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Editorial: Major move

As summer draws to a close, transition appears to be the word of the week for more than one sector of the community. City of Powell River and Powell River Regional District will be starting the fall with a change in top management.

As summer draws to a close, transition appears to be the word of the week for more than one sector of the community.

City of Powell River and Powell River Regional District will be starting the fall with a change in top management. Mac Fraser, chief administrative officer (CAO) with the regional district, has been named the new CAO of the city. He will be staying on with the regional district for one month and starting his new position on September 21.

Fraser has made a number of major changes at the regional district in 18 months and obviously he will be missed. Fortunately for the community, he is not going far. He will now be responsible for a larger staff and many more departments as he steps into the top city job.

Fraser’s intimate knowledge of the complicated processes regional districts must wade through can only help the relationship between the city and regional district. His awareness of rural issues should ease tensions in any discussions of shared services.

The other major transition that is occurring in our community is the successful ratification of Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation’s treaty by a majority of its members. Tla’amin will be moving to self-governance and its relationship with both the city and regional district will reflect its new position as an equal level of government.

Our entire community has just experienced the roller-coaster ride of Catalyst Paper Corporation’s emergence from creditor protection.

The closure of the Powell River paper mill would have been a blow to the community. The company is emerging as a leaner, stronger entity as it continues to do business in challenging paper market conditions. The community continues its 100-year journey with the mill, while at the same time searching for other investments that will create jobs and provide an expanded tax base.

For the regional district, finding a strong candidate to fill the top management position will be critical. The recent review of its fire services has identified the need for a major overhaul of how it administers its volunteer fire departments. The review calls for significant changes and overseeing the recommendations through a timely and thorough process should be one of the directors’ main priorities.

As the consultants who worked on the fire services review pointed out, history has proven that the most effective and successful approaches to good service delivery, risk management and above all firefighter safety are good equipment, sound management, training and clear lines of communication. That’s good advice not only for the regional district but for every level of local government that faces transition.