Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to council meeting number 23 for Tuesday,
August 25, 2026. Uh before we get down to our official
business, uh just want to express regrets from Councelor Elliot. Uh he's
under the weather tonight, so we hope that he makes a speedy recovery. Um and
um there's a couple of changes before I ask for um a motion to approve the
agenda. And that is that given the fact that um uh councelor Elliot will not be
here tonight, report number E1, housing solutions table report, that will be
deferred until the next council meeting. And also item number G2, which is the um
the Cornell minor hockey letter, that's deferred for staff and minor hockey to
work out some details. So that'll be coming forward at a future meeting. So
with those changes, could I have a motion to adopt the minute or drop the
agenda as a as a as amended? Okay, councelor Rudenberg is moving and I saw
councelor Runge is seconding. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Uh, now we look
for a motion to adopt the regular minutes of the meeting held July 28,
2026. Moved. Councelor Goule, seconded. Councelor McCelie. All in favor?
Opposed? Carried. Now we move to presentations and delegations.
And uh it's my pleasure to um uh welcome our Cornell Ambassador Leadership
Program outgoing presentation as well as a welcome to the new incoming um 2026
ambassadors. It's my pleasure to welcome the Cornell Ambassador Leadership
Society President Cindy Sherstan and the 2025 outgoing royalty and the new 2026
royalty to tonight's council meeting. After I introduce each outgoing
ambassador, please come to the front to receive your plaque and your rose. and
please remain upfront until all presentations have been made so that we
can get a group photograph. Now, Councelor McKelie has graciously agreed
to help me with the with the presentation. So, I'm going to stay here
uh and uh work the microphone and councelor McKelie is going to do the
presentations. So, first of all, outgoing uh royalty,
and if you could come up one at a time as I call your name for your rose and
plaque presentation. Oia Woodruff, PLEASE.
» HELLO. >> HI.
» Thank you for everything you did.
that will become a family heirloom. So, guard it jealously. Okay. And uh and
next is um Grace Cassidy. Come on up, Grace.
» Hi, Grace. Thank you for everything.
Now I would like to introduce the new 2026 Cornell ambassadors. After I eat
after I introduce each ambassador, please come to the front to receive your
rows. Please remain up front until all presentations have been made so that we
can take that uh group photo as well. So again, one at a time. 2026 Ambassadors
incoming royalty Abigail Russell.
Congratulations
» and Nora Aziz.
» Congratulations. Good luck this year. Now we have one for for Cindy.
» Oh, for Cindy. Cindy, come on up. >> YES.
» I finally get to meet the person behind the computer. Congratulations, Cindy.
Thank you. and and thank you to uh to you and to um all of the uh the other
movers and shakers of this because um I mean this dates back to the Quinnell
leadership uh or the Quinnell Miss Quinnell leadership uh program and
leadership certainly is the operative word because these young people are our
future leaders. Okay. So, time for a group photograph.
If uh any family members would like to come up and and capture this moment,
please do that now.
Pardon me. >> The outgoing and incoming.
» Oh, separate. Separately. Okay. So, can you come up and Okay. So, we're
going to have the outgoing um first and then and then the incoming. So, if
you could sort of separate just for your is that what you wanted was uh to have
them separated. >> Oh, I see. Okay, that's fine. Yeah,
we'll carry on carrying on here. We don't have a playbook for this, so
we're
» maybe separate yourselves a little bit and then we take separate pictures.
» You're going to have a few words. I have a few words. You're going to have a few
words.
We should just use the microphone over there.
» That's a good idea.
» Both of them like both sets. >> Okay. So, if if the gonna have a few
words >> I I know. I'm just trying to sort out
whether it's the outgoing or the incoming or both. Uh, we're all going to
take turns. >> Okay.
» Okay. >> Lead on.
» I don't know what Okay. I'm Grace Cassidy. I am one of the 2025 Quinn
Ambassadors. I just want to say how proud I am of Abby and Nora for becoming
the 2026 Quinnel Ambassadors and how proud I am to be best friends with OIa.
We celebrated our year together and it wouldn't be how great it was without the
support of our city and the society. So, thank you everyone who supported us
THROUGHOUT OUR REIGN.
HI, I'M OSIA WOODRUFF, your 20 2025 Cornell Ambassador. And Nora and
Abigail, you guys are so incredible and I hope you guys have an amazing year
during your reign. Grace, I love you so much and I wouldn't have wanted to reign
with anyone else. I want to say thank you to the society and to the city of
Quinnell for everything they've done to keep this program an awesome and
positive experience and I hope you guys enjoy your reign.
» Now, would the incoming like to say a few words? You're certainly welcome
here.
» We're starting together. >> Okay. Starting.
» All right. Good evening everyone. My name is Norah
Aziz and I'm one of the new 2026 Cornell ambassadors.
» And I'm Abigail Russell and I am the other 2026 Quinnell ambassador.
We are incredibly honored to be representing Quinnell over the next
year. There are so many incredible people in
Quinnell and we cannot wait to be serving them by going to all of these
events and stuff. We're so excited. >> We'll miss our former Cornell
ambassadors dearly and so we'll do our best to take up their work.
» Okay. So I think that basically concludes our our uh our presentation
event. So uh so thank you ambassadors whether you're incoming or outgoing
you're always ambassadors. So so thank you for that and and all best wishes.
Okay. Thanks again ambassador program. Okay. Now we're going to go to item two
under presentations and delegations. Cornell Health Services 2020 2026
updates from Northern Health Authority. And we have Daryl Pzul, the senior
operating officer for Northern Health Rural. And also um we have Michelle
Lawrence, the special service specialized services executive director
at Northern Health. So I I believe that you're you're both online. I see you
there, Darl. So the floor is yours.
I think you may be muted.
Please bear with us while we sort out our technical technological glitches. It
happens quite often. Not not necessarily here, but
everywhere.
Uh Michelle or Daryl, could one of you or both of you just say something to do
a bit of a sound test? Okay. So Daryl, you're not coming
through
and neither are you, Michelle. So we're we'll keep working on this. We'll we'll
get it done.
while while we're doing this and we just of course had had the presentation to
the Cornell ambassadors program and just after I was elected um I had the
ambassadors into my mayor's office and they were each to ask me a question and
uh one young lady says what's the most challenging part of being the mayor and
I said technology ology. So here here it is proving itself out.
Darl, can you hear us? Give us a thumbs up if you can hear us. Okay, so
And so Darl, obviously you are not muted on your end, so perhaps it's originating
at our end.
Well, we'll give it another couple of minutes or else um if we can't get it
resolved, we're going to have to move on.
» Sure. Yeah.
» Moving on. Let's
side of things
have to wait
Hello.
I thought that was an encouraging sound.
» Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you, Darl.
» Okay, I'm gonna just message Michelle to to join quickly here.
» Good job, Laura. >> Yes, thank you, Laura.
» And there's Michelle. And is the audio still good?
» Well, we can hear you, Darl. Maybe Michelle if you could just
» There you are in true flesh and blood reality. So um the floor is yours.
» Excellent. Thank you very much, Mayor Paul. And good evening everyone.
So I have a PowerPoint that I'm going to present. And as you mentioned, Mayor
Paul, uh technology, I'm hoping this works because I rarely work in Zoom.
Usually it's teams. So, I'm going to going to share my screen now.
And now it's not Michelle, would you be able to try
sharing yours and I'll talk?
I will pray.
Yeah. Uh, councelor Vic has come up with a suggestion here. We have the
PowerPoint here in front of us on hard copy.
So if Oh, I think we're I think we're looking good here. I I see it on the
screen now. So I'll let you carry on. >> Okay.
» Thank you very much. Apologies for the for the delays. So uh good evening
everyone. Uh uh as Mayor Paul mentioned, my name is Daryl Pzel. I work as the
senior operating officer for the rural region surrounding Prince George. So
that would include Burns Lake and area east to Veil Mountain from McKenzie
south to us here in Cornell. Um uh I live in Cornell with my family. Um
myself and that's where I am tonight. Um and Michelle, if you want and Michelle,
why don't you introduce yourself quick if you don't mind?
» Sure. Thanks. Um thanks for having us. My name is Michelle Lawrence. and the
executive director for specialized services for Northern Health. Um, and
I'm calling in from the unseated traditional territory of the Clayton
today and Prince George. Um, and my areas uh cover uh the whole region uh
for specialized services which includes complex medically frail mental health
and substance use, child and youth um specialized services and some
specialized clinics. >> Thank you, Michelle. If you don't mind
going to slide three to start it off. So, I have quite a lengthy presentation
and due to time constraints, I'm really going to have to go through this quick
because I want to hear questions at the end, which I suspect is probably most
important to the folks in the room tonight. So, I'll start by by setting
sort of the stage and the context of where health care is right now in
general. My PowerPoint has a lot of good news stories and more light-hearted uh
content, but make no mistake, uh healthc care is in a a real tough situation
right now across the province and across the country. Um as you're probably all
aware, um when I last came to council to present, it would have been a little
over a year ago. And I would say that things in Quinnel have improved
slightly. there's a long way to go. Um, but we're sitting we're sitting a little
better in in certain circumstances than than we were uh roughly this time last
year. So, not a surprise to anyone, but we're dealing with a pretty significant
workforce shortage. Uh we're dealing with changes in the workforce in terms
of what people want out of their careers. Uh we're dealing with the
oldest population Canada has ever had in its history. We're dealing with
declining significantly declining birth rates. Um increased complexity with
people that are coming to the hospital. Uh plugged up hospitals, uh not enough
long-term care beds or assisted living beds. Um and a variety increased
violence. Uh that's another thing that uh can't be forgotten about. H we are
seeing doesn't matter what hospital you're working in we're seeing
significantly more in uh numbers of violent incidents and just a less civil
society I would say in general. So we're at a we're at a tough spot
right now. So um you know ever since CO hit six years or so ago it it's it's
been a tough go with things. Um it's led to some changes in the way we deliver
health care and some opportunities. We're really getting into virtual
delivery of health care. Uh currently in our at our UPCC, our urgent primary care
center in the hospital, we're using what's called TEDOC where we have a
physician on a video screen who's able to talk and see patients and even listen
to uh through a stethoscope and and other things like that. So that stuff is
really cutting edge and it will always have a place in health care. I think
we're starting to see AI being used in healthcare. So, a lot of exciting stuff
is coming. Um, but we have a uh for sure have a ways to go. Michelle, if you can
go on to the next slide, please.
