‘At least we’re cleaning it up’: TNRD chair Gillis defends decision not to resign

KAMLOOPS — The calls for Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) board chair Ken Gillis to resign are growing with three directors now expressing he should step down from his position.

“I think we need to have somebody take responsibility in that visible way and he’s the chair,” Dale Bass, TNRD director and Kamloops city councillor says. “He was on the board for a while, and he was part of it.”

Aside from the regional district working to implement 60 recommendations put forth by the BDO Canada forensic audit, Bass says there have been few tangible actions in the wake of the “culture of inappropriate spending” by former CAO Sukh Gill.

Gill’s department was called a “retirement” and he was awarded more than $500,000 in severance pay. According to Kamloops This Week, Gillis was notified of some of Gill’s frivolous spending in January 2020 but didn’t share any of the allegations to the board.

“I was unhappy to find out that he had withheld information from the board,” Bass says. “I know had I known that information at the time we were discussing Mr. Gill’s retirement, I would’ve had a different view.”

CFJC Today asked Gillis why he didn’t share the information two years ago.

“I’m not able to discuss that, unfortunately. I would dearly love to discuss it with you, but I’m not able to discuss that because of the nature of the alleged information,” Gillis notes.

In addition to Bass calling for him to resign, there is Sally Watson and Steven Rice, who spoke out at last Thursday’s (Feb. 3) board meeting.

Directors acknowledge the culture of inappropriate spending goes well behind Gill’s time at the TNRD. Gillis says unlike previous boards, he as the chair has implemented some changes.

“I don’t know why the public would want our particular heads to roll. We identified the problem. We dealt with the problem and we’re still cleaning up the mess, but at least we’re cleaning it up. And no board before us even did that,” Gillis says. “I don’t know why the public would turn their guns on this particular board.”

Gillis intends to stay on as board chair until the municipal elections in the fall. He doesn’t seem to be worried about three of 26 board members calling him to resign.

“It’s not exactly a whopping majority by any stretch of the imagination,” Gillis told CFJC Today.

Bass added, “In the end, three of us have said ‘you’ve got to go.’ Mr. Gillis has called that inconsequential. We’re just three unhappy people. This morning, he just said we just want to see our names in the paper. Whatever. I think he needs to go.”

However, the TNRD says even if the board wanted to oust Gillis, there is no mechanism within the Local Government Act to formally remove a chair or vice-chair through a non-confidence vote.