Vanderhoof mayor Gerry Thiessen has been named chair of the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako for 2020 with Fraser Lake rural director Mark Parker taking on the role of vice chair.
The appointments, along with chairs for the regional district’s various committees, were made late last year and both Thiessen and Parker had those positions in 2019.
Houston mayor Shane Brienen represents the regional district as one of three specific representatives to the Northwest B.C. Resource Benefits Alliance, the regional lobby group established to press the provincial government for a share of resource revenue taxation flowing to the province.
Brienen has also been nominated to the North Central Local Government Association, the northern association of local governments which lobbies the provincial government on northern issues and feeds into the Union of B.C. Municipalities.
Telkwa mayor Brad Layton is the chair of the regional district’s forestry committee and Smithers rural director Mark Fisher is chair of its waste management committee.
The rural directors committee chair is Mark Parker, the transit committee is chaired by Fort St. James rural director Tom Greenaway and the broadband committee is chaired by Burns Lake rural director Michael Riis-Christianson.
Gerry Thiessen represents the regional district to the Municipal Finance Authority which organizes the borrowing of monies for local governments and Michael Riis-Christianson is the regional district’s representative to the muncipal insurance association.
Francois-Ootsa rural director Clint Lambert sits on the Fraser Basin Council and the Nechako Watershed Roundtable.
Mark Parker represents the regional district to the Northern Development Initiative Trust within the Prince George region while Mark Fisher does the same within the northwest region.
And Tom Greenaway sits on the Prince George Treaty Advisory Committee.
The Regional District of Bulkley Nechako, with headquarters in Burns Lake, is made up of municipal governments and rural areas from the Bulkey Valley to Vanderhoof and Fort St. James.
Eight of the 15 board directors are from municipal governments and are appointed by those governments while the remaining seven directors are from rural areas and are directly elected.
All told, the regional district provides 65 services to taxpayers with 50 of those services provided within specific boundaries and financed by taxpayers within those boundaries.