THURSDAYDECEMBER 3, 2015
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General Excellence
MED SCHOOL TO ABSTRACT
LOOKING FOR FOOD SOLUTIONS
Artist took quite the journey to find her inspiration
The final part of Candace Wu’s series presents comments from leaders
A16
A5
CITY HALL SHUFFLE
Rotation at the top More than 25% of towns in B.C. look for CAOs in 2015 JOHN HARDING editor@pqbnews.com
The corner office might as well have a revolving door. In October of this year, Parksville’s chief administrative officer Fred Manson announced his retirement. Later that month, the City of Nanaimo accepted the resignation of its top employee, Ted Swabey, who took the CAO’s job in Maple Ridge. A couple weeks after that, Regional District of Nanaimo CAO Paul Thorkelsson told his elected bosses he was leaving to take the same title in Saanich. Lantzville town hall, by any measure, has been a mess the last year or two, with town councillors resigning, nasty memos surfacing, by-elections and yes, the resignation of its CAO Twyla Graff in April. Graff, incidentally, is now Nanaimo’s CAO, on an interim basis. In a seven-month period this year, all the corner offices at town, city and regional district halls in a 30-kilometre radius became vacant. What is up with that? Allison Habkirk teaches local government courses at the University of Victoria and Capilano College. A city planner by training, Habkirk also has experience on the political side: she has served as both a councillor and mayor in Central Saanich. She also works with municipalities on their strategic planning. Habkirk says it’s normal in a year to see communities trying to fill about 25 of the 162 CAO positions in B.C. This year, it’s more than 40, or roughly 25 per cent of all the CAO positions in the province. See SOCIAL MEDIA, page A7
J.R. RARDON PHOTO
DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE: Seven-month-old Hayes Johnson seems awed by a display of crystals while browsing with his mother, Katy Johnson, during the annual Winterfest craft sale at Qualicum Beach Civic Centre last Saturday.
CASTING CALL IN PARKSVILLE
Seeking a spot on TV show Mid-Island residents looking for 15 minutes of fame on network television lined up in Parksville Wednesday afternoon to take a shot. Even if it does turn out to be more like 15 seconds. Casting director Travis Doering was in Parksville seeking extras to fill the background of a movie that will be filmed in and around the community from Dec. 6-20. “We were originally looking for 200 extras, but it looks like I’m going to get more than that, which is great,” said
Doering, from Vancouver-based Odyssey Media. “The more, the merrier.” The film, titled Family Court, is a family-friendly, Hallmark-style film about rekindling lost romance. And about basketball. Casting calls were held Wednesday morning in Nanaimo and later in the afternoon in Parksville, at the Beach Club Resort. Doering said he was seeking about 120 people for the film’s basketball scenes, and others to appear as waiters and caterers.
There was no audition involved. The casting call basically allowed Doering to collect contact information and get a current photo of each applicant. “If you ask people to send in a photo online, they tend to send their most flattering shot,” said Doering, who said the directors want “regular people” populating the background of the shots. The casting call invited potential extras from ages 18 to 70 and offered $10.45 an hour for those who are called in to work. See NO CHASE SCENES, page A7
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