New Northern Commish?
By Ben Meisner
Thursday, June 23, 2005 03:40 AM
The Northern Development Initiative Trust Board will soon have an Executive Director, that's according to Steve Thorlakson who is a member of the Board, and Mayor of Ft. St. John. He says the post will be officially filled September 1st of this year.
Thorlakson says 38 applications had been received when applications closed on June 16th.
The trust fund came from the sale of BC Rail to CN and was funded by a one time grant of $135 million. Of that amount $25 million will go to operational expenses, $50 million to support “cross regional economic investments “ and $60 million divided equally between the four regions of Ft. St. John (the Peace), the area in and around Terrace, the area around Williams Lake and the Prince George region.
In the Peace River area the group has voted to keep its $15 million intact and will use the interest from the fund for projects.
Steve Thorlakson says the position of Executive Director will pay what the head of a small to medium size municipality would receive about $80 to $100 thousand dollars annually.
When asked if the position will be filled by political appointment, Thorlakson said No, the Executive Committee ,comprised of Rick Gibson of Williams Lake, Bruce Sutherland of PG, Stephanie Forsyth of Terrace and himself ,will make the recommendation.
In conclusion Thorlakson says, you can be assured this is not going to be a "Commissioner of the North, NDP style, we are trying to get the best person possible."
Jim Craven, former Executive Director of the Municipal Finance Authority is short listing the applications
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We have Thorlakson mayor of Fort St John running the show deciding how to divy up the fund from the BC Rail sale. Isn't it Fort St John and Grand Prarie that benefited the most from the sale of BC Rail all ready? Now that CN is going to bi-pass PG and connect the 30km of track from Grand Pararie to BC Rails northern line.
I guess Thorlakson and Ft St John get their cake and get to eat it as well. Lucky people at our expence.
Furthermore isn't Bruce Sutherland of PG the one who got our Chamber of Commerce to shot PG in the head with the BC Rail deal. (ie Alaska pipeline tie ins with the rail line going through the Peace country to Alberta bi-passing PG.)
Wasn't Sutherland the main proponent behind the scene of the BC Rail deal. Is it now appropriate for him to profiteer from this sale with a seat deciding on how this money will be divided up?
Let me guess Bruce Sutherland. Our legacy from the BC Rail funds will go towards funding mill supply companies entering into the Russian lumber market to make them more efficient competitors. After all in Sutherland speak people go where the work is, and the work goes with who ever does it best, for cheepest. Hence PG (read Bruce) should become world leaders in the mill supply business, and the people should go where the business is. This means we should all move to Russia when he is finished with PG.