By Ian Holmes

New Nanaimo Port Authority boss to focus on relationship building

Oct 22, 2017 | 5:57 AM

NANAIMO — The new head of the Nanaimo Port Authority says improving relations with some community partners “won’t be an easy road.”

Ewan Moir, who took over the reigns as NPA president and CEO on Oct. 10, said he is well aware of ongoing concerns organizations, notably Snuneymuxw First Nation and the Nanaimo Marina Association, have with the NPA.

Moir said he’s reached out to SFN and hopes to meet with them shortly to see how they can address their concerns.

“It’s very important that I’m sitting down and talking to (councillor Doug White III) and the chief as well and being educated. That’s what I’m here to do, is be educated.”

Moir said he’s begun a widespread community outreach effort designed to help determine what the Port has done right and wrong in the past.

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Moir said solutions can’t solely be for the NPA’s benefit.

“If one party in an agreement is exceptionally happy and the other side is exceptionally unhappy, the agreement will have a very finite life, so we have to find solutions that have balance.”

SFN councillor Doug White III said the hiring of Moir has no effect on efforts to push for an alternate governance model for Nanaimo’s Harbour.

He said Moir is inheriting an organization that has shown problematic behaviour toward SFN for decades with the underlying assumption that “Snuneymuxw doesn’t really matter.”

“Is the CEO of the Port Authority or board of the Port Authority in a position to make the changes that are necessary? No they’re not,” White said. “They’re stuck in the box that’s been put forward by them by a federal government many decades ago that’s out of alignment with the needs of today.”

White said overseeing Nanaimo’s Harbour requires meaningful alternatives to be responsive to the region, but in particular to the needs of Snuneymuxw.

“To make sure that we’ve got a Nanaimo Harbour that’s functioning in the recognition and respect to the treaty rights of Snuneymuxw, it’s a difficult spot for the new CEO to walk into.”

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @nanaimonewsnow