The mayor of Sooke Maja Tait has been acclaimed as the new president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, as Kamloops councillor Arjun Singh moves to the position as past president.

Singh says it’s been an honor to travel around B.C. and work with other local governments in the president role.

“I think local government has sort of secret or magic power, in that we’re not partisan in any way and for the most part we’re extremely collaborative with how we work. So we can bring people together in a much more broad way than other forms of government, with respect. So we can actually have these conversations that are kind of across society,” he says.

“It was such an honor to be doing this job for the year. I’m looking forward to getting back to stuff locally more. I feel in my community, I haven’t been around Kamloops as much as I usually am. And I’m a councillor first and foremost and regional director.”

Like Singh, Tait becomes the UBCM president on a one-year term. She’s been on the UBCM committee since 2016 and was vice-president this past year.