Evan Parliament has recently filled the position of Chief Administration Officer of Vanderhoof.
Parliament comes to Vanderhoof from Sooke, B.C. where he was also the CAO there.
The position means that he will be a kind of town manager for Vanderhoof.
"He will be that face of the community that is there dealing with the administrative things that go along with a community, said Gerry Thiessen, mayor of Vanderhoof. "Ensuring that the ideas of council, where council sees they want the community to go, that those issues are addressed and kept track of and fulfilled. We have a lot of things on our plate currently."
Was it a big change for Parliament to come this far north? "Not really," he said.
"Local government is standard throughout the province but of course the geography is different, the industry is different. Each community has their own make up but each government is the same. But yeah it's a nice area."
"Council was really excited when we got the chance to hire [Parliament]," said Thiessen. "This is going to be a full role of keeping track and organizing those projects that we have going on right now."
While Parliament hasn't been in town long he was brought up to speed quickly on a number of local issues such as housing, labour, and industry as well as how to promote and market the area.
Another project in the works is the pool that Vanderhoof must find the funding to meet a $12 million target.
"This project is critical as we move forward," Parliament said. "My job is to come up with some creative financing options to come up with the money and get this facility built. My kids are competitive swimmers and I'm looking forward to working with the committee on that."
"Our last CAO, Joe Ukryn was great, he's done a great job but he always let it be known that his real heart was back in finance," said Thiessen. "We needed someone dedicated to being the CAO and we honored Joe's wishes for his duty to be the Chief Financial Officer."
"I started [in Summerland] ten years ago as their CAO," said Parliament. "And then from there moved to the island, so I've worked in both the Okanagan and then the island and now up here."
Vanderhoof should be a great fit for Parliament because of the many sports programs available.
"I love sports I'm looking forward to playing hockey, tennis I love golf. I de-stress by heading to the gym, try to stay fit. And I have my pilots licence so I'm looking forward to getting to know the group at the airport."
Parliament attended the Vanderhoof Airshow last Saturday and helped out some of the other volunteers there.