On Friday, Aleen Torraville works her last day.
By next Monday, she’ll be thousands of miles away.
Don’t worry, though. Torraville, who has spent the last eight and a half years as Director of Corporate Services and has been at the District since 1999 (with a two and a half year break in there, when she sat on town council), is not leaving for good. Instead, with a plan to spend as much of her retirement as possible travelling, is off to Iceland then Scandinavia to explore.
But since moving here in 1986 from Newfoundland, Tumbler Ridge has truly become home.
“I started at the community centre, in a casual position,” says Torraville. “I worked in administration over there and then migrated to town hall, and slowly worked my way up.”
Torraville is head of the administrative department for the district.
Over the last decade, though, when the district has found itself without an Chief Administration Officer, it has inevitably been Torraville who has been tasked with filling in. She hasn’t been keeping tabs, but she might be the second or third-longest CAO the district has had since Fred Banham left in 2002 after six years in the roll.
She laughs when I mention this. “I never thought of it from that perspective,” says Torraville. “I know I’ve worked with a number of CAOs. And I’ve been interim CAO a number of times. But I never did the math.”
Torraville says that in addition to travelling, she also plans to spend time with her family, especially her grandchildren, practice her hobby, which is quilting, and finish the book she started writing a number of years ago. “I had a big computer crash, and of course, didn’t have a back-up, so everything went. I decided I would pick it up again a later time. The book is going to be sort of a biography, if you will, about growing up in Newfoundland. Something to pass down to the grandchildren to let them know about what life was like in Newfoundland back then. because it was before there was electricity and telephones and computers. Just to share some experiences and stories.”
Torraville moved to Tumbler in 1986, but when she started hearing rumblings at the mine about how they were trimming down staff, I decided there was life outside of Tumbler Ridge. “I decided maybe it’s time I go back to school and upgrade some things. So I enrolled in Northern Lights College and did the business admin program and graduated. And then got a job here, instead of outside, because you never know, right? I was a stay at home mom for 20 years before I embarked on that.”
She says the lowest point in her time working for the town was the lowest point in the history of the town. “When the mine shut down, those of us who stayed saw us a lot of friends move away from here. I remember how heartbreaking it was when friends of the kids would come and knock on the door and say, ‘I’ve come to say goodbye.’ So many of their childhood friends were moving on.
“I would look out the window and see all these moving vans pulled up into driveways with people leaving because of the employment downturn.”
But the town weathered the downturn, and mining returned. But it wasn’t the only thing. “It was kind of neat to see how tourism evolved in town. The museum and the geopark.”
Torraville says she isn’t sure if she’s left a defining stamp on the town. “I’d like to think that, you know, maybe in some small way, I’ve been instrumental in helping council bring forth their goals and the things that they wanted to see, because ultimately, you know, we’re district employees, and we work for council. Our job is to help fulfill their goals and objectives and plans.”
She is a little worried about the institutional memory of town hall once she leaves. “I’ve said a few times that I’m leaving here with a lot of information,” she says. But over the last number of years, she says, there’s been a lot of turnover in senior staff, and a lot of that knowledge will leave with her. “Part of it is the way municipalities are going,” she says. “People only stay in one place for a few years, then moved on. But for me, this is my home, and I have a vested interest in what goes on here, because I know I’m going to be here, and my kids and my grandkids….I hope that I have had some positive impacts.”
Torraville says the thing she’ll miss most is the people. “I’ll miss the co-workers and I’ll miss the people. I’ll miss the public. But I won’t miss having to get up and go to work when it’s 40 below in the winter months. But I have thoroughly enjoyed my job, my career. Every council is different. Every mayor is different. They have their different goals and objectives and things they want to see, they bring to the table.”
And, while there are still things in play that she has set in motion that aren’t completed, she realizes that things go on. “It’s a wheel, right? Things continue on regardless who’s in the seat or who’s sitting at the desk. Our goals for the corporate department have been, to continue revising the policies and continuing to work on the zoning by-law. So that work will keep on moving forward.
“Tumbler Ridge is just…I think it’s the best place on earth, really. And the work that’s been done through the various councils and various administrations. Just when you think it can’t get any better, bang! There’s something else new. It’s been the best job on earth.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
