Investment Overview

Overall, our extensive, modern and efficient wood products manufacturing sector has been leading the way with a great diversity of sophisticated applications of computerized process control technology, strong training support and a good workforce depth.

Highlights of our advantages include:

Strong Transportation Links

Highway 97 makes Quesnel a perfect spot for same day delivery to major international shipping points like Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton.  These cities can be reached by provincial rail as well and can be linked along the way to national rail. 

Prince Rupert and Vancouver can be reached in a day for access to deep sea ports for international shipping. Prince Rupert is 600km closer to Quesnel than Vancouver and located to the far east. Quesnel also has multiple daily scheduled airline flights at our small airport and nearby Prince George International Airport has flights to many destinations around the world.

Quesnel has been one of CN Rails highest volume loading points in British Columbia and our city is also home to numerous truck transport companies making us very well connected to the world.

Highway

The primary north-south connector in BC is Highway 97 and this highway passes directly through the city; Highway 16 is the primary east-west connector for the northern half of British Columbia to central Alberta, Highway 16 can be found120 km (75 miles) north of Quesnel.  Highway 26, which runs east of the city, connects Quesnel with Wells, Barkerville and the Bowron Lakes and Highway 56 connects Quesnel to the Nazko Valley in the west.

Quesnel's Distance to Major Centres

Motor Carriers/Trucks

Common Carriers Serving Quesnel Area: 51
Common Carriers with Local Terminals: 6

With this many carriers availiable to our area goods can be shipped quickly and with confidence to almost any destintation.

Railway

BC Rail, which was acquired by CN Rail (CN) in 2004, serves Quesnel and area, and, running North and South, serves Quesnel and area, running North and South, it connects with other carriers in Prince George to the North and in Vancouver to the South.

CN offers BC Rail shippers the shortest and fastest route to key NAFTA markets – 700 miles less to Toronto and Memphis than competing carriers and 650 miles less to Chicago. CN has strong relationships with connecting U.S. carriers operating in the Western U.S. CN’s network integration will create a critical mass of traffic at Prince George to start a new “Chicago Express” train for the forest products industry on a schedule of less than four days. Industry-leading “scheduled railroading” practices will offer BC Rail customers trip plans for shipments measured in hours, not days. CN will acquire 600 new centrebeam cars and upgrade 1,500 boxcars to accommodate anticipated truck share gains in the forest products segment. Fleet capacity will also increase as a result of improved car cycles.

BC Rail
CN Rail

Airport

The Quesnel Municipal Airport, owned and operated by the City of Quesnel, is located within City limits about 5 minutes North of the City core. At an elevation of 544m (1,789 ft ), the runway is 45m (148 ft) wide and 1,672m (5,500 ft) long and accessible year-round. A self serve fueling facility with 100LL and JetA with additive is open 24 hours per day and accepts VISA.

Quesnel is served by Central Mountain Air (www.flycma.com) which provides daily flights to Vancouver. The air distance to Vancouver International Airport is approximately 420 km (261 miles) and is completed in approximately one hour.

Contact Harlene Hunt, Airport Manager at 250-992-2208 for more information

Modern Telecommunications Infrastructure

Local infrastructure includes fibre-optic and wireless connection opportunities.

Quesnel firms have access to high speed telecommunications infrastructure, including fibre-optics and wireless broadband. Cable broadband service is available in the Quesnel area.

Service characteristics include:

Digital switch technology
Fibre service provided
100 Mbps LAN service available
ISDN, ADSL available
Multiple route diversity
Alternate routing/disaster recovery
Video conferencing available
Cellular service is digital in the municipality.

Skilled and Eager Work Force

Higher percentage of skilled and technical workers than the BC average with low rates of turnover. Relatively high unemployment reduces recruitment issues.

Employer-Driven Training Institutions

National award-winning agencies like the Quesnel School Board and the Wood Enterprise Centre, the College of New Caledonia, University of Northern BC, and private trainers work hard to match industry and business with a skilled, knowledgeable and motivated work force.

