can reasonably

[1:33:54] increase to maintain existing services and whether some service levels should

[1:33:58] be reviewed to support long-term sustainability.

[1:34:01] And then I've given just different ways we evaluate capital projects at uh c at

[1:34:06] budget time, just the things we think about. So strategic alignment, whether

[1:34:10] or not there's a regulatory requirement, improvements to service levels,

[1:34:14] consequence of failure is a big one. Other operational risks and economic

[1:34:18] impacts. Those are all the things we think about when we look at every

[1:34:21] project and decide whether or not it should go forward. We did do the master

[1:34:24] infrastructure plan just a year and a half ago, I guess, now, and it looked at

[1:34:28] all our projects that we need in the 20-year plan to maintain our services.

[1:34:32] And it showed that property taxes will need to increase by at least 1% per year

[1:34:36] for the foreseeable future to fund the current level of roads, drainage,

[1:34:39] buildings, and related infrastructure, and that water fees will need to

[1:34:43] increase by 1.5% and sewer fees by 1%. All of this is before inflation. And of

[1:34:48] course, as we all know, the world's going a bit crazy right now, so we don't

[1:34:51] know where inflation's going. So, it's something we'll have to continue to

[1:34:54] watch. So, the infrastructure plan and 20-year financial plan were based on

[1:34:58] using debt for any large significant building renovations in the future, such

[1:35:01] as the RCMP building, and assume significant grant funding for water

[1:35:05] treatment. So, I gave a little summary of how some of our capital funding

[1:35:09] sources are changing. And then we talked about the three projects that are in the

[1:35:13] 20-year capital plan that will likely require debt financing. So that's

[1:35:17] replacing a fire ladder truck, the RCMP renovation if it proceeds, and water

[1:35:22] treatment. So these will all require debt. I spoke

[1:35:26] a little about our debt capacity. It's not an issue. I mean, we've run out of

[1:35:30] taxes to pay the debt before we'd run out of debt capacity. Um, so then here's

[1:35:35] the large projects that we need to think about. So water the water treatment

[1:35:38] project is a regulatory requirement and the largest project facing the city in

[1:35:42] the near future. The water treatment is a project that infrastructure grants

[1:35:46] have been given for in the past. So, we'll continue to look for grants for

[1:35:49] that. Our city's our current water fees are lower than average than across the

[1:35:53] province because we aren't currently paying for water treatment. So, this is

[1:35:57] one we'll look for grant funding for. I gave just some examples there. You can

[1:36:00] see depending on how much grant funding we get, how much this will cost us per

[1:36:04] year. Um, one of the in in addition to the capital cost, water treatment also

[1:36:08] has approximately a million dollars of operating costs once it's up and

[1:36:11] running. So that'll increase our water costs each year.

[1:36:15] The RCMP detachment, another project that could potentially require debt. So

[1:36:19] the renovation is a priority project for the detachment. Although parking issues

[1:36:22] related to the project remain unresolved, the project should be

[1:36:26] reviewed with the new council, including the discussion of the parking

[1:36:28] requirements and the preferred timing for a referendum on the required debt

[1:36:31] funding. Because there's currently no reserve funding for major building

[1:36:35] projects, works of the scale will generally need to be funded through

[1:36:38] debt. At this time, there are no other significant building projects

[1:36:41] anticipated. So, in the 20-year plan, we don't have any other big buildings

[1:36:45] coming at us. So, again, I showed the potential tax increase just due to the

[1:36:51] debt payments that we would be required if we take debt for our share of the

[1:36:54] RCMP renovation. The province would pay part of that building because they have

[1:36:58] officers in that building, too. And then the fire equipment. We've got a ladder

[1:37:02] truck that we're going to have to replace here in a few years. The last

[1:37:05] one was debt funded, and that's debt is almost out. So then we would take a debt

[1:37:09] to fund the new one. So I've included a copy of all our large projects over the

[1:37:14] next 10 years just for information. And I also included a chart of the potential

[1:37:19] tax increases. This is just estimates ballparks just so someone knows kind of

[1:37:23] where we're headed and kind of the challenges facing us. But I just want to

[1:37:26] make sure it is estimates and of course the new council will have a lot of input

[1:37:30] into this. So the recommendations just to give some direction to staff as we

[1:37:35] move forward on these especially the unfunded projects. Do you want me I'll

[1:37:39] do them one at a time. The first one is that council directs the water treatment

[1:37:42] capital project to be the priority project for infrastructure grant

[1:37:45] funding. Recognize the city will be required to fund a portion of the

[1:37:48] project and to seek grants that contribute at least twothirds of the

[1:37:51] cost.

