BURSTMayor Gladys Atrill has announced she will not be running again in the next municipal election in October.
She said it wasn’t an easy decision.
“As the election comes, of course, you think about what you’re going to do and what you have to offer,” she said. “What we’ve worked on for the past number of years, and I just came to the conclusion that this is the right time for me to step away. I’ve been on council now for 12 years, and it’s been incredible in so many ways, but I have to consider four more years, and I just decided that this is the time for me to kind of step away and create space for someone else to take on the goal.”
Atrill was first elected as a councillor in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. She then moved to the role of acting mayor in 2019 when then-mayor Taylor Bachrach was elected as the NDP MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley in 2019.
Atrill then defeated business owner Joe Bramselven in a 2020 byelection with nearly 75 per cent of the vote and in the 2022 general election, defeated Murray Hawse by collecting 53.5 per cent of the vote.
She has also sat on many committees and has represented Smithers on the boards of the Bulkley Nechako Regional District and Northwest Regional Hospital District. Most recently she completed four years as chair of the Northern BC Tourism Association and 19 years of service on its board.
One of the things she is most proud of is being part of an organization that functions well.
“One of the priorities of council in the last couple of terms, maybe more, has been to strive toward organizational excellence, and that really means staffing, and there was a time when we really struggled with getting the right staff, making sure that we have people in all the key roles, and while there’s always some transition, right now we have a really good staff team, and that means that things actually happen,” she said.
Atrill also noted she was part of the steering committee of the Northwest Resource Benefit Alliance leading to the province in 2024 providing $250 million over five years to northwestern local governments.
“It’s been a privilege to be a part of that steering committee and drive that bus, and I think that’s delivered something for communities across the Northwest,” she said.
“It gives us an opportunity to improve what we need to improve in our community, meaning infrastructure, without adding to the tax burden of the residents, and that’s a really big deal,” she added. “And I’m really pleased we’ve been a part of that.”
Atrill said she will take some time to reflect in the fall, focus on her day job at Tourism Smithers and maybe sleep in and relax a bit.
“It’s been so cool. It’s been a ton of work, and we’ve had lots of things to work through, and not every day has been cozy. But you know, there’s days when I walk around or I cast a glance upward, and it’s like, ‘Man, oh man, like, how lucky is it to have this job?’ And it is hard work, but this is the town I grew up in, and to have a chance at that role, and to have the trust that people put in me… residents, the people that worked with me, supported me, council, and the staff team. It’s a pretty magical experience.”