The President of the College of New Caledonia was on the hot seat at a special City Council meeting in Quesnel Monday night.
Henry Reiser and CNC Board Chair Vincent Prince were both invited to address the controversial issue of new pay parking at the Quesnel campus.
The message from all of Council was clear, that they want to be consulted on decisions like this in the future.
“It starts out with pay parking, but we know that there are bigger conversations that need to be had around programming and how we give this community what they need.” Councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenburg said “So again, it’s about those partnerships, or one we could have developed around this issue.”
Quesnel has already offered free transit to CNC students in retaliation of the new parking fees.
The city will also continue to provide about 55 free parking stalls on Campus Way near the college, painting line and clearing them of snow. Council voted against upgrading the stalls due to budget constraints.
Despite all of the protest, President Reiser let Council know that it was a done deal.
“The board must do what is best for the entirety of the college, and sometimes that means making very difficult decisions. The contract has already been signed with Impark and it’s legally binding for a five year period.”
He says the college will save about $30,000 in maintaining the parking lot. They will also get a small percentage of the fees collected.
The Prince George CNC campus has had the same $3 a day parking fees for the past 12 years.
Reiser did say that they hope to have better communication with the City through the College’s new Regional Principal Ross Morgan.
Board Chair Vincent Prince also admitted that they learned an important lesson.
“You know we messed up a bit. That’s fine, I can agree and understand that from the comments we’ve heard and from the people who talked to me.”
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