The first board of directors took the helm at Sechelt Innovations Ltd. (SIL), a business development subsidiary of Sechelt, on Oct. 28, 2013. Twelve months later, two hired leaders of SIL have resigned, more than 70 per cent of the board has been replaced and there’s only one project — Sechelt’s new wireless downtown network — the group can take credit for.
Two former leaders of SIL, board chair Chris Fawcus and director of business development Kirk Exner, blame political involvement for the trouble during the first year. However, Sechelt Mayor John Henderson denies their claim.
“Certainly we’re in the silly season, and I know some people are running around spreading wild allegations,” Henderson said.
Sechelt council voted to form SIL in April of 2013 as an arm’s length business development group. The idea took many months to pass approval with the inspector of municipalities, resulting in the October start-up date.
By the time SIL was ready to officially start, it had already lost its first hired leader, Exner.
“From my personal experience, I got the sense early on that there was just a whole lot of politicizing happening within the District itself and also from the current administration, the council,” Exner said. “Before you start doing any business development, you have to look at what you’re developing. I didn’t see any of that, and that’s what has to happen first.”
Uneasy with the process, Exner tendered his resignation.
“In my honest opinion, Sechelt Innovations was going to fail with or without me, and I believe that it has failed,” Exner said.
Fawcus, former chair of the board of directors, was eager to get involved with SIL in the beginning, saying he felt the “arm’s length” approach of the District in its creation would allow the business development team room to pursue the right kinds of development.
But Fawcus first felt uneasy at the public launch of SIL where Henderson pointed to six new businesses “starting or about to start,” that were implied to be connected to SIL.
“We had that opening party and up goes that slide that attributes to Sechelt Innovations the Telus fibre optic network, and I went ‘what?’ and then there were a couple of other ones, I don’t remember, but it wasn’t us, so right away there’s the politicization,” Fawcus said.
“The other thing that showed up was that we were going to attract three new enterprises and produce 30 jobs within a year, and that was the first I’d heard of that.”
Believing in the idea and mandate of SIL, Fawcus decided to stay on the board, but his first report to council in January showed some big concerns.
He likened SIL to an airplane “that’s been asked to take off without fully being built yet.”
Fawcus jumped off that plane in August of this year, along with directors Greg Latham, Lance Sparling, Mark Sager and Christine Stefanik. The only directors to stay on the board were Rob Flux and Theresa Fournier.
The group’s director of business development Dave Jephcott also stepped down in August, moving into a role with Community Futures.
Fawcus said he left because the “political pressure” on the board was hindering its ability to function properly.
“The reason I resigned was really just around that,” Fawcus said.
Henderson denied any political influence on SIL and questioned the motives of people raising the question as election season starts.
“Clearly and absolutely there’s been no political pressure on Sechelt Innovations. We set up the business to be independent, we have a board of directors, and I think if you want to ask about things, really, the spokesman for Sechelt Innovations is the chair of Sechelt Innovations,” Henderson said.
New SIL board chair Hamilton McClymont said Ron Buchhorn, the District’s chief of innovation and growth, is the only District representative with a vote on the board, but he noted that Sechelt’s input on SIL decisions is welcome and expected.
“We are structured to provide input to the District and to get input back from the District because the District is our shareholder. We are a limited liability corporation. We’re not a non-profit society, we’re a corporate organization with a shareholder, and it’s our fiduciary duty to look after our shareholder. That’s what the law says,” McClymont said.
“At the end of the day we serve as directors at the pleasure of the shareholder. The shareholder has the ultimate hammer, as they should, and I have no trouble with that. I’m confident that our communication with the District is going to be open and constructive. I don’t see any reason to see anything else. So we’ll do our job, we’ll keep them informed, they’ll tell us what they think, and we’ll listen. That’s how it will work.”
McClymont joins new senior manager of SIL Tracy Zanchetta to lead new board members Dwayne Dobson, Candace Campo, Vicky Forest, Debbie Mealia, Ron Steven and Buchhorn, along with returning board members Fournier and Flux.
The new board was appointed by Sechelt council, as the sole shareholder of SIL, during the group’s annual general meeting on Aug. 6.
