Inside
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VEOLIA ENERGY PLANT P. 2 EDITORIAL P. 6
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POLICE UPDATE P. 3 COUNCIL NOTES P. 4
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Quesnel proposes additional route to Blackwater gold
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Skating off for regional championships
Vivian Chui Omineca Express The City of Quesnel is looking to build a direct access route to New Gold’s Blackwater mining project. Located 110 kilometres southwest of Vanderhoof, the proposed open-pit gold and silver mine is currently accessed through Vanderhoof over existing forest service roads. “We’re not dividing a fixed pie at all,” said Quesnel’s Mayor Bob Simpson. “We’re not suggesting, as some people in the community is suggesting, that we want all of New Gold activity here, we want all the employees, we want it based out of here. “We’re just looking at, can we make it easier for people in our community to work at New Gold with an expedited access to it.” Prepared last September for Quesnel’s Community and Economic Development Corporation, the Nechako Basin Access Economic Impact Study originated from the city’s dialogue on looking at all economic options, after the 2014 closure of Canfor’s sawmill in Quesnel, Simpson explained. “People will still be camp-based out of New Gold…it’s just a matter of whether it’s based on a six-hour bus ride, or a two-and-half-hour drive to get there themselves,” he said The study indicates that an improved road access to the Blackwater Project, as well as the Lower Nechako Basin, would increase jobs and income for local and future Quesnel residents and nearby First Nation communities, with a positive impact on mineral exploration and tourism activities based out of Quesnel. “I didn’t buy a lot of the arguments, quite frankly, in the report, because it presumed that it’ll be 100 per cent additive — so any new job in New Gold would be a new person in a new household and a new property tax — which wouldn’t be the case,” said Simpson. “Notwithstanding that we know it would just give us another employment opportunity for our workforce here.” Three possible routes are considered in the study, each using a combination of existing paved and forest service roads, and involving two to six kilometres of new road construction. All three routes eventually connect to the Kluskus Forest Service Road that is currently used for accessing the Blackwater Project from Vanderhoof. Simpson says the proposed new road is part of a dialogue with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure regarding the Highway 97 corri-
Nechako Figure Skating Club’s Ayva Lewis, 9, placed second in the Star 3 Field Moves category at the Cariboo North Central Regional Figure Skating Championships and Jamboree in Prince George from Jan. 22 to 24. See FIGURE SKATING page 16 SUBMITTED photo
See NEW ROUTE TO BLACKWATER, page 5
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