So, this is a very busy slide of I always get asked about the physician uh
shortages in Cornell and this is a busy and rather confusing slide. It comes
from the the physician human resource uh folks, the ones that deal with
recruitment on a full-time basis. Um, long story short, in terms of
comparisons to other many other communities in Northern BC, Cornell is
doing well. We're still short probably a good six or so family doctors. Um, we've
received the number this year. We uh we have a couple more arriving very shortly
and we have at least two confirmed for next year as well. So our recruitment um
efforts are are paying dividends. Now we again we have a ways to go. Um I know
what it's like not to have a family doctor. I went through quite a time
myself with one. Um as did some family members and it's uh it's a very it's not
a good place to be. So um but we've uh we've got quite a
complement of specialists in Cornell. We've got a couple of general surgeons,
ear nose and throat surgeon, uh couple of internists, uh couple of doctors who
specialize just in emergency medicine, a psychiatrist, and quite a number 20 that
21 is actually a little more than that now. So quite a number of family
doctors. Next slide, Michelle.
Um, just something to note and some of the folks at the city will be aware of
this, but we're seeing a real change in terms of how doctors are practicing. So,
gone are the days where doctors would finish school and then buy a medical
practice and want to run that business. Um, we're not seeing that at all
anymore. Um, so what we're doing is we're contracting with physicians and
they're working on a alternative payment plan basically where they work in a
Northern Health run and staffed clinic like the one on Front Street there. So
right now I'm in the middle of uh if it's not out already, there's going to
be one soon. An expression of interest to the community because we need to
acquire more space to to accommodate the uh the physicians that are coming.
Next slide.
Uh I'm going to quickly brief uh through this. So I'll just say in the interest
of time that we are constantly training our nurses in Quinnel in specialty areas
like emergency, ICU, maternity, and other programs. Uh I've already
mentioned we have two emergency physicians that both work full-time in
our emergency. Um and that last uh point is more about uh post-secondary learning
and I won't get into that right now. You can go to the next one.
Um more of the same. Uh you know we're we're we're
training uh more o nurses along with the other specialties. We currently run two
operating room room rooms uh simultaneously in Cornell uh which is
good. Um weight lists are not that bad. If you need surgery and you live in
Cornell and it's general surgery or even ear, nose, and throat uh your weights
will not be that long compared to the rest of the province. The Ministry of
Health sets provincial benchmarks that we must or we should strive to hit in
terms of different types of surgeries. And the vast majority of that time in
Cornell, we're meeting those. Uh it's it's actually impossible to hit them
100% of the time because there's uh there's a number of factors outside of
our control. Next slide. uh you know we we have very skilled and
experienced staff who have retired. So we we our recruitment not only is about
getting students and people from outside of the region but bringing people back
into work who have a wealth of knowledge. Uh uh we have a new uh family
doctor who's starting oncology or cancer care training this fall. So another
person locally physician will be trained in in oncological medicine. So that's uh
very positive for Cornell. Next slide.
Uh some ideas uh a little snapshot of some of the other work going on. Um lot
of acronyms in this by the way and my apologies. I got to remember that people
that don't work in healthcare aren't going to know what all these letters
mean. ESN there refers to employed student nurses. So these are nurses that
are in their second year or higher of training and we can hire them um as paid
staff. So they get to learn and uh learn the people they're working with, learn
nursing skills and make a make an income. So we're doing that constantly.
Um, we've got a provincial maternity project to reduce C-section rates, uh,
ongoing right now. And of course, we opened our maternity clinic last year in
March. Next slide. I've already talked about TEDoc at UPCC.
Um, we've, uh, we've been successful in recruiting new doctors to UPCC uh, over
the past eight months or so. So, we've tripled our our visits. Um
last year at this time we were hitting around 250 individual visits per day um
or per per month I mean and uh now we're well over 600 if not over 700 uh
individual visits per month at our UPCC. And we can go to the next slide.
Michelle
I've talked about that first point a little bit. Uh nurse triage system. I
won't get into this too much, but it's regarding UPCC and uh we no longer have
to a patient can come in and they no longer have to see a physician before
they leave. Nurses can make a determination to to book them based on
urgency uh the next day or a couple days from now or hand them off to a social
worker or a nurse that's skilled in a certain uh specialty um just to make it
a little more efficient for for the public. and we're getting some positive
comments about that. We're going to roll that out in it's called clear triage and
we're going to roll that out in other communities in Northern Health. Next
slide, Michelle. I'm not going to get into this. The one
thing about this this this shows you some of the the increase in visits at
our UPCC, but you can go to the next slide. It's a little
more useful. So the purpose of our UPCC is to reduce pressure on an emermergency
department and for years it wasn't doing that. Um but with some of the changes
we've made in this year um it's actually finally started to take the pressure off
our emergency department so we can protect our emergency
uh room for people that need truly need emergency care. So that's actually it's
the first time we've shown that uh bias statistic. So we're going to be keeping
an eye on that as we go forward. Next slide.
Okay. Uh hospital auxiliary. So just an example of some of the equipment the
auxiliary has purchased and we're ever so thankful for our auxiliary who have
been around for a long time. Um yeah, I won't get into the details about this,
but we also have some uh televisions being installed in uh all the inpatient
rooms uh thanks to the Cornell Community Foundation. So those two groups have
helped us immensely. Next slide, Michelle.
Little bit more about some of the equipment. So we constantly are buying
equipment. uh stuff gets used 24/7 365 and it end either ends up getting to end
of life or not be being able to be supported from a technological
standpoint. So always buying new equipment and of course the regional
hospital district uh funds a significant amount of this equipment. So here's some
examples. Next slide. More examples uh probably won't make a
lot of sense. So uh ECG is kind of heart monitor system
um medical imaging software. So just to give you an example of the the high cost
of anything healthcare related I mean just the software alone can be upwards
of $100,000 and that's for our ultrasound and MRI units uh in the X-ray
department. Couple of other things there and then an ECT is electrocombulsive
therapy. So that's used uh in the O for people with certain types of mental
illness. Next slide.
And a couple more examples of changes. Dunroen. There's a few things going on
there. Um won't get into it too much. You a couple of examples there. We also
have some uh redundant uh generators being installed and some the nurse call
system uh being redone as well. So, next slide.
Okay, getting into this is Michelle's area and it uh I'm sure it's of uh great
interest uh to folks in the room. So, this is getting into our mental health
and addiction stuff. So, just just a quick brief highle overview. So, we have
our assertive community treatment team um where we have folks out in the
streets uh meeting up with people with with known illness um uh you know being
proactive about things. We have our mobile crisis intervention team. That's
where we have our CMP and a nurse. Uh that's been a very successful program
over quite a number of years. Um and then mobile support team. This is in
partnership with First Nations Health Authority and they provide outreach
treatment in our local indigenous communities.
Next slide.
And then so some of the other things. So overdose prevention services or ops,
this is what was formerly at Elliot Street. Um, this is now being performed
uh on a as a mobile treatment. So, we have the team going out in a van with
supplies and meeting people where they're at out and about in the
community. Um, or people, patients, clients can phone a number and uh have
the the team come to their place wherever that may be. So right now it's
uh it's being managed uh you know on an outreach basis. Opioid agonist therapy
is what folks think when they or yeah what you think when you hear methadone
program. So there's other treatments other than methadone but um just think
of it like that. Uh so that is currently happening at the the uh the building I
think it's MLAN Street uh by Dr. C's office there. Um, so that's when people
come in, see a uh a specialist prescriber and get monitored with those
medications. We also have our Grace Young activity center at that building
and currently we have around 58 people belonging to that program and we have
psychosocial rehab, vocational rehab and uh community uh engagement in that
program. Next slide.
quick. Um I won't because of time I'm not going to get into this but uh due to
a number of recruitment incentives uh you know it's really helped people in
Northern are us in Northern Health attract and and retain staff. So we're
hoping that kind of stuff uh continues on into the future. Next slide.
I will say that us in Northern Health, Quinnell included, we're at a
disadvantage compared to people in the southern areas of the province because
we we struggle to attract people in general, no matter what industry you're
in. Um, and so, yeah, I'm I'm just really hopeful that some of these
recruitment incentives will continue and we won't know more from the ministry
until the fall. Uh you can see here uh numbers of new
grads we've hired across Northern Health and what these numbers are not
completely accurate because they're a couple months old. So you can assume 15
to 20 new grads hired this year. Uh so that's work in progress all the time.