Low-Cost Energy and Utilities

Reliable, low cost energy through provincial, publicly-owned energy utility.

Affordable Buildings and Industrial Sites

Land and existing buildings are available with options for purchase or lease.

Please view the Quesnel & Area Land Inventory Summary Report for more details.

Weather

Quesnel is in the upper Fraser Basin on the leeward side of the Coast Mountains, and is consequently relatively dry, with warm dry summers and cool winters lasting from mid-November to mid-March. Precipitation is generally distributed evenly through the seasons. There are periodic incursions of moist maritime air alternating with cold Arctic air invasions in the winter.

Snow and rainfall increases from Quesnel toward the Cariboo Mountains in the east. On average, there are 96 days with measurable rainfall and 54 days with measurable snowfall. The area is usually frost-free from mid May through early September. Weather extremes in the Quesnel area are very unusual, and weather rarely impedes transportation or communications. Snowfall may impede traffic on rural roads for short periods of time.

Workforce and Workforce Education

A wood products industry workforce of about 3,500 people live in Quesnel, including highly skilled process control technicians. Worker turnover is low and worker recruitment has been aided by relatively high regional unemployment.

The industry base within a 200km radius is an additional pool of many thousands more skilled wood products industry workers.

Quesnel has a strong wood industry-focused education and training infrastructure. The Quesnel School Board has won a national award for a high school wood technology technical education program that creates partnerships between industry and the school system. The School Board has even developed a student-run wood products manufacturing business that successfully produces hundreds of wood products and gives exceptional experience to students. That program "ladders" into advanced wood industry technology programs at the local college and other post-secondary education facilities in BC.

The College of New Caledonia (CNC) in Quesnel has begun construction of a brand new, $11.6 million campus in Quesnel. Construction is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2005. For the wood products industry, CNC has developed a Wood Technology Program that is planned to be expanded at the new college campus in the future.

Technical Support

Quesnel is also served by all major wood products industry technical support agencies, including Forintek, the National Research Council, UBC Dept. of Wood Science, and BC Wood Specialties Group.

Furthermore, Quesnel is home to the national award-winning Wood Enterprise Centre (WEC), the first shared-use wood manufacturing centre in Canada. WEC focuses on small business entrepreneurs, prototyping for small and medium sized firms, and training in wood products manufacturing technologies. The Wood Enterprise Centre has close relationships with major technical support agencies, including the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Advanced Wood Processing.

Land For Facilities

Industrial sites with rail and highway or near-highway frontage are located in the city and surrounding area. A comprehensive land inventory has confirmed that Quesnel and District has a significant amount of suitable land available for industrial applications:

1,100 ha have been identified as suitable for light industry, and 2,200 ha have been identified as having potential for heavy industry development.

Please see the Quesnel & Area Land Inventory Summary Report or contact QCEDC for more information.

Utilities

British Columbia is a net energy exporter and has ample supplies of electricity and gas.

For more information on electricity supply, please see www.bchydro.com, and for information on gas supply, please refer to www.terasen.com.

In terms of water, Quesnel has five deep wells that feed a central reservoir. The pressure system feeds 85 km (53 miles) of water mains, with an average pressure of 67-70 PSI.

The Quesnel Light Industrial Park

Quesnel is expanding its industrial park. The first phase of the Park is a 16 acre subdivision on the City’s airport lands. The park will be connected to the north end of the City’s current industrial park on Campbell Crescent on the Quesnel-Hixon Road. Subsequent phases will add up to 60 acres to the park.

The first phase of the park is targeted at smaller scale firms that may benefit from co-location with similar firms, enabling companies to share facilities and resources (for instance, for waste management or shipping/receiving). Park planners hope that co-location may aid firms to be more efficient and competitive.

Pricing is competitive. To reduce the developer’s risk (the City of Quesnel), a certain level of lot pre-sales are necessary to trigger site development. Please contact QCEDC for more information.