Ottawa Move Brings New Challenges for Butterworth- Carr
By 250 News
Thursday, December 30, 2010 01:57 PM
Prince George, B.C.- It will likely be the spring before Chief Superintendent Brenda Butterworth-Carr makes the move to Ottawa.
It was announced yesterday that the Officer in Charge of the Prince George detachment was promoted to Chief Superintendent and will be in charge of Aboriginal Policing with headquarters in Ottawa .
Given the time it will take to sell her Prince George home, it likely won’t be until Spring that she actually leaves P.G.
Butterworth-Carr says the move will see her career come full circle “ I started as a Native Special constable, the majority of my service has been in First Nations Communities in some variety or another. I’ve had the opportunity to be a District here for three and a half years before coming to City and certainly working with First Nations communities is something that I love doing. The other part of it is, although the title says National Aboriginal Policing, community policing falls under that too. So its sort of a holistic approach to how we can be more pro active with our communities as a whole,.”
She says being the officer in charge of the Prince George detachment is a job she has loved doing “It has been one of the most rewarding in my career to date. But at the same time, I understand the changes they are trying to undertake at the National level and they are trying to bring in people with recent operation experience who can say, ‘well, I tried this yesterday and it didn’t necessarily work’, or , ‘this is something we do in the field and its more applicable’, so I think in terms of relevancy, I believe I have those strengths and certainly have learned a tremendous amount from the people here that I have worked with.”
She believes her legacy will be the relationships she has developed with the people in the community of Prince George. “That’s one of the things I have really, really appreciated about Prince George is the genuine willingness of the local community to stand together and collectively resolve some of the issues that we face. We’ve undertaken a tremendous amount of displacement from the lower mainland as it pertains to organized crime and gangs and we’ve seen some good examples of the community coming together and saying we want to take a stand on this, and we want to it in a proactive manner, we want to provide positive choices for our young people and for me, it’s been easy to be a commander here because of that. That’s not to say we haven’t had our challenges, but for all intents and purposes, knowing that the community stands behind you makes it pretty easy.”
She says while she would have liked to have stayed on and finish off her performance plan, the best she can do now is make sure there is a strong foundation on which the new commander can build.
When she took the post as Prince George’s officer in command, she had given the City an understanding that she would spend three years in the post. She took the job in February of 2009, and if she makes the move in the spring as she expects to, that would make her commitment one year short of her goal. “I had been very forthright in saying that if something did come available that I would have to strongly consider that, and they (the City) knew, based upon where I’ve been and certainly the skills set that I have that might be a possibility that I would end up leaving prior to that three year commitment.”
She hasn’t had a chance to discuss the move with the Mayor (he’s out of town for the Holidays) but has advised the Director of Public Safety, Rob Whitwam and City Manager Derek Bates of her move .
The process now will see an internal posting, and interested candidates will submit their applications. From there, three or four will be short listed and the City will play a role in the interview and selection process.
Butterworth-Carr says she is looking forward to exploring the cultural aspects of Ottawa, “And learning something new, it’s definitely going to be something completely different and I will have another opportunity to finish my degree ( she’s pursuing a B.A. in conflict negotiations).
One of her first challenges will be to learn French “It has always been something that I have been interested in learning, and this will provide an opportunity to be more conversant in it.”
It is not lost on Butterworth –Carr that her advancement is seen as a positive image for First Nation’s youth. “It is very humbling. I know that our elders, in my home First Nations community as well as Territory, are firm believers that you work as long and as hard as you can to influence and effect positive changes and really, that’s why I am as committed as I am wherever I go and whatever I do, because I think that it’s a responsibility that I take to heart. It doesn’t matter where you’ve come from, it’s what you do about it, and it’s what you do to actually make a difference in society.”
Previous Story - Next Story
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Del.icio.usReturn to Home
Posted by: gus on December 31 2010 1:32 AM
.