Quinnel has has had for five years one of the lower vacancy rates in terms of
all positions in Northern Health. And I think that's due to a number of reasons.
And it's still quite uh quite nice compared to to other communities. Um and
26 applicants to date have received the the recruitment incentives that that are
being rolled out. Next slide, please, Michelle.
Uh we're this is big. So we're doing this around Northern Health. And so
we're paying people basically to attend school. We're paying for the education
and giving them a stipen to live on while they take this training. And
there's six different things we're doing right now. The healthcare assistant
program has absolutely saved our bacon in terms of enabling us to staff
long-term care. So, that has been unbelievably successful. We are now
doing practical nursing, the same thing. We're about to start our second cohort
of of students through that program. And then you can see some other uh
professions here. Rehab assistants, pharmacy techs, mental health support,
and x-ray and lab technologists. Next slide.
Couple of uh more examples of equipment. And I had to include that that middle
one, the transport bike bicycle. So that's at Dunroven. I thought that was
really cool. Never seen that before. But uh so that'll be at Dunroven if it isn't
already. and it gets people and a bit a chance to get outside in some fresh air
and go for a go for a little burn through the neighborhood. The pickline
and equipment insertion that's big for Cornell. Prior to just recently, we had
to send all patients to Prince George to get that inserted and now we can do it
in in Cornell. So, won't get into details. Happy to answer them if there's
any questions. Next slide. And then finishing up. So we're we're
always in contact with post-secary institutions and high schools. So this
is some pictures from Coraloo um where the staff the team local team took over
some equipment and did some scenarios with the uh with the high school
students. So trying to encourage folks to go into health care and uh hopefully
were successful. But they do this every year.
So sorry to whip through that so quickly. Um but uh there was a lot to
get through and I'm I I think people will be more excited or interested in
asking questions. So over to uh to the room.
» Okay. Thank you um Daryl and Michelle for that. Um yes, I'm going to open up
the floor to questions. So I'll start over on this side. Anyone?
Go ahead. Councelor Vic. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hey, Daryl. How
you doing? Nice to see you.
» I just got a couple of questions, Darl, and I and I understand if it's too early
to give some answers on a couple of my questions, but I'm just curious and I
maybe the community is. Um, as you know, we have the major development occurring
at Caribou Field from Providence Living. It's going to add a lot of uh capacity
to our system for uh long-term care. How how do you see that uh interacting with
what's available at Dun Roven? What's Dun Roven's role going to be in the
future? >> So, Dun Roven is not
Yeah. So, I'm glad you brought that up. I had that on my notes to talk about and
I I missed that uh being in a rush, but So, that project is absolutely going
ahead as you know. Um it's expected to be open in 2030. So, construction
supposed to start in the new year. Um, Dun Roven, the new part of Dun Roven
will remain as is. Uh, so that new expansion that came about in 2008, that
will carry on as a long-term care home. The old part of Dun Roven,
the the decision hasn't been made yet as to what that's going to be. And just for
folks awareness, the reason that they're building this
new one is a because we definitely need more beds. There is absolutely no doubt
about it. And that facility will bring 200 net new beds um to Cornell. Uh 144
are uh are long-term care and 144 are assisted living. And once you factor out
the old part of Dunroin that will close, we'll end up with 200 net new beds. Um,
so Mitch, that uh the decision has not been made. I have absolutely nothing to
unfortunately say about that. It is a number of years out. The reason it's uh
going to stop being used as a as a care facility is because when we get into the
I mean that's a 50 something year old building and it becomes very very
difficult and very very expensive to to keep running at the the standards uh we
need it to run at. Um, and it's, you know, it doesn't it doesn't meet a lot
of needs, uh, in terms of what expectations are nowadays for long-term
care. I mean, it's better than nothing, but uh, I'm just quite thankful we're
getting this new build. I We need it so bad.
» Thank you, Darl. I really appreciate that. And then the
» I will say, Mitch, >> sorry. I I will say that when I do hear
about what the plans are for that part of the field facility, I I will
absolutely let the city know. Um yeah, but nothing
yet. >> Perfect. That's great. Thanks for that.
And then the second question, if you'll permit me, Mr. Mayor, I I understand uh
we've got uh a renewal of the clean team coordinator position, which is not I
know that's a slightly different relationship we have with you on what
the role of that coordinator is, and we certainly appreciate that. I'm wondering
if you could speak to long-term sustainability of that coordinator
position. >> Yeah, that's uh that's come up a number
of times uh for a few reasons. one because I from what I hear of that
position, it's very much very very much appreciated by the community of Cornell
for a number of reasons. Um that of course uh is ministry funding that we
contract out with the with the city and we Michelle may have the most upto-date
information on this as it falls a little bit more to to her. All I know is that
2627 was a go. I have not heard that uh there
will be funding pulled beyond that and I will turn it over to Michelle if you
have anything else to add. Thanks. This is a direct funding
initiative through the Ministry of Health. Um and so it is year to year at
this time but we've been advocating for the funding to be sustained and
specifically um for this particular contract because we've seen such great
success. So, it is covered for this year and we are working towards stabilizing
and ongoing funding. >> Thanks for your help with that. Really
appreciate it. >> Okay. Thank you. Anyone else at this
point? Go ahead, Councelor Rudenberg. >> Thank you. And good evening you guys.
Appreciate the uh update. Um I'm just going to tag off of um the counselor
here who just spoke about the clean team funding. So, thank you for that. We know
that you know this is a good program in Cornell and we appreciate how you can
advocate for us outside of the advocating that we do as a council. So,
thank you very much for that. Um, so you talked a little bit about the incentive
that you provide to applicants in Quinnell around the rural and remote
recruitment incentive. Is that the um 30,000 that you're talking about?
Okay. So that's um you know that's uh you asked them to stay for 24 months. Uh
you've said you've had 26 new applicants that um have been uh able to get the
incentive dollars. Have we managed to keep them after the 24 months or is this
they are still in that 24-month period? >> Yeah. So, I mean that's a good question
and this if I had more time I wanted to get into this a little bit but we are
seeing and I might be kind of long- winded with this but across the board
whether it's physicians, nurses, technologists, whatever the workforce
has changed what the workforce wants in their jobs and how they practice has
changed. Um almost all of our physicians are now international physicians. Um and
same with nursing by the way we are recruiting an awful lot of international
nurses right now particularly via the US. So to answer your question are we
retaining folks? I can unequivocally say yes we are um both physicians and
nursing and other staff. However, it is absolutely not 100% either. Uh, off the
top of my head, I I I can't give you a figure, but that's why it's so important
and the local team knows this. It is so important to make the community and the
work with the with the city recruiter for example the welcoming the the the
wraparound welcome to the community the help the the attention to their spouses
partners children all of the make them welcome all of that helps no matter what
and yes we do keep a lot um a little bit less so with physicians in general but
certainly staff best. >> Well, thank you. That's appreciative.
It's better than zero, right? And I think that anytime we can keep them here
longer than their two years, um, Quinnel starts to grow on you and they want to
stay here. So, um, I appreciate the fact that you actually offered them
incentives because I know years ago when this healthc care crisis was starting, I
can remember Fort St. John offering an incredible amount of money to keep
physicians in their communities for up to two years. and then those guys took
their 100,000 or whatever it was because it was the city and they just left. So,
it's good to hear that we're managing to keep some of them. So, thanks a lot,
Darl. >> Okay. Thank you, councelor Roenberg.
Councelor Runge. >> Yeah, thanks Darl and Michelle for the
presentation. It's uh it's actually really nice and positive for in a lot of
things. uh with regards to I'm just tagging on to our the last counselor's
uh question here. Did do you ever hear about any additional supports that our
community uh you know engagement team could do?
Like I mean that's what we as a council you know if there's something else that
we're missing. I'd love that you share that with our staff so that we it comes
out so we can find a way to keep you know keep that support going.
So that's >> yeah that
thank you for the question and I I think that's a great question for the the
local team including our chief of staff and I am happy to to set up a meeting
with Karen Keys as administrator and Dr. Nicole Robbins who have the finger on
the pulse about what is happening in our hospital because that to answer that
question we have to hear directly from the folks that are arriving here and
that have been here for a little while to see if we're missing anything or we
could do something differently. So I all I've heard to be frank is that
position and the the work with the city has been very very much appreciated and
I've heard it myself from physicians in particular. They feel welcome in
Cornell. Um and I I can't recall to be honest a a a single concern beyond
housing. Now that brings me to my my next point is one of the things that
comes up repeatedly and it's actually come up very recently with a physician
is lack of of housing
and I know that I'm preaching to the choir and I've sat on many in a a
meeting with uh with folks in the city about this issue but uh yeah it's still
it still comes up as a as an issue. Thank you. And I hope some of these new
buildings that are being built are going to help out there. Uh my f other
question if I if I can with regards to the u earn and learn programs uh for for
me uh because I was actually very involved with that school program. Uh
you know it was it came out of actually our accessibility committee meeting and
then from there it went to the school this year. I sometimes feel that we are
missing the link in between the city, the school board and the high school to
let the students know that these things are available going forward, you know,
so that our grade 11 and 12 students can actually start planning for that. So,
you know, I I'm no longer in that role in career
programs, uh, but, you know, Cheryl McFarland has taken over that role for
me at at the school district. And I I really think it's really extremely
important. And if there's anything else that I can do to help with that, just
let me know and I'll push some buttons at the school board or or wherever
because for me that's the step that I feel we're kind of missing for our local
students so that they know that there's a a path for them into what a lot of
kids do like to do. And that was just I guess a kind of a statement. Thank you.
