After six years of representing Elphinstone on the Sunshine Coast Regional District Board, Celia Fisher has announced she won't run for re-election this November.
Fisher said the lack of cooperation at the regional board was a factor in her decision to bow out of politics.
"I have found the arguments we get into around the table are sometimes not very productive," said Fisher. "We're not political parties here. The kind of combativeness that happens . . . I find it harmful. I don't know why a lot of people would really like to stand for this office."
Fisher, a past president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 801, said she was recruited into politics in the 1999 election by her union and by the Sunshine Coast Labour Council. She was part of a pro-union slate of politicians, which also included Adrian Belshaw and John Marian, who were elected that year partly because of a public backlash against a prolonged lockout of SCRD workers.
Fisher said she considers the re-establishment of good labour relations and improving SCRD staff morale among the major accomplishments of her first term in office.
"We do have a good staff there," she said.
During her second term, the successful referendum for new recreation facilities was a definite high point.
"There was great satisfaction in that," said Fisher. "Recreation was something important to me. . . It's a hub for the community, and it's a mental health issue. It's good for people to get out, good to have a mixing of generations."
But Fisher was disappointed that her efforts to establish more regional programs failed. She wanted a regional library function to fund the Gibsons and Sechelt libraries as well as the Pender Harbour and Roberts Creek reading rooms, but found "Sechelt wanted to have control of its library, so we had to drop it."
"I honestly thought the libraries would be an easy thing. It shows how naïve I was six years ago," said Fisher. "I thought libraries were kind of like a motherhood issue. . . The Sechelt library now is, and has been, suffering because of lack of funding."
Fisher also wanted to see grants-in-aid administered regionally, but, she said, "It was clear the District of Sechelt and Sechelt Indian Band were not willing to go down that road."
She now wonders whether Gibsons might pull out of the regional grants-in-aid function as well.
"So often, we aren't prepared to work on some of the smaller, less flamboyant issues that mean a great deal to organizations on the Coast," Fisher said. "If everyone's pulling out of regional functions, it's an indication to me things aren't working as well as they should."
Fisher has been talking to people in the Elphinstone community about standing for election to the SCRD board this fall, but she's also showing them her crammed calendars and warning them to expect to spend about 20 hours a week on public business if they're elected.
"It's like a part-time job, in a way," she said. "I almost didn't stand for this term, but I kind of feel you owe that to the people. I feel you're a better director the second term. You've learned the ropes."
Fisher plans to spend more time gardening and visiting her grandchildren after she retires from politics in November, but she still will be active in the community.
"I see myself as maybe volunteering again in the schools, or a volunteer at the library," she said. "I don't see myself as not contributing."