[1:37:57] » Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councelor Run is moving seconding councelor Vic.

[1:38:03] Any discussion, comments? Okay. Are we all in favor? Opposed?

[1:38:09] Carried. Thank you. That's a big one. >> Okay.

[1:38:13] » Okay. So, now um we go to council information.

[1:38:19] » No, I I've still got two more resolutions. I'm sorry. Yeah.

[1:38:22] » So, the I I've got two more resolutions.

[1:38:27] » Oh, okay. >> Okay. Go ahead.

[1:38:29] » The second one is the council directs future budgets to be built with a 1.5%

[1:38:33] increase per year in taxation to the capital reinvestment reserve to fund the

[1:38:37] capital replacement projects in the master infrastructure plan. This is in

[1:38:40] addition to the required increases for sewer and water fees each year.

[1:38:45] » Okay. I'm sorry I misread that. I thought it was all sort of an omnibus um

[1:38:51] resolution. So this is the second of three resolutions. Councelor Vic, you're

[1:38:56] moving. Councelor McCelby is seconding. Any discussion? Councelor Runge.

[1:39:02] » Yeah, I think this is a good way to slide into some of these other things

[1:39:04] too. Uh, with regards to our debt funded projects because this is pushing a lot

[1:39:09] of this 1.5% in my mind. Uh, and also some of these other things going forward

[1:39:14] with regards to the ladder truck, are we able to maybe consider, you know, what

[1:39:18] what is actually being used? I think is a fairly common practice across North

[1:39:21] America, the same thing as the loader to rebuild it at a significant cost. Is

[1:39:25] that are we able to do that with insurance?

[1:39:27] » I don't think so. With the trucks, there's very strict requirements about

[1:39:30] what the fire underwriters insurance requires. They can only be such an age.

[1:39:34] So once they reach an age, we have to either move them into a lower level of

[1:39:38] service or we lose our level of in of insurance that we have, which would

[1:39:42] affect everyone's home insurance. >> So, so I'd really like to request that

[1:39:46] we can possibly have a chance sometime. I'm not sure how busy staff is because

[1:39:50] indications are on research is that actually other communities do do this

[1:39:54] and extend truck lives by 10 or 15 years which would be above the 10 years that

[1:39:58] they originally used them. So just if that's a possibility it would be

[1:40:01] wonderful. That's >> you're talking fire truck specifically

[1:40:04] » that fire in this case because it's a $3 million uh purchase if we were able to

[1:40:08] spend something to extend it at a lower cost that would push down other costs

[1:40:12] going forward. Like I'm for me it goes back to this 1.5%.

[1:40:17] I understand we're going to be voting on this and my understanding is that yes,

[1:40:22] it's a baseline that we're going to be looking on, but councils have to have

[1:40:25] the ability to actually look at taxes and say, "Hey, we can or can't afford

[1:40:30] this at the given time." But it's it's to make sure that we're getting that

[1:40:33] money for the water treatment, which is a must.

[1:40:36] » And I just want to be clear, the 1.5% is just for the capital reinvestment

[1:40:39] reserve. So the debt projects are all on top of that. So there's tax increases

[1:40:43] for those that I've listed in those charts below on top of that. So

[1:40:47] » yeah, I'm just for me personally, I'm just worried that we're, you know, if I

[1:40:51] when I just look at these numbers without the chance of re of revisiting

[1:40:54] them by a future council or by >> every budget will look at these things.

[1:40:59] » Well, we have to look at these things and say, is this actually a possibility

[1:41:02] still? I understand that we have to put a baseline there to say, look, if we

[1:41:06] want water, we we need to start putting stuff away for water. Uh, and I'm

[1:41:11] hoping, you know, I'm, you know, with all these crazy things going on

[1:41:15] internationally and south of the border and our Canada Builds funds that maybe

[1:41:19] we can tweak someone's ear there in Ottawa to say, "Hey, Cornell really

[1:41:22] needs some water here. How about chucking us 50 mil so we can get going

[1:41:25] and build Canada strong here in Cornell?" Uh, and and same possibly with

[1:41:29] ARMP while we're at it. Anyway, uh, yeah. So, and that's I guess that goes

[1:41:34] to because people know that I'm inc uh I'm adverse to increasing taxes

[1:41:42] by too much. I mean, I don't think that's that's uh you know, surprised by

[1:41:46] anyone. So, I just So, for me, I want the option still to I don't mind saying

[1:41:50] yes, we're looking at this 1.5, but I really need me or any other council

[1:41:55] that's going to be in the future there looking at saying here, can we still do

[1:41:57] it? >> Thank you.