» Uh excellent excellent point. Um it it I I need to ask Karen Keys if if when
they are going to the schools if they are exploring these earn and learn
programs with students. I I'm not sure if they are. So I will absolutely take
that away and uh see what we're doing. But I completely agree with you if we
aren't doing that is it is a real missed opportunity. So I'll get on that and
find out. And just sorry just one quick add- on to that just because they work
on a semester program uh when they had this we had this in December last year
beginning of December so we hit the first semester students it was fabulous
uh but we missed the second semester students that you know some of the
students in the science classes so just that you keep that in the back of your
head that there's also there's two semesters in the high school there so if
we can hit them twice I think that's going to be really beneficial thank you
» okay thank you councelor Range I'm now going to go to councelor McKelie
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hi, Darl and Michelle. Thank you for this incredible
presentation. It's always nice to get this one. I know I certainly look
forward to it, and I'm sure the public does, too. It's nice to see that we're
getting a lot of new equipment in the hospital. That's positive. Um, I want to
draw your attention to the UPCC, the urgent primary care graph that goes
from December of 25 to January. and it jumped from uh UPCC visits from 700 up
to,00 in January. What do you attribute that to? That is a is quite a jump. I'm
just wondering if you you can uh tell us why you there's such a an increase in
visits. >> Oh, I see which one. I see which one
you're looking. >> Yeah. Thank you.
What happened uh around that time last year was we recruited uh a couple of
international medical graduates. So these are foreign trained physicians
that have their licenses that come to Canada. Um and we they have to be
supervised for a couple of years uh before they get full Canadian lensure.
Um so we managed to recruit two uh to Quinnell, not full-time but but a good
chunk of the time. So the visits just skyrocketed.
Um yeah, so and that's still in effect. One
of them is on a leave right now. I I can't remember uh what type of leave,
but one of them is on a leave. Um but we have backfilled some of that with that
TEDoc that I talked about, that virtual physician service.
» Thank you very much and keep up the great work.
» Okay. Thank you, Councelor McKelby. Any go ahead, councelor Goule.
» Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks, Darl and Michelle. Uh, great information in here.
Just want to tag on to the last one with the with the Coraloo Senior Secondary. I
just want to make mention of the Rotary and what they've done with Adventures in
Healthcare and taking the kids to the CNC for some um almost if you could say
book work and then a tour of the actual hospital and the facilities and ER and
what's happening that life experience. Um listening to some of the u the the
kids that took the program um they were quite excited. It's not just about
nursing and doctoring. There's other things. There's lab technicians. There's
all these other pieces that they could get interested into. So, it's a
wonderful program and we hope to see that going as as we continue and a great
job for just want to shout out to the Rotary Club of Point. My other um
comment and it was mentioned already housing and I was going to ask that when
I had that on my list but you had already mentioned one of the one of the
major was you know recruitment and retention the housing piece. So glad
that that's on the radar and I think we can work through different things but I
just wanted to make a comment about the the Rotary exchange and adventures in
healthcare. So thanks. >> Okay. Thank you, Councelor Goule. I've
got a couple I don't really have any questions, but but a couple of comments
and and that is that as the mayor, I'm um constantly inundate inundated with um
more um bouques than beefs about health care generally in Quinnell. And I and I
a lot of it goes to uh GR Baker and and Dun Roven and and basically the whole
healthc care picture generally. So again, keep up the good work and when we
turn on the news and see what what other communities are going through, uh we are
very thankful that um that we've got um you know basically zero um touch wood um
er closures. So so keep up the good work. Um also I was going to put in a a
comment about the good news on the clean team, but that's already being covered
off. I just want to mention that um my daughter is is a recent graduate of the
um the healthc care assistant program. She moved over from education to to
healthc care and she absolutely loves her new job. So so thank you for that.
And finally, I've got a little story for you, and that is um when I go to see my
family doctor occasionally, uh he likes to hear my stories about basically um
snowmmoiling and fishing. And I said to him one day, I says, "Hey, doc, have you
ever been fishing here in the caribou?" And he says, "No." And I says, "Well,
how would you like to go?" And he says, "Yeah, I'd love that." So, uh, Pat and I
were busy setting up a fishing trip out to Tensicut Lake for he and his, um,
wife and and three kids and get everything loaded up and ready to go and
got the res the, um, the the reservation at the resort because we we didn't want
to take a chance. We were at Tensicut Lake and didn't want to take a chance
with the forestry campsite and all ready to go. And then at the last minute, I
get the phone call. Oh, I'm sorry. I got called in to work. So, he's on the
waiting list for uh for another fishing trip. So, um I understand the problems
and and um we're going to get that fishing trip um looked after as soon as
possible. So, any more questions or comments?
Okay, seeing none, I thank you Darl and Michelle for your presentation and we'll
just give you a minute to to clear the technology and and get the new tech.
Well, we've got them in in in true true flesh and blood reality here. So
hopefully we don't have to rely on technology. So thank you again.
» Thank you.
Okay. Are we ready to go? >> Yes, sir.
» We are. We have Amy Faker, um, CEO of the Caribou Chilcoten Coast. I remember
when it was the Caribou Tourism Association. And I'm really dating
myself when I say that. So the triple CTA and Amy, if you could uh use your
loud voice because uh some of us are a little hearing impaired. So not me, but
» not you. Not me. I can do that. I've been told I have a mom voice and can
project. >> So the floor is yours, Amy.
» Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you everyone for having me. I just want to
acknowledge um two quick things before I get started today. our team member Patty
Jiardi, who's normally with you, is in the gallery with me today. Um, and a
shout out to Amy and her team for helping put together numbers that matter
and leading the other economic development officers across the Caribou
Regional District. So, thank you very much.
So, in the next 12 minutes, I have a script to stay on topic because I too
talk often and long. I'm going to walk through some of the things that the
municipal regional district tax program otherwise known as MRDT has delivered
for tourism across the Caribage Cotton Coast region. So, no picture asked for
you today and not your regular marketing update meeting, but a report on the
overall MRDT results across the region since inception.
So, let's start where we began. A decade ago, destination BC had pulled back all
its marketing programs and funding support for your from your rural
communities and tourism operators. Our regional communities had limited budgets
to replace these funds and most were not significantly investing in tourism
marketing on its own. Tourism operator budgets were stretched thin. The Tourism
Accommodation Assessment Relief Act was outdated and underresourcing tourism
operators. BC fairies had even cancelled the Bellakula to Port Hardy route,
cutting off a key access point for travelers to the region. And the result
was predictable. It was serious. This region was losing tourism businesses. We
were losing market share to the rest of the province. And there were no
marketing programs left to help our operators recover.
Here's what that looked like in numbers from Destination BC's own regional
profile for the Caribou Chukoten Coast. In January of 2015,
the region held 1% of BC's population, but less than 1% of the province's
tourism revenue. Room revenue across the entire region sat at $21.2 million. We
were pulling 3% of BC's visitors with 2% of overnight stays, but less than 1% was
staying in business's pockets as revenue. The average daily room rate
then was just $12469.
One of the strong regional goals we heard across businesses was that we
needed to generate at least 5% annual growth and take back 1% of the
province's tourism revenue share to help them be viable. This became a
foundational goal in the first MRDT collection plan.
Getting there took years of persistence and was not a single decision as many of
you in the room know. In 2015, tourism operators across the region asked
Caribou Chukoten Coast for a solution. Research and industry input was
undertaken. In 2016, our board took to ask local governments if they would be
willing to take on MRDT. Most of them said no, but businesses continued to
push the organization. By 2017, the first regional collection
plan was in place. And in May of 2018, MRDT was launched across the majority of
the region with 141 businesses remitting in that first year. In 2019, we launched
the land without limits consumer website to give the region a real marketing home
again. And in May 2023 on our first MRDT renewal, it expanded to cover the entire
Caribbean coast with 166 remitting businesses.
With that funding finally in place in 2017, here is what was set out for us to
do in that first plan and has been accomplished. We used destination BC's
open pool funding to extend reach into existing markets. Invested in key travel
corridors like the gold rush trail. Built regional branded marketing
initiatives that were aimed squarely at those goals of growing room occupancy
and rate across the region. We ran targeted campaigns. We advocated for
better transportation across access, including road, rail, air, and that darn
ferry. We grew funding for destination development, secured marketing staff for
the region to execute the plans, and kept the businesses engaged in shaping
those plans every step of the way. Most recently, we introduced responsible
travel campaigns to protect what makes the region and our communities worth
visiting. We've also started work that is still
building momentum today from that plan, including investing in third-party media
rights on behalf of operators and communities, and putting real research
and performance monitoring behind decisions instead of marketing
guesswork. We support new tourism products and experiences, are investing
in strengthening industry knowledge and business skills, and are tightening how
we measure the return on every marketing dollar.
