Snuneymuxw councillor Thomas appointed chair of NEDC board
NANAIMO — An ambitious, young First Nations leader isn’t backing down from the task of unraveling the mess left behind at the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation (NEDC).
Erralyn Thomas has been appointed as the new chair of the NEDC’s board of directors. Thomas is left with only six other board members around her, two of them appointees from the city of Nanaimo’s staff. The board was at its maximum size of 17 not long ago, but has seen mass resignations amid the firing of their chief executive officer and a city decision to strip tourism from the corporation’s mandate.
“It may be perceived as a lot of turmoil,” said Thomas, who has been a board member since April 2016. “I look at it as an opportunity to be a leader of the organization and transform NEDC and evolve it over time.”
Thomas, who is just 30-years-old, also sits as a councillor with the Snuneymuxw First Nation and a governor at Vancouver Island University. She spent a year working as an intern with the province in the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General focusing on reform for aboriginal justice strategies and correctional options. That followed four years of schooling at Niagara University in upstate New York, where Thomas studied on an athletic scholarship for lacrosse. Thomas also sat as an elected youth representative for the BC Assembly of First Nations for a three year term.