NIPAWIN — The Town of Nipawin has begun conducting interviews for their new economic development officer.
The economic development officer will focus on business investment and economic growth within the municipality. The individual will be working closely with the economic development standing committee of council, and will have a strong relationship with the Nipawin Chamber of Commerce and the business community. On a regional basis the officer is expected to be linked to other economic development figures within the region to advance regional interests. They are also expected to work to enhance tourism marketing and promotion.
“We have posted the position. I believe at this point there’s ten applications that I have received,” said Barry Elliott, Nipawin’s town administrator, adding he’s in the process of reviewing them and organizing interviews.
Elliott said the process is moving along quickly and he is optimistic that the interviews will be finished around March 1.
“It depends on the results of the interview and the rest of the recruitment process unfolding, but there is certainly a distinct possibility we may resolve that that quickly,” Elliott said.
The posting for the job will remain open through the interviews until the position is filled.
“That is just really for our convenience sake more than anything. We don’t want to close it and start it again. We done that already a couple of times. In this instance I decided we just leave it open until it is filled and we will take the posting down at that point.”
The town announced last month that they had someone selected for the role. Since then the selected person was unable to take the job, resulting in the town needing to conduct interviews again.
“We thought we had resolved it but at the 11th hour I did speak with the individual and he wasn’t able to proceed so he withdrew his application at that point,” Elliott said. “I certainly do want to go on record as wishing him all the best in his endeavours and I’m glad we resolved that at that point rather than putting either party in a difficult position later on.
“It’s disappointing but we’re moving ahead.”