The team is reinforcing the identity of the region as an outdoor recreation
destination based on business's direction, exploring new co-op and
corporate partnerships, working directly with the region's indigenous tourism
operators, and growing programs in sustainability, accessibility, and
overnight stays across the board. But our work from that first plan is still
not done. We need more training for frontline and visitor center staff so
that every visitor to the region gets a warm welcome and a quality experience
start to fish finish. We need a real signage strategy for our offhighway
routes and remote destinations. And beyond that, we're actively asking
operators what are the new opportunities in front of us today in the shifting
landscape. So is it actually working? Let's look at
the numbers. This is the heart of what we put together to come and share with
you today. Starting with business success in 2018,
141 accommodation properties were remitting MRDT.
By 2022, that had grown to 166. And in 2025, it's 194 properties. 53 more
businesses eligible and remitting in 7 years. Now to be fair, we can't fully
separate new businesses growing the new businesses joining the program from
natural growth because the increase in 2024 included that inclusion of Quinnel
and Wells into the new collection. But the trend underneath it is real and
positive. Despite business transitions across the region, we can say we've
reversed the trend of losing tourism businesses despite CO and other
emergency impacts. Referrals and leads to tourism
businesses have grown even faster. In our first year from 2017 to 18, the
organization generated 9,678 referrals to business. This past year
from 2025 to 26 that number was 54,685 and was up 12% from the year previous.
These are real qualified business leads being driven by marketing and handed
directly to businesses in the region every year.
Now to room revenue. From where our core target at the beginning was 5% annual
growth in the first five years of collection from 18 to 22 room revenue
grew from $21.2 million to nearly 35 65% growth more than $9 million ahead of our
target while the rest of British Columbia grew at only 36% in the same
time period. In our current MRDT term, between 2023 and 2025, we've added
another 20% growth from 44.6 million to 53.7 million.
The growth is beginning to moderate and businesses are starting to tell the team
that they are fully booked at certain times of year. And this is exactly the
kind of problem that we want to have. This conversation will be an important
one with operators when we begin to set new targets in the next 5-year plan. And
on to that provincial share. The original goal was to take back 1% of
BC's tourism revenue. In 2018, the region held 0.75%
and in 2025 we'd earned back to 1.08%. 43% growth or roughly a third of a
percentage point of real hard one market share taken back one campaign at a time.
But we're not done yet. With revenue growth exceeding expectations and more
than doubling regional room revenue in eight years of marketing and programs,
our board feels that marketing is actually making a difference.
So, I'm going to move quickly through the next few slides because this is
where we're headed, not where we've been. I mentioned research, and this is
some personabased visitor profiling from Environics Analytics. It maps out
exactly who the core and opportunity travel segments are across British
Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario as our core domestic markets. and the same
profiling for our secondary US markets in Washington, Oregon, California,
Florida, Texas, and Colorado. This data is the foundation for the new generation
of targeted marketing for this region. Reaching the right travelers with the
right message instead of marketing broadly and hoping it continues to land.
None of this works without the operators and businesses. 92% of tourism
businesses in this province are small businesses and they are the backbone of
local economies right across this region. In 2023, BC's tourism industry
employed 125,700 people, up 7.9% from 2022, and paid out
5.9 billion in wages and salary, up 11.8%
from the year before. These businesses and employees in our communities are the
backbone of tourism and who we're proud to continue to serve.
A strong criticism we've heard repeatedly is that we refuse to share
local details on collection. So that's all very nice, but what actually gets
collected right here in Quinnel. And I've shared before our frustrations that
we actually can't share that information. So here is an MRDT
statement in black and white. This is what we get monthly in our dispersement
letter from the provincial government. The net payments on that letter
represent local businesses across the region that remit MRDT directly via
their PST returns. The OAP line is online accommodation platform
allocations where a local business may pay that fee to a platform such as
Airbnb or VRBO and then they remit to the province on their behalf. The
province then takes their admin fee for administering the program. They take the
tourism events deduction fee which funds fairs, festivals and event programs
across the province including in our communities. And the bottom balance are
the real dollars that are transferred directly to support the tourism
marketing we've shared. As frustrating as it may be, and our team shares the
frustration when we're planning, there is no way for us to carve out of those
numbers what comes from right here in Quinnel.
So in closing, where does that leave us today? In 2025, the Caribbean coast held
1% of BC's population and 1 08% of its tourism revenue. 43% growth in our
provincial share since we began. Room revenues are up to 53.7 million, more
than double where we started in 2018. And there are more than 20% more
accommodation businesses remitting MRDT than when the current term began.
We're overindexed on exactly the right visitor profiles that we want coming to
the communities and businesses in our region. We're generating more than
50,000 warm qualified leads to businesses every year. And last year,
the program also created over $1.7 million in free media advertising at no
additional cost and not out of our MRDT budget. That's what a decade of
investment, persistence, and partnership with communities like yourself has
built. Thank you very much for your time and your continued partnership and
leadership in your community. The contacts on the screen, but I'd be happy
to answer any questions. >> Okay, thank you for that. Uh I think
it's bundled up to be good news. So, so thank you very much for that. I'm going
to open the floor to questions. Uh councelor Runge.
» Yeah, thanks for the report. And yeah, I do have questions. So, you you were able
to give us uh that number of pe of businesses that are submitting uh the
MRDT text from 166 to 192 in 2024 that included our local area. Do you know how
many are from here? >> No.
» So, so that number that is given to you by the province, the 166 to the 192.
» No. Great question. uh we figure out that number because we know what the per
property submission fee for the admin fee is. So I showed you that letter and
we see what they take. If you divide it by their per property submission admin
fee then each month I can see the number of businesses that remitted and average
it over the year because of privacy and PST they won't release any business
information. almost fair but you know it's too bad uh because you know what
for me my my question is actually goes back to the you know the triple C you
know what are you hearing from our local operators and once again from a city's
perspective is there something that we are missing here at the city costless of
course that we can support these business with businesses with you know
from my past experiences with some of our hotels and things and asking for
funding during fairs and things like that a lot of replies were, "Oh, it's
not helping." But, you know, these numbers actually speak a very different
story. And it's a real positive story. But I, you know, for me, it's still if
there's something that you're hearing that you communicate it, not with me,
with staff so that they can come back to us, right? And we can find a way to
continue to support things. It's, you know, for me it's really unfortunate
that we can't get better numbers because we're actually I'm not sure what of that
1% we are that Barkerville is that, you know, where that support is. So, it
becomes a a feel-good story, but one that is ultimately just a feel-good
story. Thank you. >> Okay, Councelor McKelby.
» Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have a comment. I just want to thank uh you Amy
and Patty for being here and I this is really encouraging and thank you for
your hard work. It's all in the numbers and they're proving that it's working.
Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Councelor McKelby.
Councelor Rudenberg, >> thanks and good evening you guys. Good
to see you again. Um, so I know you touched on a couple things like uh
signage strategy, which I totally get because I we actually traveled over to
uh Velmont last weekend and I know that's outside of the triple CTA, but
it'd be really nice if the province, you know, if we could get that that one
style of signage for everybody, so you knew exactly what you were looking for
when you're looking at signage. Just saying might be something you can talk
to your colleagues about. Um, I know this might be outside of the the scope
of what you're doing, what you're presenting today, but I'm kind of
curious of what your wildfire strategy is because we know that when people see,
oh my god, the, you know, Colona is on fire, they avoid the entire area all
summer. So when we talk about our area, what type of strategy have you in place
that you know encourage people to come when it's safe and that it's okay to
come because everything's still in place and we can still offer what you're
looking for as a as a visitor. >> Yeah, really great question. Um, we've
done a lot of research. We've had a lot of experience collectively together over
the years. Um so the first step is because we do so much digital targeted
marketing now our marketing doesn't turn off collectively like you had to turn
off a program. It turns off an area that's being impacted and continues to
support the surrounding areas. So we're better able to manage that flow and
response. The media team um within our wildfire strategy does a lot of media
monitoring and education about the size of the region, the size of British
Columbia, the distance between communities, sort of all of that to your
point of just because there's a fire in Colona doesn't mean you can't come to
Quinnell or Prince George or Bella. Um and they have a full-time monitoring
strategy that corrects misinformation in media. um so that we can
you know retractions don't always change what people saw but sometimes we can get
a positive story out of that in an education piece u and then we work very
closely with the emergency management team and British Columbia on people
movement um ensuring those businesses that are impacted have access toss and
logistics and opportunities should they choose to to have a different revenue
stream during the interruption and then finally the marketing team works on
recovery marketing and messaging. So, they're just getting ready to deploy new
toolkits. Um, we shared information with our operators this year about using
social media to showcase real time. Well, the North Caribou had blue skies
and everybody thought there were smoke advisories. We're encouraging businesses
to show those daily photos and, you know, use the power of people to break
the misinformation that's in media. And I think that's that's one of the
important things is getting, you know, the the local people who are in the
midst of this. Um I just think there's probably other opportunities and I can't
tell you them off the top of my head how the triplect can really reinforce the
fact that you know the caribou and the you know is doing well. You know it's
almost like you know you put that blast out there. It's not about following the
online stuff, but it's about being proactive and saying, "Listen, we know
there are fires here, but check out what's going on here." It's almost like
you have to have those preemptive kind of messaging to go out so that people
really do get it because it takes more than once for people to understand. So,
I do appreciate that you have a fire strategy, but I think that it's about
being out ahead of the game more than anything else in my mind's eye. So,
thank you. >> Thank you.
