I am pleased that Darrell Garceau will begin work at City Hall as chief administrative officer on July 2. Darrell has 19 years of experience as a CAO, most recently in Westlock, Alta. He brings a great deal of professionalism, knowledge, and experience, and I hope you will help council welcome Darrell and his family to Williams Lake.
All of council is very grateful for Geoff Goodall, who has been our acting CAO for the past 8 months as we transitioned to a permanent CAO. Geoff has done a stellar job stepping up to take on the CAO role and doing two jobs. He has helped guide the city through some tough issues. Thanks Geoff!
I attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Conference in Vancouver over the weekend and found it, as always, to be very valuable. It’s important to have a representative to support FCM, as it is the go-between between cities and the federal government. We received an important update about new federal municipal infrastructure dollars — $53 billion over the next 10 years. The federal government has expanded the funding to include road and recreation projects.
The most valuable part of the conference is the personal networking I can do with other mayors and councillors, to find out what’s working for them in terms of working with the federal government. I had some key conversations about steps to move forward on resource revenue sharing with the Province. I’m looking forward to an announcement on Friday about who we will be working with as Premier Clark announces her cabinet. I helped out at Tim Hortons for Camp Day yesterday. It was great fun. Thanks to all who helped send kids to camp by buying a coffee. And thanks to Vic and the staff for allowing Councillors Bonnell, Rathor, and I to be part of this special day!
Kerry Cook is the mayor of Williams Lake.