[1:42:00] » Yeah. Well, well said, councelor Runge. Councelor Vic,

[1:42:03] » thank you. It's a lot to unpack there, sir, but yes, of course, any future

[1:42:09] council can take a look at what we've decided here tonight potentially, and

[1:42:14] make adjustments based on the situation they find themselves with at that

[1:42:18] moment. The the goal here with these three recommendations, which were

[1:42:22] halfway through, is staff needed some direction to focus energy. Right now,

[1:42:27] we've identified the water treatment as a critical critical issue and that's

[1:42:34] where staff energy needs to be to try and get these grant funds through Canada

[1:42:37] builds or wherever else and we've identified that it has to contribute at

[1:42:42] least 2/3 of the cost otherwise the burden becomes uh significant. And then

[1:42:48] regarding the second element of our recommendations, the 1.5% increase,

[1:42:52] which is not to do with water treatment, is just to to continue to um effectively

[1:42:59] replace and and um repair the infrastructure we have today because

[1:43:05] these are projections for the future costs and we will to to make sure we can

[1:43:10] meet that baseline to cover off these replacements. This 1.5% is what is

[1:43:15] forecasted to cover those costs. However, all of that can go out the

[1:43:19] window if there is an acute issue with taxation or the economy of the day of

[1:43:24] the day. So, um anyway, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[1:43:28] » Okay. Thank you. Any anyone else? Do I do I have a mover and seconder for

[1:43:32] resolution number two of three? >> Yes, you do.

[1:43:35] » Uh okay. Thank you. And um no more uh questions or comments. So, I will now

[1:43:41] call the question on resolution number two. All in favor? Opposed? carried

[1:43:46] unanimously. Okay, let's go to resolution number three.

[1:43:50] » And the final resolution that council directs staff to look at the potential

[1:43:53] solutions for RCMP parking and that this be built into the plan for the RCMP

[1:43:57] detachment renovation before going to referendum.

[1:44:02] » Okay, moving councelor Rudenberg seconding

[1:44:07] councelor Vic. Questions, discussion. Okay, I'll call the question. All in

[1:44:13] favor? Opposed? carried unanimously. Okay, thank you. Moving right along.

[1:44:21] Uh now we go to council information package and I would ask that um uh

[1:44:27] number one be brought forward. Um madame clerk, I wonder if you can you summarize

[1:44:33] that for us, please. Or do you want it read into the record in in its entirety?

[1:44:48] Yeah.

[1:44:51] Would you like would you would you like me to read it? I'm going to do that.

[1:44:54] This is a letter from Lori Bowen. Um I am a senior citizen, taxpayer, and

[1:45:00] homeowner and business owner in the Cornell area for 50 years. I have lived

[1:45:05] in Cornell for 50 years, raised our children in Quinnell and worked at the

[1:45:09] se at several places of Northern Health for Northern Health throughout the years

[1:45:13] and served on many different sports committees over these years. We have

[1:45:18] never felt a worry about our children going in our downtown and walking

[1:45:22] around. I would never allow this to happen with our grandchildren as it is

[1:45:27] so unsafe now. I am disgusted and disturbed with the number of homeless

[1:45:32] wandering our downtown area now. Drug use, theft, sex acts defecating on the

[1:45:38] streets, not to mention the safety of the residents of Cornell, which was once

[1:45:43] a beautiful downtown area. I have empathy for our business owners in the

[1:45:48] downtown area, which have many stories to date. I had an incident on Thursday,

[1:45:54] July 9, midday. I was only out of my vehicle for 5 minutes walking in front

[1:45:59] of the Royal Bank when a lady approached me yelling at me to call 911. I had to

[1:46:05] back up and said no. She then became aggressive and started swearing foul

[1:46:10] words at me and coming closer. A female security came along and got her to move

[1:46:16] on. This is not okay for our citizens of Quinnel. I have purchased a defense

[1:46:21] mechanism for myself for the next time something happens and I have full

[1:46:25] intentions of protecting myself and I also uh purchase some other family or

[1:46:31] some four other family members. I am writing in hopes that we can work on a

[1:46:37] plan for making our city improved. I have heard many other friends and family

[1:46:42] and have confrontations on that have had uh confrontations on the streets of

