Ethan Fredeen is excited to continue growing his career in local government.
He was appointed Deputy Corporate Officer for the District of Vanderhoof at a regular council meeting on Monday, July 12.
“I’m very happy with it so far,” Fredeen said.
“There’s some exposure to some pretty good projects that are going to help the community quite a bit, and I’m pleased about that.
Fredeen begins his early morning commute from Fort St. James, where he previously worked as a local government intern funded by Northern Development Initiative Trust and closely collaborated with Corporate Officer, Luke Charlton.
He said his position with the District of Fort St. James followed a very similar scope to what he is doing right now.
As Deputy Corporate Officer, Fredeen will assist with developing, implementing, coordinating, and monitoring corporate administration functions and programs. He’ll also support in the preparation of agendas, taking meeting minutes and transcribing minutes for Council meeting adoption.
“A lot of it is following legislative and regulatory measures, and making sure that the District of Vanderhoof is in accordance with the community charter, local government act, freedom of information and privacy and protection act, and coordinating council meetings, updating and amending bylaws and reviewing policy and presenting to Council and reporting to the Chief Administrative Officer,” Fredeen added.
“A big project on the line is going to be records management which I’m going to start pretty soon here.”
Fredeen grew up in Prince George and would regularly attend Vanderhoof for school basketball.
When he was in university, Fredeen studied to receive his Bachelor of Arts in anthropology with a minor in human geography. His extracurricular activities would focus on the political side of things where he was elected student body president for the Northern Undergraduate Student Society and served as a student senator at the University of Northern BC.
Fredeen also volunteered with Prince George not-for-profits and would help them with event planning.
In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, cross country skiing and mountain biking.
“The people here have been very welcoming, the residents have been very easy to work with, and I’m just so grateful, so excited to be here.”
Gerry Thiessen, Mayor for the District of Vanderhoof, said they are thrilled to welcome Fredeen, who has many new ideas and is engaged.
He thanked NDIT for their local government internship program and acknowledged small communities across northern B.C. have always had challenges recruiting new faces.
“In the last number of years we’ve hired numerous interns who have gone to work at the Regional District or other municipalities across northern B.C….so it’s just a great, great program to train local people for the jobs that we have in our area,” Thiessen said.
Vincent Wickham is currently working with the District of Vanderhoof as a local government management intern.
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