On September 23, about 50 members of Tumbler Ridge gathered to listen to the candidates for council and School District 59 trustee.
One council candidate—Nicole Noksana—had a previous engagement and wasn’t able to make it, but the rest of the candidates—incumbents Chris Norbury and Ron Hofman, former councillor and mayor Don McPherson and first timers Rick Consalvi, Sydney Doonan, Paul Landrecht and Shelly Quist—were.
In addition to those seven, Sherry Berringer and Roxanne Gulick were there as candidates for School Trustee, joining Hofman in a three person race for the position.
The event was moderated by outgoing Dawson Creek councillor Jerimy Earl and put on by the Tumbler Ridge Chamber of Commerce. A video of the event is available on the Tumbler RidgeLines Facebook and YouTube pages.
Each candidate made an opening statement, showing here.
Rick Consalvi
Good evening, everybody. I’ve been a resident here for five plus years. I have a background in addiction and community support work. I’ve got about 10 years’ worth of experience. I’m attempting to join council because I love Tumbler Ridge. I think it’s a great community and I want to do what I can to make it even better. I’m campaigning on strengthening our community, building a stronger economy, and support for our residents. I look forward to hearing your questions and I’m very excited to be a part of this process. Thank you.
Paul Landrecht
I don’t know a lot of you here, but I thank you for coming out tonight. I am putting my name forward to run for council. And I just wanted to tell you a little bit about myself. I have a background in public safety. Most recently, I worked with BC Hydro as a consultant in public safety and fire risk management with my company. Prior to that, I’ve had a habit of stepping up for my community. I worked for twenty-two years in the District of Chilliwack as a firefighter. When I saw the election was coming up and I saw Trent on Today in Tumbler talking about the election, it sparked an interest in me to put my name forward so that it could be this democratic process, and the people of the town could select six people to represent your concerns and your interests. It’s a fun process and I’m glad to be involved. I want to encourage everyone to get out and vote and get their family out to vote. Vote for me if you want to include me.
Sydney Doonan
I’m the children’s librarian at the local library, and because I interact with so many of you, I know for a fact that Tumbler Ridge is a town filled with hard workers and sensible people. As our people proved in February, when we’re needed, we show up. When the citizens of Tumbler Ridge are informed and know that they’ll be listened to and that what they’re doing matters and will last, we can do anything.
I might come across as a little too young and optimistic to know what the heck I’m talking about. And I am pretty young and optimistic, but I learn fast, I read faster, I’m a very hard worker, and I grew up here My family’s been here since the 1980s. My parents worked here and my grandparents retired here. In 2013–14, I served on the TR Town Council as their youth representative. And I was on the board of directors for the University of Victoria Student Society. I helped oversee a budget of over $15 million. I’m quite familiar with long budget meetings and Robert’s Rules.
Folks in Tumbler Ridge, you already know what you want, but you need to be informed and listened to and supported to get things done. My vision for Tumbler Ridge is that we continue to be the best town to live in all of British Columbia. And I want our volunteer organizations, our nonprofits, and our community groups, and our youth and seniors to be supported. Vote for me and Tumbler Ridge will be a town where the decades of sweat equity that you guys have put into this place are respected, appreciated, and maintained in a way that we can sustain for decades.
Chris Norbury
Fifteen years ago, my wife Lindsay and I moved to Tumbler Ridge, when she took a job teaching math at the high school. Since then, we’ve welcomed our daughter Abigail into our family, and I’m incredibly proud to raise her in a community that is welcoming, caring, and surrounded by friends. My first opportunity to serve Tumbler Ridge came through working through the Child Care Society, an after-school program, for over three years. From there, I became the children’s librarian, a role I held for almost 10 years. The library is much more than a job. It gave me the opportunity to get to know local children and families, watch them grow, and create a welcoming place where we built community through books, songs, and crafts. My fondest memories are from there.
Today I manage the Tumbler Ridge Visitor Centre for the Tumbler Ridge Global Geopark and help deliver community events such as the Mother’s Day Gift Box Program, Sledding Santa and more. I also believe in giving back in my spare time and I want to teach my daughter the importance of volunteerism and I continue to volunteer with the Lions, the Parent Advisory Committee, and serve on the board of the New Life Assembly and even teach Sunday School. During my time on council, I’m proud to have brought forward the motion to repair our sidewalks, even though I know we have more to be done, starting the childcare task force to bring people together and work towards solutions when the daycares shut down.
And most recently, advocating for the return of our after-hours emergency room services through rallies, letter writing, and petitions. My priorities are reliable health care, supporting students, teachers, and families in and out of the classroom, wildfire protection, economic growth, and strong support for volunteers and nonprofits. Thank you.
