After 10 years of quietly being behind some of the most significant projects and business developments on the Sunshine Coast, Al Mulholland, executive director of Community Futures of the Sunshine Coast (CFSC), is leaving his post.
Mulholland will be taking the top civil servant position in Kimberly just after Easter.
"I have mixed feelings. I know everybody on the Coast. I've developed all these great relationships, but it was a really great career opportunity, and I'm going to be city manager in Kimberly," he said.
For the last decade, Mulholland has been charged with the duty of promoting economic development, securing funding for community projects and providing seed money loans for new business start-ups on the Coast.
He said the decision to make the move came because of a number of different factors coming into place. He has a long history in public administration and was looking for one more career change before retiring. The job opening in Kimberly came up just as Community Futures is entering into a transition phase of its own.
When asked what some of the highlight projects that CFSC has been involved in, Mulholland and CFSC chair Barry Wilbee started compiling a top five list, which quickly became a top six and then runs on beyond count.
Some of those highlighted projects include securing funding for the Egmont Heritage Centre, the Iris Griffith Centre, the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden, the gazebo and harbour building in Gibsons, development of Millennium Park in Madeira Park, Inside Passage School of Fine Woodworking in Roberts Creek and West Coast Log Homes.
Several of those projects went on to win awards from Community Futures in B.C.
"We won the best project in the last 10 years for Gibsons. We won the best project in B.C. for revitalization in Pender Harbour, and then the third year, it was Iris Griffith. You know what they did? They cancelled the award. They weren't going to give it to the Sunshine Coast three years in a row," Mulholland said, breaking into his trademark laugh.
Wilbee said if you trace a line down Highway 101 from Egmont to Langdale there are CFSC projects in virtually every community along the way.
Mulholland said he owes CFSC's success over the last 10 years to a philosophy of finding "community champions" for good projects, establishing partnerships with local governments and organizations and never wading into a project that didn't have community or local government support.
As for the Coast's economic future, Mulholland said there is still a long way to go.
"We're not sustainable, I think," he said. "On the Sunshine Coast, we don't have the [age] 20 to 34 market. You can't sustain a community without that younger age group and that younger age group is going to Vancouver."
He added that attracting that demographic is part of what CFSC is planning do it as it goes through changes within. He said the search for a new executive director is on, and CFSC will be taking on "a more entrepreneurial role."
