Village of Burns Lake’s Economic Development Officer (EDO) left the village last week.

Lorie Watson, who served as the EDO for a little over two years, resigned earlier this month and will soon be moving to Alberta.

“I am leaving my employment with the Village because my son has special needs and requires services that are hard to find in a smaller community. Unfortunately, it is not unique to Burns Lake, I know many rural communities experience a lack of resources for special needs families. So I made the difficult decision to move to a larger centre where I can access more support services,” she said.

Watson had been struggling over this decision for a while and when an opportunity presented itself for her and for her son, she decided to move.

Watson has been instrumental in formulating the framework for the economic development work for the village in the past two years. She worked through one of the toughest times for businesses, the pandemic, to ensure they continue doing well. In order to do this effectively, back in September 2020, she designed and proposed the Business Accelerator Program to Rio Tinto to help businesses move towards conducting their business online.

The program went on to win the 2021 BC Economic Development Awards’ the Economic Recovery and Resiliency Award.

“We are very sorry to see Lorie go. We will miss her positive attitude and friendly nature. She guided the Village through some great projects that we will we continue to implement,” said Sheryl Worthing, the chief administrative officer with the village.

Upon moving, Watson will continue working in economic development.

“I can’t say enough good things about my experience working for the Village and I will miss working with a lot of great people. But I am looking forward to the future and thankful for my positive experience living in Burns Lake,” she said.

Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar

priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net

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