Shelly Quist
Hello everyone. My family and I moved here two years ago, for my job at the health centre as the manager of lab and X-Ray. I’ve been a combined lab and X-Ray technologist for 23 years, but I’ve been in health care for 25. I’ve done a lot of travel over the past 20 years to different communities in Northern Saskatchewan and Northern Alberta and when we got to Tumbler Ridge, I just knew this is where we were going to settle. One of the things that got me to put my name forward is to be able to use the knowledge that I have gained over the past 20-some years. I have a bachelor’s degree in health studies and I’m working on a master’s in health studies as well.
I’ve been talking with people about how important it is to have 24–7 emergency services with diagnostic services as well. Currently right now we do not have diagnostic services on weekends This is something I’m hoping to work on and fix.
Don McPherson
Thank you all for coming. I’ve been in Tumbler Ridge for a long time. There weren’t any houses here the first time I went through. I’ve been here through the ups and downs. I know a lot about this town and where it’s been and where it’s at. I ran for council for the first time during the first down turn, when the mine closed down and we fought hard to keep this town alive. My concern right now is wildfires. We had a great summer, and nobody’s had wildfires, except for down south. But they’re not over and we have more work to do. Other things that I have concerns about are roads: the highways, and our local roads, I think there are some concerns there too. Also, I think we should be changing our bylaws. Waiting for complaints on bylaws is just pitting neighbor to against neighbor, which I don’t think is very good.
I’ve been a councillor and I’ve been a mayor and I’m also had the privilege of being a Peace River Regional District Chair. I’ve got lots of experience and I think I can be a good addition to the council. Thank you.
Ron Hofman
Good evening. I’m not a speech guy, so I’ll just tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking about whether I would run for council again. It didn’t take long. I don’t feel I’m done. Our emergency room, for instance. Until that’s taken care of, I think that’s an existential threat to us.
I don’t think I need to say much because you’ve seen me for the last four years. You decide for yourselves if you like what I have to say and what positions I take and how I vote. And I actually look forward to the feedback on how I did the previous four years. My priorities are the same as last time. Quality of life stuff in town, for instance. If we can get a good value on it, I am absolutely willing to pay for it out of our tax dollars to improve the quality of life of everybody in this town. We have accessibility stuff that we’re working on. We have diversity stuff that we’re working on. And we’re going to keep working on all that stuff.
School District Trustees
Sherry Berringer
I’ve been involved with education all my life. I’m originally from Nova Scotia, but I traveled across Canada for my first teaching job in Chetwynd. I taught grade 8 to 12. I moved to Tumbler Ridge in 2000. I was school trustee for 13 years from 2005 to 2018. I’ve taught courses in Northern Lights College and for the last eight years I have been subbing at both Tumbler Ridge Secondary and Elementary Schools. I think I have the knowledge and the experience to serve the people of Tumbler Ridge as your school trustee.
Roxanne Gulick (Incumbent)
Thank you all for being here tonight and thanks to everybody that made this happen. It’s a lot of work. I have been the school trustee for the community for the last eight years. I’m currently the vice chair on the school board. I was fortunate to be elected to the Provincial Professional Learning Committee. And after that I was elected to the provincial board of directors of the BC School Trustees Association. The best thing about that is it just gives me one more level to represent Tumbler Ridge in the north.
We have a lot of things that we’ve been working on, letter permission, the paperwork we’ve managed after all these years of advocacy.
Recruitment and retention continues to be a really big challenge. We did work with the government to make sure that we could get some teacher incentive bonuses here in town and throughout the province. We continue to work on advocating for a completely online teacher program so that folks here in town could take their teaching program online, with a brief time in person and then be able to do their practicums here. So that’s something we continue to work on. Students are the priority for sure. And one of the things I always say is that teachers continue to be asked to do more and more. We need to figure out a way to help support them. And right now, I don’t know that we’re meeting that threshold.
Ron Hofman
I’ve been subbing at the school for just over two years and we’re always short. We’re short substitutes, we’re short coverage, we’re short a whole bunch of things. Now, unfortunately, I can’t fix those things in this position, but I can provide oversight. We need to start making those arguments—whether it be for north or provincial—but we’re losing teachers. We need more than stopgap measures to cover for teachers. Being in the rooms, I worry about some of the kids. I don’t think we’re supporting them to the degree they need to be supported. And the reason I put my name up for this is I think I can be loud and obnoxious and I can push the envelope on this particular subject.
I think that’s what we need right now. We need a harder push. I don’t like the answers I’ve gotten for the questions that I’ve asked. And to my mind, I need the information to make a decision on what steps we need to take. Do we need to push for Tumbler Ridge? Do we need to push for SD 59 or do we need to push for the north? And that’s why I signed up for this: I want answers. I’m sure you want answers, too, and I’m not going to quit until I get some.
For more election coverage, see: https://www.youtube.com/live/wdQg58k_9LY?si=aFYVZGBZSGYluK13
Follow us on Tumbler RidgeLines YouTube or Facebook page, where you’ll find the above video of the entire All Candidates Forum, as well as one-on-one interviews with all the candidates, which will be done before election day.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
