The Thompson-Nicola Regional District board has re-elected Ken Gillis as its chair for a one-year term.
Gillis was chosen over Kamloops councillor Dieter Dudy in a secret ballot. He has been board chair since November of 2018.
In his candidacy statements, Gillis talked about the independent audit from BDO Canada set to be released in mid-December, which will look into controversial past spending under former CAO Sukh Gill.
“In my first term as chair, I worked with staff to overcome challenges which led to the departure of our CAO. Now we are in the latter stage of a deeply-penetrating forensic investigation, and I very much want to see that through to its completion,” Gillis told other directors. “I have intimate familiarity with what has evolved so far, and I consider that I am, by far, in the best position to carry it to its completion.”
Gillis says he played a role in the committee that helped hire current CAO Scott Hildebrand in the summer of 2020, “and you have clearly voiced your approval of the result. Not that I was responsible for that result, but I did play a leading role for that committee.”
Dudy talked about people wanting to see change within the regional district.
“One of the biggest challenges we face moving forward will be to regain the public trust. That said, I don’t believe that can be done by maintaining the status quo. We have to be seen as truly embracing change, and that change includes changing the captain in the wheelhouse.”
Gillis also talked about work done through “the summer of hell,” when it comes to a catastrophic wildfire season for the region, and lobbied on his experience as chair during that emergency. He says an “enormous amount of work” remains to be done, between the TNRD, the BC Wildfire Service and other agencies, to protect rural areas and prevent another tragic wildfire season.
Meanwhile, Ashcroft mayor Barbara Roden was acclaimed as vice-chair, as the only director who was nominated.
Area O director Bill Kershaw had been the vice-chair for the past three years but did not seek the nomination again.