[1:46:48] Cornell. I have heard for years that city council received money from these

[1:46:53] for these people being brought to Quinnell. I still do not know the answer

[1:46:57] to this. We know most of these people are not from our town. So who is

[1:47:01] bringing them and dropping them off to destroy our town? If they are bust here,

[1:47:07] who is footing the bill? Why do we have to suffer the consequences of a bad

[1:47:11] decision? This is signed as a concerned citizen of uh Cornell Lori Bowen. Um so

[1:47:18] this is obviously a a very heavyduty letter and and I asked for it to to be

[1:47:25] brought forward. Uh we we will be having a uh PSP which is public uh safe or

[1:47:33] public safety and policing uh meeting coming up. We haven't set the date yet.

[1:47:38] Uh but it it is coming and certainly this item will be on that agenda. I I'll

[1:47:44] leave it open to to council for any questions. Councelor Rudenberg,

[1:47:48] » not so much a question, but um so on the very last paragraph, can you answer the

[1:47:54] lady um the first question she asked is that uh council receives money for

[1:47:59] people that come into Cornell. Can you let her know whether that's true or not?

[1:48:03] I know what the answer is. Can you let her know, please?

[1:48:07] » I I certainly I mean, I'm I'm going to call her. I've got I've got her number,

[1:48:11] but I but I wanted to see this on on the agenda. I mean um I I as a mayor and I'm

[1:48:18] sure that other council members have also received calls from people that um

[1:48:23] they saw somebody u a bus unloading people and and the last two that I've

[1:48:29] received, I said, "Do you have a cell phone?" "Yes, I do." I said, "Do you do

[1:48:33] you do you know that there's a camera in your cell phone?" I mean, nobody's ever

[1:48:38] provided a picture or a photograph of of a bus unloading people in the middle of

[1:48:43] the night. So, um, >> so, but my my my question to you is to

[1:48:48] answer that first question that council receives money for people coming to

[1:48:53] Quinnel. And I think people need to hear this from council that that is not true

[1:48:58] and they need to hear it from the mayor >> because I know I don't see it in the

[1:49:01] budget. Do you see it in the budget? Uh as chair of the finance committee, I

[1:49:06] don't think you see money in the budget coming in from

[1:49:09] Sorry. So you say that to the community, I believe, mayor. Well, that's what I've

[1:49:14] been doing for the last two years is is, you know, anytime that um somebody

[1:49:19] accuses the city of accepting money under the table or over the table, I I

[1:49:24] say, "Where's your evidence?" I I it's not true.

[1:49:28] » Thank you. And I I just wanted you to say that. So, thank you.

[1:49:31] » Yeah, >> I appreciate that.

[1:49:33] » Okay. Is there anyone else on this one? But as I say, it'll it will be coming up

[1:49:37] at PSP and we just need to set a date and and also we're we're discussing um

[1:49:44] you know how that how that public safety and policing meeting will be handled. Uh

[1:49:49] some of these meetings are are held uh behind closed doors and and I'm all for,

[1:49:54] you know, opening the doors and and having a a town hall of some sort. So

[1:50:00] stay tuned. Anything more on this one?

[1:50:04] But I but I will be um contacting Miss Bowen. And the uh the second one that we

[1:50:11] have on the agenda or pardon me under council information is number six and

[1:50:17] it's just for council information. Um, I'm not going to go into detail, but the

[1:50:22] Quinnell Kangaroos are submitting a bid to host the 2027 Western Canada Savage

[1:50:29] Cup Hockey uh, Championships, and they've asked for a letter of support

[1:50:34] from the mayor. So I have just basically put this letter of support on the agenda

[1:50:39] to get the word out that uh that we are in support of of them that this is not

[1:50:44] the first time uh that the Koi or the Koi Cup the the the Savage Cup follows

[1:50:50] the Koi Cup and so this is not the first time that we've ever that we've ever um

[1:50:55] hosted the Savage Cup here in Cornell. And uh so I'm I'm hoping that everyone

[1:51:01] would be in agreement with that. Councelor Rudenberg,

[1:51:05] » thank you. And I appreciate that you've responded to them. I hope that you could

[1:51:09] uh perhaps send uh their request to joint planning to see if joint planning

[1:51:14] would like to send a letter of support also.

