The Thompson-Nicola Regional District will be proactively reaching out to all Provincial Ministries in a bid to improve communication and collaboration.

CAO Scott Hildebrand says the request comes as a number of the new directors on the board said they wanted to make sure they’re in the loop.

“We are trying to be proactive and ensure that our communication is the best that we can, and we can be engaged with the province when they’re working and walking through projects and things and initiatives within our municipalities,” Hildebrand told Radio NL.

“The fact that we had nearly 70 per cent turnover on our board at the last election, its just about learning for a lot of the new directors on the board and making sure that they are engaged and involved with things that municipalities usually work on and making sure that residents in the more rural areas are also connected.”

Hildebrand says the request comes after a number of the TNRD’s Electoral Area Directors say they found “gaps in communications” when working with the Provincial Government this summer.

“We had a few directors who [wanted] to be more involved in some of the minister meetings and some of the deputy minister meetings when they are in our regional district,” he said. “There is no way we can actually have a policy or something around that so this is just more of me working with the ministry of municipal affairs to just remind them of the TNRD and just something we wanted to be proactive on a communication front.”

“So it is really a good news, kind of proactive approach to build those relationships and continue to communicate well.”

Hildebrand says he’s been given assurances from the Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs that this request will be forwarded to all of the various ministries in the provincial government.

“In talking with the deputy minister of Municipal Affairs, this is quite the surprise to her but she would gladly take this and actually on behalf of the TNRD communicate this to all ministries in the most efficient way,” Hildebrand told the board during their meeting last Thursday.

“It is a win-win situation so I think its positive.”

Clearwater-area Director Usoff Tsao thanked TNRD staff for moving this request along.

“As an electoral area director, I would just like to thank our staff, our CAO for being proactive and working with our directors to formulate something that is actionable by the province,” Tsao said Thursday.