» Okay. Thank you, Councelor Rudenberg. Councelor Vic.
» Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hi. >> Hi.
» Uh, definitely the it seems the results show to a lot of improvement at large
for the entire region and and I think what where we've had questions in the
past is trying to drill down to see what local businesses, local entrepreneurs in
this space are saying. Have you given any thought or any um consideration for
creating data points from your office to focus on
nucleuses like Quinnell might be a nucleus, Williams Lake might be on what
the local operators are saying about how things are going. Um have just so we can
this is good data and it I'm proud of that that our region writ large is doing
well. But ultimately, as councelor Rush sort of alluded to, it it's it's not
in-depth enough for our community. >> Yeah, I completely understand and thank
you for the question. We do have operators that share financials with our
team um and share what's going on and share details and we have that
internally for decision making. We've worked with the BCO tele association
about trying to get some of that data clustered. And what uh we run into both
at that level and at our level is the moment we say we want to roll it up and
share it, but they're willing to share becomes very much less because of
competition. Um, so we don't have a dashboard sort of being invested in at
this point because of the challenges of the number it takes to report without it
being obvious that you're like, "Oh, I know who that was." Um, for data
security across it, but it is an ongoing conversation that happens around our
table and our marketing board all of the time.
» Yeah. >> Just a quick followup, Mr. Mayor, and
that and I I respect that. Um, but I know Amy's team quite frequently sends
out surveys to the business community in Quinnell and I think that data has ended
up being shared at large to the whole community um during council meetings. So
is there a way to draft a survey which doesn't get into the weeds on financials
for a business where they don't feel comfortable sharing but at least gets a
sense on how they feel about the direction of your organization about the
state of the world and and in business. >> Yeah, absolutely. I can take back. We do
um an industry satisfaction survey and so does destination BC every year that
asks not like less the financial of how they're doing in business but what they
think and familiarity with programs and value. I can definitely ask the data
teams how finely we're allowed to slice that or whether they could change the
wording when it goes out to ask it to be shared at a community level.
» Yeah, you're welcome.
Okay, we're good to go. Anyone else? Well, well, thank you, Amy. And uh I
just want to put a bug in your ear that uh 2028 is Quinnel's 100th anniversary.
A great year to have your AGM here in Q Town. So,
» all right, put that in the book. >> I'll talk to the team.
» Thank you. >> Okay. And again, uh thank you to you and
Patty for uh for the presentation. As I said, it's it it's very positive and uh
that's all a tribute to to your hard work and your due diligence. So, thank
you again and we'll we'll stay in touch. >> Thank you, Mayor. It takes a team.
» Okay. So, we have no items arising from previous
special closed meetings. Now we will go to reports and note that uh committee
report regarding the housing solutions table uh will be deferred until the next
council meeting when um councelor Elliot is back again. So I'll now go to
committee report August 18th 2026 financial sustainability and audit
committee councelor Vic to report. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. Uh we had a pretty
thick agenda at our last meeting. So understanding that council's probably
read this report, I'll try and zip through it a little quicker. Um so the
first order of business was uh we took a first pass at comprehensive fees bylaw
for for the upcoming year. Um basically no no big surprises. We do have some
typical inflationary pressures. So things like our utility rates will rise
marginally for inflationary reasons but nothing that uh we haven't seen in the
past. Um the bigger discussion on this part was regarding our cemetery rates.
The the fee structure is going to change. um residents in the city will
not see a change but regional district residents will see a change and that's
by virtue of the fact that their contribution to the cemetery function
their contribution has lowered. So that has resulted in a change to the fees
that those residents will pay for plots at the cemetery. Uh next we went into
nonprofit permissive tax exemptions. So there um BA basically uh there's two
changes primarily this time around. One of them is we'll be removing the tax
exemption for the SPCA as they are no longer acting as our city pound and that
was a prerequisite for them to receive the permissive tax exemption. Also the
TICOM society has uh has a lot flurry of activity with their folios. So there'll
be a degree of consolidation um to clean that up. Uh next we talked
about funding to outside groups which there are uh to my math there are six
outside groups that we provide funding to with the new council coming in. Uh
we'll be asking each of these groups to explain uh their needs uh how things are
going so they can uh educate the new council on their function and why uh
they're receiving money from the city of Cornell. Um, the big the big ticket item
that we talked about at this meeting was capital prioritization. I'm not going to
get in too much depth on this because Director Bolton will be covering this
off in a staff report in a few minutes, but basically this was the real meat and
potatoes of the meeting. We have several high priority capital projects uh coming
to bear and we had to uh prioritize or sort of have a function and a and a and
a series of criteria to prioritize these um projects. In the end, one of the key
um factors in prioritization was regulatory um compliance and that
ultimately leads to a discussion on water treatment as we are uh required to
uh treat our water because of the manganesees issue that sort of trumps
other issues. So in the end, this committee uh will recommend that that
project receives priority and director Bolton will talk a little bit more about
that in her report. Um
basically that's that's about it. A little bit of good news. Uh Director
Bolton uh informed us that they were able to rebuild a loader. I know it's a
small detail, but I think it's good news. We were able to re rebuild one of
our loaders, and that uh may save us $375,000 in borrowing. uh this year
because we didn't have to buy a new loader. So I thought that was great news
and I thank the team for that and uh there are the three uh for reference
only the the recommendations that the finance has made but that will be
covered off in director Bolton's report and the next scheduled meeting is the
middle of September. I'll take any questions if anyone has any.
» Okay. Thank you councelor Vic. questions from the from the council comments?
Anyone? Okay, seeing none, I'll um and you have
no no recommendations that we need to follow up as a result.
» Not from this report. They're all for reference only. They're going to be
covered off from Director Pton's report. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So I'll go
to the next item and that is a report from myself uh on the excuse me June
19th Caribou Regional District Board meeting and I apologize because this
report I'm been re being relying on the CRD for their uh reports that come out
and this just came into our office. So, I think what I'm going to have to do is
craft a a report immediately after uh attending a CRD meeting rather than
relying on waiting for the Caribou Regional District's report because this
goes back about 3 months and uh we need to do better than that. So um very
briefly um regarding the um the nil Hitzel eco
um wind wind project uh that that uh there was a a letter or pardon me the
board received a presentation and um I understand that the board has uh uh
submitted a letter in support of that and actually we have um a staff report
coming up immedi immediately following this. So there there will be some more
business uh on that particular project. Um the 2025 statement of financial
information came out as it as it does for all municipalities and regional
districts uh in the car or in the in the province. Uh the board approved
sponsorship funding for the Williams Lake First Nation annual POW and um
performances in the park partnership renewal. That is again a Williams Lake
event that the uh the board approved. And there were a bunch of other um
pieces of business that dealt with um South Caribou uh Regional Airport and
Esler Recreation Capital projects. Uh so I'll conclude right there and if there's
any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
Okay, seeing none, let's move on to staff report uh 6426.
And this this is on the Hixon I can't pronounce that. I'm sorry, the wind
project at Hixon. And um so I'm going to go to manager Reed for this report.
» Thank you, Mayor. The purpose of this report is to provide clarification
regarding the Nili Eco wind project's planned use of the Quinnell landfill.
And if it's okay, I'll just say wind project going forward. At the July 28th
council meeting, council requested staff bring further information regarding the
use of the Cornell landfill by the wind project. The draft socioeconomic impact
assessment summary states non-hazardous materials will be collected and also
disposed of in accordance with applicable provincial and federal
regulatory requirements. The Quinnell landfill is the closest landfill to the
project site and it is anticipated the bulk of non-hazardous materials will be
transported there depending on the ability of the landfill to accept
project related waste at the time of construction. If project needs cannot be
easily accommodated by existing landfill capacity,
NET Ecoenter will explore alternative disposal locations with local and
regional authorities in adherence with local permitting requirements.
I did reach out to the project manager and he couldn't provide an accurate
volume estimate at this time, but his email noted that it would likely be a
few construction bins per month. He also confirmed that if capacity was a
concern, an alternate location for waste disposal could be identified. Once
volumes can be confirmed, the city may deny access to the landfill. A letter of
support for the project will not be considered approval to use the landfill
for waste generated during construction. So the recommendation is that council
provide a letter of support for the wind project for their energy regulator
activities act permit application. >> Okay. Thank you.
» Yes. Thank you. Thank you for putting that call out because it was us that
requested uh the the landfill question and and I do I'm really happy to hear
that it the amounts here and like I said before, you know, as long as it's been
it's been approved, we're not worried about end of life things right now, but
I see that the city can at any time if if it's stuff that we can't deal with,
they can just say no. So, I do appreciate you reaching out. If there's
a chance for me ever to talk to them, I'd love to find out more about this. Uh
but thank you very much for for checking in on us for for this.
» Okay, thank you for that. Any further questions before I call the question on
the question? Okay, seeing no further comment or
question. Are we all in favor? Opposed? One opposed. You wish your vote
recorded. Uh so please record councelor McKelby's vote.
