Welcome to The View from BC
Welcome to the second edition of the newsletter, now entitled The View From BC, to reflect the collaboration between the two British Columbia chapters of the Institute of Public Administration Canada (IPAC), IPAC-Victoria and IPAC-Vancouver.
IPAC provides online and in-person forums to exchange ideas and best practices in public administration, and to promote networking among public servants at all levels of government: municipal, provincial, federal, and First Nations. This collaboration offers an opportunity to share ideas and best practices unique to public administration in British Columbia.
This edition includes an interview with Sandra Nikolic, Senior Manager of Intergovernmental Relations for the City of Vancouver. In this interview, she offers insights on opportunities for collaboration between municipal, regional, provincial, federal, and First Nations governments and how this defines her work in intergovernmental relations. This includes seeking cross-government collaboration on pressing issues like housing and municipalities offering on-the-ground perspectives to other orders of government.
Christopher Wilson, an author and consultant, provides a valuable perspective on governance and problem-solving, and the need to think beyond traditional hierarchical notions of “leadership.”
Onome Daphne Akhigbe offers the perspective of a co-op student on the best practices and opportunities presented by hybrid work and new remote work options.
This newsletter also includes a recap of the Lieutenant Governor’s Silver Medal Award, co-hosted by IPAC-Victoria and IPAC-Vancouver, and sponsored by MNP, the Local Government Management Association of British Columbia, and the Province of British Columbia. At this award, Dr. Carmen Zabarauckas was honoured for her 25 years of public service which included helping vulnerable populations and promoting effective public administration.
I would like to thank Sonja Zoeller for her expert advice in communications, for her editing work, and for providing new platforms for this newsletter to be published. I’d like to thank Aun Jaffery for connecting us (in IPAC-Victoria) with IPAC-Vancouver for the purposes of this newsletter. I would also like to thank Jesse O’Neill-Bains for his work on the IPAC website which is an important platform for this newsletter. I thank Claudine Lo for her enthusiasm, advice, and support from the Communications Committee. Finally, I’d like to give a huge acknowledgment to all the work of the IPAC-Victoria Chair, Dr. Kimberly Speers, without whom none of this would be possible.
