The District of Squamish鈥檚 new economic development officer, Kate Mulligan, moves through the confusing maze of narrow, nondescript long hallways that make up the heart of municipal hall as if she has worked there for years. In fact, she had only been in the role for just short of two weeks when The Chief sat down with her for a chat about making Squamish her home, her approach to the job and balancing a demanding career and home life. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.听
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Q: What brought you to Squamish originally?听
A: I moved to Squamish in August of 2015 from East Vancouver where I lived for 20 years since originally moving from Ontario. Like many people who come here, we wanted a change in lifestyle and wanted a little more space to stretch out. We have a love for the mountains and a lot of the outdoor recreation that is here. It was a calling card for us.听
I had visited Squamish when I was 13 years old because my friend had moved here. I came out for a spring break for a couple of weeks and actually said to her I am going to move here, and I did.听
Q: Squamish currently seems to be in its teenage phase. It is struggling to figure out what it wants to be, which is scary and exciting. Is that how you see the community?听
A: You are not the first person that has said that to me this week! We are a teenager turning into an adult and we are growing up rapidly.听
For me, the one thing that came on my radar before moving here, but when we had set our minds on Squamish, was that all of a sudden it seemed Squamish was on the radar of a lot of Vancouverites. They鈥檇 say 鈥淥h, that is up and coming, that is an upcoming place.鈥澨�
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Q: In terms of your position as economic development officer, when you look at the laundry list of things that define the position, there鈥檚 a lot that is expected.听
How do you see getting started and setting priorities?
A: The work that I am doing right now is taking an inventory of everything, whether it be from the Strategic Economic Development and Action Plan that was developed last year to the Official Community Plan that is under review to the Employment Land Strategy, it is taking into account all the different strategic goals, directions and actions that are within those and then looking at where economic development has an implication. I am taking all of that in and understanding the mechanism that is the municipality, which is itself a big thing to learn and then I am going to start prioritizing and making sure that the work that we are setting out, as a department reflects the needs of the community through the OCP and council鈥檚 strategic direction, but also making sure that it is reflective of the work economic development should be doing.听
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Q: That is definitely a big task. With your role there are so many stakeholders that have sometimes-competing interests and they have all been chomping at the bit to have a person fill this role. How will you balance the expectation and demands?听
A: Absolutely, that is true. The day I started I got emails and people saying, 鈥淗ow about this project or that project,鈥� so right now I am really just trying to take inventory of what my job is and most importantly how the department can add value to the District and the community.听
Being very clear in articulating a plan that has full buy-in by people is critical.听
That is the guiding path that economic development can use. The first step is taking and distilling all that information into something that is meaningful and that is easily communicated across stakeholder groups.听
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Q: What do you think are some of the main challenges Squamish is going to face in the next couple of years as a community?听
A: The challenge is just keeping pace with the accelerated growth that is happening right now. When you have an economy that is accelerating, that is when great ideas are happening and everybody wants to be part of it and there are lots of fantastic ideas, but it is managing that growth and acceleration with the capacity that is available.听
I don鈥檛 just mean the capacity of the District and its staff, I mean the capacity of the community. That will be a challenge to manage that, whether that is infrastructure, whether that is service levels, whether that is employment 鈥� all those aspects will be the challenge. But it is not a bad challenge; it is a great challenge.听
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Q: This is a sexist question and I apologize for asking it in advance, but balancing work and home is something my friends with careers and I spend a lot of time talking about.听
You have three children who are still in school, how do you see balancing your important position at the District and home life?听
A: For me it hasn鈥檛 been an issue because听 I have an amazing partner and he absolutely does not have any expectation that there are certain duties as a female in our family.听
Everything we do is shared. He takes the responsibility of parenting full on so I owe a lot of the ability to do some of this work to him.听
Also, I empower my kids to look after themselves. One of the things that is really important to me is for my daughter, who is 16, to be responsible and contributing to听 society and that she is also competent and able to look after herself. So from a young age I taught her how to take the bus 鈥� in Grade 6 in Vancouver 鈥� to get to school. I push her to go and get her driver鈥檚 license, all that kind of stuff because I think it is really important for women to be able to be self-reliant.听 hat is something I was taught and something I teach my daughter as well.
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Q: What do you do for fun?听
A: I absolutely love going for walks with my dog, Olive. She is a border collie Australian shepherd maremma.听
She is really cute and sweet and we have a lot of fun out on the trails.听 I also ski, a lot. I love skiing, especially with my kids. That is a lot of fun.听
