The Ministry of Forests is advertising for a new manager for the Queen Charlotte Islands forest district - but the person hired won't necessarily have to live here.
Managing the islands forest district has traditionally been a full-time job, with the manager working out of the Queen Charlotte City office. However, the ministry has been having so many problems hiring someone that it's willing to let the new manager live in Prince Rupert, said human resources manager Bob Day.
"We've had some difficult filling the job in the past," Mr. Day said, explaining that the ministry has advertised it three times in the past two years, with no success. "We do consider the Queen Charlotte Islands an isolated location... It has been what the ministry has always classed as a difficult-to-recruit location."
The ministry has twice offered the job to a successful candidate, Mr. Day said, but was not able to reach an agreement.
A secondary reason for allowing the candidate to work out of Prince Rupert is that the north coast district manager is retiring next year and the ministry is thinking about combining the positions, Mr. Day added.
If the candidate chooses to live in Queen Charlotte, they will receive an isolation allowance of $1,871, compared to an isolation allowance of $1,014 if they live in Prince Rupert. That's on top of a salary of up to $77,553.
The ministry reached an agreement a couple of years ago with the district manager in Bella Coola to work part-time in the Queen Charlotte office, but he left last August. Calvin Ross, normally the operations manager, is currently the acting district manager.
Gerry Johnson, a resource consultant and member of the Port Clements village council, said the job is considered difficult because there are so many high-profile political issues here. He's not surprised the ministry is having a hard time recruiting someone.
Mr. Johnson said it would be better for islanders if the manager was here on the islands. "It doesn't do us any good to have them in Prince Rupert," he said. "Of course, it does us little or no good when they're right here, because they don't listen to us anyway."