Big Change Afoot at NDIT
North is the only CEO NDIT has ever known and her retirement was motivated by a desire to spend more time with family and friends.
North says it wasn’t an easy decision to make.
“It’s always a hard decision when you love what you do and you get to work with great people,” she says. “But sometimes it’s time for a fresh set of ideas to come into the mix and I’m looking forward to spending time with my family on our
boat and doing a few things.”
“On behalf of the Board, I congratulate Janine on all of her achievements while leading the Trust and making it the truly unique and valuable organization that it has become,” says Chair Evan Saugstad.
“Her tireless work and leadership took the Trust from an organization that began with a large bank account and not much else, to the organization that has become institutionalized as an essential part of our communities, with an even bigger bank account.”
NDIT was established in 2005 by the provincial government. It’s mandate is to strengthen the economy and has used more than $142 million in funding for more than 2,000 projects throughout central and northern B.C.
The process and timeline for selecting North’s successor will be decided at the Board’s next meeting in April.
North will remain CEO until her replacement has been chosen and hired to ensure a smooth transition period.
Comments
I wonder if this means moving south for retirement? That would be the norm for high executive positions from the North.
IMO the biggest failure of economic development in the north is in the area of making the north a place to retire. A place where one can find a stable cost structure and good services to encourage more people to choose the north as a place to retire.
If we look at a pension as akin to a business investment into the community. Then a $2 million dollar pension with a $100,000 yearly interest payout is akin to a $2 million dollar business investment with $100,000 a year in revenue. Even more so if the pensioner is buying local goods, and justifying more local services like medical, dental, food, legal, personal and all the other services that in turn create more employment… and the more their income is spent locally and circulates locally then it grows depth into the economy that makes the local economy sustainable.
Every time a pension is earned in the north, but then taken from the north and dispersed in another community down south, it is like part of a small business leaving this community. The CPP dollars, the old age pension dollars, the private pension dollars, and more importantly the health care dollars… are all important aspects that relate to how retirement is a major aspect of any healthy local economy.
For this reason alone I think a higher emphasis when recruiting and hiring for high profile northern positions should be on the long term local ties to the prospective employee or executive… so when retirement does come around this investment in these people is returned to the north over time (a very significant investment)… with the added bonus that they will also have a higher incentive to create the kind of north they themselves want to retire in.
Until PG has palm trees and 20C winters I hope to spend a couple months each year of my retirement down south…..although the way the weather has been warming up by the time I can afford to retire that could be PG.
Comments for this article are closed.