Over two dozen Prince George residents living near the Queensway Court Motel attended a special council meeting Wednesday evening to see the fate of the establishment’s immediate future.
Council unanimously voted to uphold a suspension of the business license for six months, commencing October 1, 2018. The overwhelming majority of residents in attendance support council’s decision.
“Happy the motel isn’t coming back to active service.”
“I’m a little disappointed, I was hoping they would close it altogether.”
“It’s great, now kids can play outside and not be afraid.”
#PrinceGeorge council unanimously votes to uphold the six month suspension for the business license at Queensway Court Motel commencing October 1st, 2018 #CityofPG @mypgnow
— Matt Fetinko (@mattfetinko) September 6, 2018
Issues such as violence, drugs, and prostitution were brought up as the core reasons for the suspension. It was outlined in a report the owner, Soo Hyun Won, did not take sufficient action to fix the issues until after the notice of a business license suspension.
“It was only when they got a suspension notice that things started happening that might mitigate the issues that were happening in the motel,” explains Councillor Murry Krause.
“These things could have happened long in advance so although I feel bad for [Won] and his family, it still could have been resolved much, much sooner.”
It was said earlier in the night there were a high number of 911 calls from the location. PG RCMP Superintendent Warren Brown confirmed “nothing comes close” to the number of calls made to the Queensway Court Motel compared to other similar sized motels in the northern capital.
Also noted was that a large portion of these calls were unfounded. A recently made fix to the phone line was brought up by Councillor Garth Frizzell where it was taken out of the phone’s system to dial nine before a long distance call in order to lower the number of unfounded 911 calls. Frizzell noted the fix cost less than $90 and could have been made much earlier considering.
Councillor Susan Scott brought up the issue later on people using the establishment as a home.
“Between BC Housing and Aboriginal housing, I believe there are enough units available in Prince George that we can make sure that they’re safe for the next six months.”
While the suspension will last six months, the owner can reapply once it has been served. It was said at the meeting a certain benchmark or standard would need to be met before the license is reaccepted.
Scott says “either it’s going to be better or it’s not going to be”.