March 2017 | Business View Magazine

186 187 Quesnel – It’s in Our Nature. “How will we deliver on the brand prom- ise?” Simpson asks, rhetorically. “If we say we’re sustainable, how will we be sus- tainable? If we say we’re accessible in the broader sense, how are we going to be accessible? How do we maintain afford- ability? How do we have one of the most accessible downtown cores; how do we have accessible, adaptable housing that seniors can age into? How are we going to be trailblazing? Where are we going to exercise the courage that’s required to be true trailblazers, and how are we going to exercise that fun piece? So, brand implemen- Quesnel, British Columbia tation and execution now becomes the goal.” Quesnel is putting its rebranding exercise at the center of its official Community Plan, a manifesto required by the province that outlines a town’s priorities for the next de- cade or more. Simpson recounts that while working on the Plan, one of the town’s consultants reported, somewhat glibly, that Quesnel was being described by some as “a beautiful community you could drive through.” Simpson sees that as just anoth- er challenge to be understood, pondered, and, ultimately, met. “How do we become a community that people want to come to; that deliberately plans to make us a des- tination if they’re visitors, and deliberately make them desire to live and invest here?” One item on the town’s agenda to get visitors to stop and linger is to reconfigure some downtown parking areas to accom- modate the larger, recreational vehicles that tend to ply Highway 97 that runs through town. “In our downtown area, we have no capacity for RVs to stop,” Simpson laments. “So, they’re really forced to drive through.”Another plan is to open the city’s riverfront to recreation, commerce, and culture. “We’re a river city, yet we have no capacity to get people down to the rivers to have a meal, or park an RV, or whatever the case would be,” he continues. “And yet all that land that would be available is all city land–we own that property. So, how do we develop our riverfront property in a Preferred vendor n Quesnel Paving quesnelpaving@ycs.bc.ca