Dawson Creek No Vote wins narrow victory

Saturday, November 21, 2009

 With only 1,985 votes cast, the No campaign has come out victorious in the Dawson Creek spending referendum.

Residents of Dawson Creek went to the polls Saturday, after the City was forced to bring the issue of borrowing 9.9 million dollars for infrastructure in the community to referendum.  The vote was extremely close, with only 1009 people voting no and 976 voting yes, with a total of 1,985 votes cast.

Mayor Mike Bernier says the referendum started when the city proposed borrowing around 9.9 million dollars over three years, which would be spent on capital projects.

But, more than ten per cent of the community voiced their concerns, saying they did not want the city to get the loan for various reasons.

Bernier says City Councilors decided to hold a referendum and let the residents decide.

At this point the idea of borrowing money for the proposed projects has been defeated in the referendum and so the projects will be put on hold until the city comes up with other funding ideas.

For more on this story you can read the following articles

Mayor of Dawson Creek encouraging residents to vote

Dawson Creek Ratepayers oppose borrowing bylaw

Dawson Creek heads to referendum