The City of Yellowknife says Stephen Van Dine, a former public servant at territorial and federal level, will be its second new city manager since April.
Van Dine, who grew up in Yellowknife, will take over on August 6.
Sheila Bassi-Kellett, who returned to the job on an interim basis after John Collin resigned weeks into the role, will stay on until then.
Collin took over from Bassi-Kellett as city manager on April 9. On April 23, the city announced he had resigned for personal reasons. By mid-May, he was being unveiled as the new city manager of Thunder Bay.
Appearing virtually at a Thunder Bay news conference on May 15, he said: “My time in Yellowknife was very short – intentionally so. I could have hung around a little bit longer, but I do believe it was easier to leave before my presence was too disruptive.
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“I could have easily stayed for a year or two, but I would have been in the middle of implementing all sorts of change and that’s incredibly difficult for an organization.”
Collin added: “It’s not a complicated story. My heart was pulling me back to Ontario for many reasons, most of them private that I would prefer not sharing.”
Van Dine, by contrast, graduated from Sir John Franklin High School before joining the territorial government, the city said in a Thursday news release announcing his appointment.
According to a biography provided by the city, he worked in senior roles for Crown-Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and Parks Canada, and has led “major federal Arctic initiatives” such as the establishment of Polar Knowledge Canada, the launch and refinement of Nutrition North, and 2014’s devolution of some powers from Canada to the GNWT.
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He has degrees in urban and regional planning from Toronto Metropolitan University and public administration from Queen’s University.
More recently, as senior vice-president of the Institute on Governance, Van Dine has acted as a commentator on Arctic affairs.