Okay, thank you for that. And then we will go now to staff report 65/26
city staff report local government climate action program reporting local
government intermuel to report. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. The purpose of this
report is to provide council and the public with a copy of the local
government climate action report submitted by the city for 2025's
greenhouse gas emissions. The local government climate action
program LGCAP provides stable funding to local
governments and modern treaty nations. This funding supports local climate
actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Municip mi municipalities
with a population exceeding 5,000 residents must measure and report their
corporate emissions profiles for traditional services to remain eligible
for funding. The most recent statistics Canada data for 2021 states the
population of Cornell census subdivision is 9,889.
The survey requires greenhouse gas emissions to be reported as tons of CO2
equivalent. In 2025, the greenhouse gas emissions
for traditional services directly delivered and contracted services as
defined by LGCAP were 1,144.37
TCO2E, which is a 3% increase from 2024's
11,000 sorry 1,11.44
TCO2E. the it's my sorry it's the recommend the
point of this proposal is just for the council to receive this report for
information only. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you for that. So um yeah
we've been advised that uh this is for for council information. So therefore uh
no um resolution is required but I will open the floor to questions from anyone
that uh that wishes. Okay. seeing you're you're you're
getting off easy here tonight. So So thank you for your report. Okay. So the
next one is staff report
uh 66/26 capital prioritization. Director Bolton
to report. >> Thank you. The purpose of this report is
to discuss the prioritization of major projects in the 20-year capital plan and
articulate some recommendations for the new council arriving this fall. The
financial sustainability and audit committee has reviewed this report and
recommends the resolutions included in the report. So, a major challenge facing
the community is that infrastructure costs continue to rise without a
matching increase in revenue. With the city's assessment base remaining
relatively stable, these costs are generally passed on to residents through
higher taxes taxes and user fees. At the same time, the city faces ongoing
pressure to direct more operating funds towards social and other needs. The
challenge is not expected to ease significantly in the near future through
growth, new revenue sources, or additional provincial funding. As a
result, council will need to consider how much taxes and fees can reasonably
increase to maintain existing services and whether some service levels should
be reviewed to support long-term sustainability.
And then I've given just different ways we evaluate capital projects at uh c at
budget time, just the things we think about. So strategic alignment, whether
or not there's a regulatory requirement, improvements to service levels,
consequence of failure is a big one. Other operational risks and economic
impacts. Those are all the things we think about when we look at every
project and decide whether or not it should go forward. We did do the master
infrastructure plan just a year and a half ago, I guess, now, and it looked at
all our projects that we need in the 20-year plan to maintain our services.
And it showed that property taxes will need to increase by at least 1% per year
for the foreseeable future to fund the current level of roads, drainage,
buildings, and related infrastructure, and that water fees will need to
increase by 1.5% and sewer fees by 1%. All of this is before inflation. And of
course, as we all know, the world's going a bit crazy right now, so we don't
know where inflation's going. So, it's something we'll have to continue to
watch. So, the infrastructure plan and 20-year financial plan were based on
using debt for any large significant building renovations in the future, such
as the RCMP building, and assume significant grant funding for water
treatment. So, I gave a little summary of how some of our capital funding
sources are changing. And then we talked about the three projects that are in the
20-year capital plan that will likely require debt financing. So that's
replacing a fire ladder truck, the RCMP renovation if it proceeds, and water
treatment. So these will all require debt. I spoke
a little about our debt capacity. It's not an issue. I mean, we've run out of
taxes to pay the debt before we'd run out of debt capacity. Um, so then here's
the large projects that we need to think about. So water the water treatment
project is a regulatory requirement and the largest project facing the city in
the near future. The water treatment is a project that infrastructure grants
have been given for in the past. So, we'll continue to look for grants for
that. Our city's our current water fees are lower than average than across the
province because we aren't currently paying for water treatment. So, this is
one we'll look for grant funding for. I gave just some examples there. You can
see depending on how much grant funding we get, how much this will cost us per
year. Um, one of the in in addition to the capital cost, water treatment also
has approximately a million dollars of operating costs once it's up and
running. So that'll increase our water costs each year.
The RCMP detachment, another project that could potentially require debt. So
the renovation is a priority project for the detachment. Although parking issues
related to the project remain unresolved, the project should be
reviewed with the new council, including the discussion of the parking
requirements and the preferred timing for a referendum on the required debt
funding. Because there's currently no reserve funding for major building
projects, works of the scale will generally need to be funded through
debt. At this time, there are no other significant building projects
anticipated. So, in the 20-year plan, we don't have any other big buildings
coming at us. So, again, I showed the potential tax increase just due to the
debt payments that we would be required if we take debt for our share of the
RCMP renovation. The province would pay part of that building because they have
officers in that building, too. And then the fire equipment. We've got a ladder
truck that we're going to have to replace here in a few years. The last
one was debt funded, and that's debt is almost out. So then we would take a debt
to fund the new one. So I've included a copy of all our large projects over the
next 10 years just for information. And I also included a chart of the potential
tax increases. This is just estimates ballparks just so someone knows kind of
where we're headed and kind of the challenges facing us. But I just want to
make sure it is estimates and of course the new council will have a lot of input
into this. So the recommendations just to give some direction to staff as we
move forward on these especially the unfunded projects. Do you want me I'll
do them one at a time. The first one is that council directs the water treatment
capital project to be the priority project for infrastructure grant
funding. Recognize the city will be required to fund a portion of the
project and to seek grants that contribute at least twothirds of the
cost.
» Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councelor Run is moving seconding councelor Vic.
Any discussion, comments? Okay. Are we all in favor? Opposed?
Carried. Thank you. That's a big one. >> Okay.
» Okay. So, now um we go to council information.
» No, I I've still got two more resolutions. I'm sorry. Yeah.
» So, the I I've got two more resolutions.
» Oh, okay. >> Okay. Go ahead.
» The second one is the council directs future budgets to be built with a 1.5%
increase per year in taxation to the capital reinvestment reserve to fund the
capital replacement projects in the master infrastructure plan. This is in
addition to the required increases for sewer and water fees each year.
» Okay. I'm sorry I misread that. I thought it was all sort of an omnibus um
resolution. So this is the second of three resolutions. Councelor Vic, you're
moving. Councelor McCelby is seconding. Any discussion? Councelor Runge.
» Yeah, I think this is a good way to slide into some of these other things
too. Uh, with regards to our debt funded projects because this is pushing a lot
of this 1.5% in my mind. Uh, and also some of these other things going forward
with regards to the ladder truck, are we able to maybe consider, you know, what
what is actually being used? I think is a fairly common practice across North
America, the same thing as the loader to rebuild it at a significant cost. Is
that are we able to do that with insurance?
» I don't think so. With the trucks, there's very strict requirements about
what the fire underwriters insurance requires. They can only be such an age.
So once they reach an age, we have to either move them into a lower level of
service or we lose our level of in of insurance that we have, which would
affect everyone's home insurance. >> So, so I'd really like to request that
we can possibly have a chance sometime. I'm not sure how busy staff is because
indications are on research is that actually other communities do do this
and extend truck lives by 10 or 15 years which would be above the 10 years that
they originally used them. So just if that's a possibility it would be
wonderful. That's >> you're talking fire truck specifically
» that fire in this case because it's a $3 million uh purchase if we were able to
spend something to extend it at a lower cost that would push down other costs
going forward. Like I'm for me it goes back to this 1.5%.
I understand we're going to be voting on this and my understanding is that yes,
it's a baseline that we're going to be looking on, but councils have to have
the ability to actually look at taxes and say, "Hey, we can or can't afford
this at the given time." But it's it's to make sure that we're getting that
money for the water treatment, which is a must.
» And I just want to be clear, the 1.5% is just for the capital reinvestment
reserve. So the debt projects are all on top of that. So there's tax increases
for those that I've listed in those charts below on top of that. So
» yeah, I'm just for me personally, I'm just worried that we're, you know, if I
when I just look at these numbers without the chance of re of revisiting
them by a future council or by >> every budget will look at these things.
» Well, we have to look at these things and say, is this actually a possibility
still? I understand that we have to put a baseline there to say, look, if we
want water, we we need to start putting stuff away for water. Uh, and I'm
hoping, you know, I'm, you know, with all these crazy things going on
internationally and south of the border and our Canada Builds funds that maybe
we can tweak someone's ear there in Ottawa to say, "Hey, Cornell really
needs some water here. How about chucking us 50 mil so we can get going
and build Canada strong here in Cornell?" Uh, and and same possibly with
ARMP while we're at it. Anyway, uh, yeah. So, and that's I guess that goes
to because people know that I'm inc uh I'm adverse to increasing taxes
by too much. I mean, I don't think that's that's uh you know, surprised by
anyone. So, I just So, for me, I want the option still to I don't mind saying
yes, we're looking at this 1.5, but I really need me or any other council
that's going to be in the future there looking at saying here, can we still do
it? >> Thank you.
» Yeah. Well, well said, councelor Runge. Councelor Vic,
» thank you. It's a lot to unpack there, sir, but yes, of course, any future
council can take a look at what we've decided here tonight potentially, and
make adjustments based on the situation they find themselves with at that
moment. The the goal here with these three recommendations, which were
halfway through, is staff needed some direction to focus energy. Right now,
we've identified the water treatment as a critical critical issue and that's
where staff energy needs to be to try and get these grant funds through Canada
builds or wherever else and we've identified that it has to contribute at
least 2/3 of the cost otherwise the burden becomes uh significant. And then
regarding the second element of our recommendations, the 1.5% increase,
which is not to do with water treatment, is just to to continue to um effectively
replace and and um repair the infrastructure we have today because
these are projections for the future costs and we will to to make sure we can
meet that baseline to cover off these replacements. This 1.5% is what is
forecasted to cover those costs. However, all of that can go out the
window if there is an acute issue with taxation or the economy of the day of
the day. So, um anyway, thank you, Mr. Mayor.
