New Boss Named for Initiatives Prince George

Monday, February 18, 2008 10:58 AM

Tim McEwan wraps up remarks after being introduced as the new President of Initiatives Prince George ( photo Opinion250 staff)

Prince George, B.C. - The new boss for Initiatives Prince George is Tim McEwan who will take over from Gerry Offet at the end of March. He comes from Vancouver where he was the principal of TM Consulting Ltd. of Vancouver

He was the founding Director of BC Progress Board .

David George Chairman of Iniatives Prince George made the announcement along with Mayor Colin Kinsley.

"Mr. McEwan brings an extensive background in economic development. He is well known and respected within B.C. and across Western Canada," says Mayor Kinsley. "He has tremendous vision for growing the Prince George economy, and is the perfect choice to lead our community as we ensure our economy remains strong through these transition times," Mayor Kinsley added.

Mr. McEwan is Principal of T. M. McEwan Consulting Ltd., a firm providing an array of management and public policy consulting services in Vancouver, BC.

From July 2001 to December 2006, he served as founding Executive Director of the BC Progress Board, an independent advisory panel of 18 senior business and academic leaders tasked by the Premier of British Columbia to semi-annually benchmark and provide strategic advice on the province’s economic, innovation, education, environment, health and social performance.

Prior to this, Mr. McEwan provided key leadership for the BC Business Summit, a cooperative non-partisan coalition of 54 business and professional organizations advocating for positive economic change in British Columbia.

McEwan says his wife Cynthia is excited about moving here "When I told her about the opportunity in Prince George, she asked, ’when do we move?’ I told her I had to go through the interview process first." Born in Trail, McEwan says he and his Yorkton Saskatchewan born wife both prefer to live in a smaller centre, and the thought of not having to face an hour and a half commute to and from work is a bonus.

McEwan says one of his first priorities will be to speed up the development of the Cariboo Connector. "Once you have that kind of connectivity a lot of opportunities present themselves."

Offet says he is very comfortable with the selection of McEwan. He will work with McEwan for the next few weeks as they go through a transitional stage.

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Posted on Monday, February 18, 2008 10:58 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Rockin on February 18 2008 11:32 AM

Welcome to Prince George Mr McEwan....
and Good Luck on your new postion.

Posted by: owl on February 18 2008 3:00 PM

Speeding up the development of the Cariboo Connector.

A good one to pick. Air and rail may be great transportation linkages, but none can beat road in North America. In addition, I would hope that a connection with the Yellowhead that does not take traffic through the middle of this city would be part of a revised "Connector" project.

It's a part of the "green" plan to get as much diesel out of town and to move new industry into new "out of bowl" locations. In addtion, since someone was talking about some sort of safety 2012 or so vision (bureaucrats smoking weed again I see), it would reduce accidents at the key intersections.

So, funding can come from a whole bunches of sources.

Make it happen!!!! and fast, before I tailgate too much ....

;-)

Posted by: lunarbase on February 18 2008 6:18 PM

OMG, another Pie in the sky dreamer ! We have the road already, it isn't that busy and if it truly was the government would be double lane it and not using it as a 99 year promotion for how they say they are helping the Heartland.

Just because we have a great highway to PG doesn't mean anyone is magically going to open up a manufacturing company or something that actually creates employment. We need the infrastructure here in PG first ! ( Yes that means a road a person can drive down and not destroy their front end. Hard to attract employees to PG when they come to check out the place and see and hear about things like that. )

We have a high speed electronic super highway into PG, thanks in part to UNBC but is it being used to actually create jobs here ? NO ! Kamloops just got a huge datacentre that employees high paid employees and they have the same high speed access as we do. So did the firm set up shop there ! Look into those sort of things Initiative's PG. Use what we have now and don't worry about the Provincial stuff. Now firms in Kamloops are providing services to companies throughout the world cause of this datacentre.

Posted by: Palopu on February 18 2008 7:50 PM

Welcome to the consultant. Business must be bad in Vancouver.

I guess we dont have any local talent for this job, or maybe the City wanted to increase the population by two (2) people.

Posted by: astro on February 18 2008 8:15 PM

Cars and trucks powered by hydrocarbons are not the way of the future. Unless these vehicles are powered by some other energy source, they will not be used and we do not need to waste our money on expanding highways. If work is need on the highways, it should only be done to make them safer.

Posted by: camoose on February 18 2008 8:55 PM

aLets hope Mr. Mcewan can get the Libs to complete at least another 2 kms of the the Cariboo CON before the next election. Welcome to the trough sir.

Posted by: Bridge on February 19 2008 9:49 AM

Pal I was going to say if this guy is so hot whats he doing in PG. The cup is half full.

Cheers

Posted by: Andyfreeze on February 19 2008 9:58 AM

The Campbell Liberals won't be completeing ANYTHING of any importance until quite a while after the 2010 Olympics,which by the way,has all the signs that it is begining to incurr some very serious cost overuns.
(wait for it)
Our highways are in the shape there are in(one big patch) because of the money that has been funneled away from such trival things as infrastruture upgrades into the big money pit at Whistler.
Can you say "convention center"?
We hung Glen Clarke and company for the fast ferries fiasco(hey,they deserved it!)but here we are again getting hosed by a government that is hell bent on building monuments to themselves with tax dollars.
Take a look at the provincial incurred debt that we had when the NDP got their butt kicked and sent to their room, and then take a look at what it is now?
Hello?
Duh...we have just been had!

Posted by: econ101 on February 19 2008 2:54 PM

I have never seen or heard from such a group of negative, got nothing good to say about my community no it alls than some here and in PG.

Hasty generalization, yes.

But after living here for 6 years it's a reality.

As for this gentleman moving here, there are plenty of us here (those who can live anywhere). We see the opportunities on the horizon, in spite of your negativity and conspiracy theories.

Prince George will be going through major economic changes, with or without you.
Remember....sustainability through diversification.

Economics is made of fundamental theories, however conspiracy is not one.

Posted by: NMG on February 19 2008 7:26 PM

"I have never seen or heard from such a group of negative, got nothing good to say about my community no it alls than some here and in PG. Hasty generalization, yes. But after living here for 6 years it's a reality"

Yup.

Posted by: Harbinger on February 20 2008 10:10 AM

There's that word again. Infrastructure. Grrrr.