By Jennifer Quam

The Barkerville Heritage Trust that took over the Barkerville site in 2004, is promoting the idea of a circle route through the Purden/Bowron Lake Road approximately 145 kilometres West of McBride.

“We are looking at as many ways to enhance Barkerville and its viability,” said Immediate Past Chair and Prince George City Councillor Murry Krause. “There has been this notion that a circle route would help do that for a number of years.”

Krause said there are reasons in a tourism setting for better access to Barkerville but says there are also safety issues that should be considered. Currently there is only one road into Barkerville.

“We have looked at both the ideas of a Goat River connector and the Purden/Bowron Lake connector,” said Krause. “We feel that the Goat River route is too expensive to enhance. It is a longer route, and has more challenging terrain.”

Krause said the committee has put together a report regarding the Purden/Bowron Lake connector and have sent it to Victoria to be reviewed by the Ministry of Transpiration.

“There are a couple of things they have to look at, including the capital cost to upgrade the road and the cost of maintenance on the road,” said Krause. “At this point we are waiting for a green light from them to pursue the next steps to the project.”

Krause said those next steps will include community consultations. “We would definitely include all affected communities including McBride in these consultations.”

Krause is hoping that if approval is given in time that those community talks can begin in the fall.

“We are hoping that we can promote tourism in Central B.C. because we know that no one location is going to draw visitors, rather the whole area will,” he said. The goal is to really find ways to promote the area as a whole nationally and internationally.”

Prince George/Mount Robson MLA Shirley Bond said that the government is not financing any work for the area at present.

“Some very expensive options will have to be considered and they might just be too much,” said Bond. “There has been an ongoing debate for years on how to generate more tourists’ traffic and this is one idea.”

Bond said that she has suggested to the Barkerville Heritage Trust and her expectation is that they will consult with McBride if this project gets to the stage.

“Everyone needs to know what kind of benefits and challenges something like this will have on their community.”