The District of Squamish has a new director of engineering. Chris Wyckham took over in July for Rod MacLeod, who has now retired.
The Squamish Chief sat down with Wyckham in his office at municipal hall for a chat about the job and his life in Squamish. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Q: You moved here this summer. Why did you want to come to Squamish?
A: That is just it: We wanted to come to Squamish. We didn’t move to Squamish because I got this job and said “I guess we have to move to Squamish now.” We loved Vancouver, but we both grew up in small towns and we have two small kids now, a two-year-old and a two-month-old, and it was time for us to find a place to raise a family. We are both very outdoorsy people and Squamish was top of our list. I was very lucky to find such an interesting job to do.
Q: Where were you working before this?
A: Geographically, I was living in Vancouver. I worked for Heli-One, the largest helicopter maintenance company in the world outside of the manufacturers themselves.
Q: What exactly do you do as director of engineering?
A: I get to lead the engineering department here, which is not just engineering of things like roads, sewers, water and the cemetery, but also we have a sustainability and environmental section that is very important to the current council and to all of us. We have transit and active transportation and greenhouse gasses, zero waste, recycling and organics and the landfill. We have to make sure that all the development that goes on has the services to go with them. We have to make sure that the developers are putting in what they need to put in because we then take ownership of it, after they install it. Every development has something to do with us.
Q: So every day must be different?
A: That is one of the things I really love about the job is that every day is really different and we are dealing with lots of different stakeholders from community members, developers, the province, federal [representatives]. It is always something new and different. It is amazingly fun.
Q: What is unique about Squamish in terms of your job?
A: The growth. Everybody is stretched really thin – very, very busy. For me I walked into a really great team. I didn’t realize how great the team is when I took the job; Not only in the engineering department, but in other departments as well. I think that is a little bit unusual for a small town. We are a small town, but we are a really special small town. People really want to be here so we can attract some great talent. That has been a great surprise. Also, the variety of work we do, the fact that we are on a flood plain, and we are dealing with the diking and everything involved with that; we have the Cheekye Fan and the issues there. We are dealing with a lot of interesting, meaty engineering issues.
Q: What are some of the challenges facing Squamish in the coming years?
A: Certainly, I think an ongoing challenge is the infrastructure. We have large areas that are nearing the end of their life – water mains, for example, and that sort of infrastructure.
We have an active upgrade program, a sizable budget and we are rotating through the district. The other one is the massive level of development and really being able to absorb all of that.
Council has now directed us that we should be looking at an integrated transportation model for downtown, for example.
With all of these developments going in we need to understand what the impact is on a more holistic level.
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