» Okay. Thank you. Any anyone else? Do I do I have a mover and seconder for
resolution number two of three? >> Yes, you do.
» Uh okay. Thank you. And um no more uh questions or comments. So, I will now
call the question on resolution number two. All in favor? Opposed? carried
unanimously. Okay, let's go to resolution number three.
» And the final resolution that council directs staff to look at the potential
solutions for RCMP parking and that this be built into the plan for the RCMP
detachment renovation before going to referendum.
» Okay, moving councelor Rudenberg seconding
councelor Vic. Questions, discussion. Okay, I'll call the question. All in
favor? Opposed? carried unanimously. Okay, thank you. Moving right along.
Uh now we go to council information package and I would ask that um uh
number one be brought forward. Um madame clerk, I wonder if you can you summarize
that for us, please. Or do you want it read into the record in in its entirety?
Yeah.
Would you like would you would you like me to read it? I'm going to do that.
This is a letter from Lori Bowen. Um I am a senior citizen, taxpayer, and
homeowner and business owner in the Cornell area for 50 years. I have lived
in Cornell for 50 years, raised our children in Quinnell and worked at the
se at several places of Northern Health for Northern Health throughout the years
and served on many different sports committees over these years. We have
never felt a worry about our children going in our downtown and walking
around. I would never allow this to happen with our grandchildren as it is
so unsafe now. I am disgusted and disturbed with the number of homeless
wandering our downtown area now. Drug use, theft, sex acts defecating on the
streets, not to mention the safety of the residents of Cornell, which was once
a beautiful downtown area. I have empathy for our business owners in the
downtown area, which have many stories to date. I had an incident on Thursday,
July 9, midday. I was only out of my vehicle for 5 minutes walking in front
of the Royal Bank when a lady approached me yelling at me to call 911. I had to
back up and said no. She then became aggressive and started swearing foul
words at me and coming closer. A female security came along and got her to move
on. This is not okay for our citizens of Quinnel. I have purchased a defense
mechanism for myself for the next time something happens and I have full
intentions of protecting myself and I also uh purchase some other family or
some four other family members. I am writing in hopes that we can work on a
plan for making our city improved. I have heard many other friends and family
and have confrontations on that have had uh confrontations on the streets of
Cornell. I have heard for years that city council received money from these
for these people being brought to Quinnell. I still do not know the answer
to this. We know most of these people are not from our town. So who is
bringing them and dropping them off to destroy our town? If they are bust here,
who is footing the bill? Why do we have to suffer the consequences of a bad
decision? This is signed as a concerned citizen of uh Cornell Lori Bowen. Um so
this is obviously a a very heavyduty letter and and I asked for it to to be
brought forward. Uh we we will be having a uh PSP which is public uh safe or
public safety and policing uh meeting coming up. We haven't set the date yet.
Uh but it it is coming and certainly this item will be on that agenda. I I'll
leave it open to to council for any questions. Councelor Rudenberg,
» not so much a question, but um so on the very last paragraph, can you answer the
lady um the first question she asked is that uh council receives money for
people that come into Cornell. Can you let her know whether that's true or not?
I know what the answer is. Can you let her know, please?
» I I certainly I mean, I'm I'm going to call her. I've got I've got her number,
but I but I wanted to see this on on the agenda. I mean um I I as a mayor and I'm
sure that other council members have also received calls from people that um
they saw somebody u a bus unloading people and and the last two that I've
received, I said, "Do you have a cell phone?" "Yes, I do." I said, "Do you do
you do you know that there's a camera in your cell phone?" I mean, nobody's ever
provided a picture or a photograph of of a bus unloading people in the middle of
the night. So, um, >> so, but my my my question to you is to
answer that first question that council receives money for people coming to
Quinnel. And I think people need to hear this from council that that is not true
and they need to hear it from the mayor >> because I know I don't see it in the
budget. Do you see it in the budget? Uh as chair of the finance committee, I
don't think you see money in the budget coming in from
Sorry. So you say that to the community, I believe, mayor. Well, that's what I've
been doing for the last two years is is, you know, anytime that um somebody
accuses the city of accepting money under the table or over the table, I I
say, "Where's your evidence?" I I it's not true.
» Thank you. And I I just wanted you to say that. So, thank you.
» Yeah, >> I appreciate that.
» Okay. Is there anyone else on this one? But as I say, it'll it will be coming up
at PSP and we just need to set a date and and also we're we're discussing um
you know how that how that public safety and policing meeting will be handled. Uh
some of these meetings are are held uh behind closed doors and and I'm all for,
you know, opening the doors and and having a a town hall of some sort. So
stay tuned. Anything more on this one?
But I but I will be um contacting Miss Bowen. And the uh the second one that we
have on the agenda or pardon me under council information is number six and
it's just for council information. Um, I'm not going to go into detail, but the
Quinnell Kangaroos are submitting a bid to host the 2027 Western Canada Savage
Cup Hockey uh, Championships, and they've asked for a letter of support
from the mayor. So I have just basically put this letter of support on the agenda
to get the word out that uh that we are in support of of them that this is not
the first time uh that the Koi or the Koi Cup the the the Savage Cup follows
the Koi Cup and so this is not the first time that we've ever that we've ever um
hosted the Savage Cup here in Cornell. And uh so I'm I'm hoping that everyone
would be in agreement with that. Councelor Rudenberg,
» thank you. And I appreciate that you've responded to them. I hope that you could
uh perhaps send uh their request to joint planning to see if joint planning
would like to send a letter of support also.
» Okay, that that's that's a good idea. They they had just asked for a letter
from the mayor, but you you raised a good point. So if uh if uh we have in
fact we have a a a joint advisory coming up. So maybe if if staff could uh put
that on the agenda to get a second letter of support, I think that would
that would go a long way. I I do know that they were up against a deadline for
this. So but but certainly if even if the uh a letter from Joint Advisory is
is a few days late um so be it. So u anything more on that?
Okay. So uh the next item is oh under correspondence and I I'll just move
right into this one and um I will read the letter from the um
from the legion. This is addressed to mayor and city council. Dear Mayor and
Council, 2027 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion
Caribou Branch 94, and we are planning several events to mark this milestone.
You might also be aware that our Senate is in need of extensive repairs. This
will involve raising the monument to allow for a new foundation to be poured.
Our executive feels that since the Senate needs to be lifted and moved,
this may be an ideal time to consider relocation. You are all aware of the
logistics required to put on a parade such as on Remembrance Day as it
requires official, and I underline the word official rrooting of Highway 97 on
Carson Avenue. I have received approval from branch executive to request use of
the northwest corner of the city's parking lot at Kinchant and Barlo for
permanent relocation of the Santa. This would keep the memorial on Veterans Way
in close and safe proximity to the branch and highly visible to the public.
It should be noted that this property was sold to the city by the Legion at
the city's request in the late 1990s. If approved, this would require relocation
of the city's public notice board, which is located in the same spot. We would
appreciate having the Senate relocated and repaired in time for rededicated
uh to be rededicated for the branch 94 100th anniversary date on October of
October 10, 2027. We do have access to funding for this project. Thank you for
considering and hopefully approving our request. I remain respectfully yours,
Doug. Doug Kerry Kerry, uh, chairman of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 94
100th anniversary committee. Um, so I'm just going to bounce this over to staff
for comment. I don't know if we're we're basically want to get this on the on the
table for for discussion uh by staff. Then staff can come back with some
recommendations. >> Yeah, we don't need a resolution for
this. I'll take this as staff direction. And in fact, staff had a a meeting about
it briefly. We're going to meet again next week to discuss how to to take
this. I do just want to pass on to council. We will focus on that corner of
the parking lot, but we may also work with the Legion on other areas within
that parking lot that might be might also work. So, I don't want to limit it
just to that corner till we've had a chance to look at the bigger picture and
implications for the city and our own development plans.
» Yeah. Once staff has had an opportunity to to review and and report on this, a
report will be coming back to council for council's uh decision. So, we'll
leave it at that for now. Um, so now under bylaws, uh, bylaw number 1985,
city of Cornell, appointment of officers and delegation of authority amendment
bylaw number 1985 of 2026, final adoption. Uh, mover moved by councelor
Goule, seconded councelor Vic. Any discussion?
Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? Carried. Thank you for that. We have no
new business or business arising. Uh information and question period. If
there's anyone in the gallery that wishes to come forward and ask a
question. Uh and it's not a comment. You have to ask a question that is
pertaining to the uh the agenda tonight. And when you do come forward, simply
identify yourself for the record and um and state your question.
Uh seeing none, um we have no um we have no changes to
upcoming meeting schedule. Um we have no changes to committee appointments,
announcements, and events. Anyone?
Okay, seeing none gallery questions. No gallery questions. Okay, then this is
getting easy. So now a motion to adjurnn. All in favor? Oh move. I'm
sorry. Councelor Rudenberg is moving and councelor Goule is seconding. Now I call
the question. All in favor of adjourning. Thank you everyone. Good
evening. Thank you.