[1:51:17] » Okay, that that's that's a good idea. They they had just asked for a letter

[1:51:20] from the mayor, but you you raised a good point. So if uh if uh we have in

[1:51:25] fact we have a a a joint advisory coming up. So maybe if if staff could uh put

[1:51:31] that on the agenda to get a second letter of support, I think that would

[1:51:36] that would go a long way. I I do know that they were up against a deadline for

[1:51:40] this. So but but certainly if even if the uh a letter from Joint Advisory is

[1:51:45] is a few days late um so be it. So u anything more on that?

[1:51:54] Okay. So uh the next item is oh under correspondence and I I'll just move

[1:52:00] right into this one and um I will read the letter from the um

[1:52:09] from the legion. This is addressed to mayor and city council. Dear Mayor and

[1:52:15] Council, 2027 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion

[1:52:20] Caribou Branch 94, and we are planning several events to mark this milestone.

[1:52:26] You might also be aware that our Senate is in need of extensive repairs. This

[1:52:32] will involve raising the monument to allow for a new foundation to be poured.

[1:52:37] Our executive feels that since the Senate needs to be lifted and moved,

[1:52:42] this may be an ideal time to consider relocation. You are all aware of the

[1:52:47] logistics required to put on a parade such as on Remembrance Day as it

[1:52:52] requires official, and I underline the word official rrooting of Highway 97 on

[1:52:58] Carson Avenue. I have received approval from branch executive to request use of

[1:53:04] the northwest corner of the city's parking lot at Kinchant and Barlo for

[1:53:10] permanent relocation of the Santa. This would keep the memorial on Veterans Way

[1:53:16] in close and safe proximity to the branch and highly visible to the public.

[1:53:23] It should be noted that this property was sold to the city by the Legion at

[1:53:28] the city's request in the late 1990s. If approved, this would require relocation

[1:53:34] of the city's public notice board, which is located in the same spot. We would

[1:53:40] appreciate having the Senate relocated and repaired in time for rededicated

[1:53:46] uh to be rededicated for the branch 94 100th anniversary date on October of

[1:53:53] October 10, 2027. We do have access to funding for this project. Thank you for

[1:54:00] considering and hopefully approving our request. I remain respectfully yours,

[1:54:05] Doug. Doug Kerry Kerry, uh, chairman of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 94

[1:54:11] 100th anniversary committee. Um, so I'm just going to bounce this over to staff

[1:54:16] for comment. I don't know if we're we're basically want to get this on the on the

[1:54:21] table for for discussion uh by staff. Then staff can come back with some

[1:54:26] recommendations. >> Yeah, we don't need a resolution for

[1:54:29] this. I'll take this as staff direction. And in fact, staff had a a meeting about

[1:54:32] it briefly. We're going to meet again next week to discuss how to to take

[1:54:35] this. I do just want to pass on to council. We will focus on that corner of

[1:54:39] the parking lot, but we may also work with the Legion on other areas within

[1:54:42] that parking lot that might be might also work. So, I don't want to limit it

[1:54:45] just to that corner till we've had a chance to look at the bigger picture and

[1:54:49] implications for the city and our own development plans.

[1:54:52] » Yeah. Once staff has had an opportunity to to review and and report on this, a

[1:54:56] report will be coming back to council for council's uh decision. So, we'll

[1:55:01] leave it at that for now. Um, so now under bylaws, uh, bylaw number 1985,

[1:55:08] city of Cornell, appointment of officers and delegation of authority amendment

[1:55:12] bylaw number 1985 of 2026, final adoption. Uh, mover moved by councelor

[1:55:18] Goule, seconded councelor Vic. Any discussion?

[1:55:23] Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? Carried. Thank you for that. We have no

[1:55:30] new business or business arising. Uh information and question period. If

[1:55:35] there's anyone in the gallery that wishes to come forward and ask a

[1:55:39] question. Uh and it's not a comment. You have to ask a question that is

[1:55:43] pertaining to the uh the agenda tonight. And when you do come forward, simply

[1:55:48] identify yourself for the record and um and state your question.

[1:55:54] Uh seeing none, um we have no um we have no changes to

[1:56:03] upcoming meeting schedule. Um we have no changes to committee appointments,

[1:56:10] announcements, and events. Anyone?

[1:56:15] Okay, seeing none gallery questions. No gallery questions. Okay, then this is

[1:56:22] getting easy. So now a motion to adjurnn. All in favor? Oh move. I'm

[1:56:28] sorry. Councelor Rudenberg is moving and councelor Goule is seconding. Now I call

[1:56:33] the question. All in favor of adjourning. Thank you everyone. Good

[1:56:36] evening. Thank you.

Regular Council - 25 Aug 2026

Transcript