Municipal / Regional Structure

A Unique Solution

The Town of Fort Nelson and the Northern Rockies Regional District are unique in their government structure whereby there is only one administrative and operating unit providing services for both governments. This means that most staff have dual functions and responsibilities.

The Chairperson of the Regional District is elected by electors of the Region and Town and is then appointed as the "Mayor" of the Town. There are three Electoral Area Directors for two electoral areas, (2 for Area A & 1 for Area B) whereas other Regional Districts have no more than one Director representative for each electoral area.

All Town Council members are appointed as Directors of the Regional Board, in addition to the Electoral Area Directors; other Towns appoint only one representative to "represent its votes" on the Regional Board.

Over the last two decades, the Town and Regional District have been examining how services might be handled within the municipal / regional framework. There is great interest for the Northern Rockies Regional District to amalgamate services even further and if we are successful in coming to an agreed strategy for the concept of a single-tier government structure, it will undoubtedly serve as a model to other areas of the province.