In July, Northern Development welcomed Doug Donaldson to the board of directors. Donaldson is appointed by the Province of British Columbia to join the volunteer board that is comprised of elected local government representatives and other provincial appointees.
Doug Donaldson served as an elected three-term Member of the BC Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing the remote-rural constituency of Stikine for 11 years. As the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (2017-2020) he oversaw major reforms in forestry legislation and policy, new approaches to old forest management, land use planning and wildlife management and the rebuilding efforts for ecosystems and communities after the record-breaking 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons. His Official Opposition portfolio’s included mining, energy, Indigenous relations, and child and family development and for three years was the vice-chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. He has also held public office at the municipal government level serving as a Village of Hazelton councillor from 1999-2009, during a time when Northern Development Initiative Trust came into existence and began supporting communities.
Donaldson lives on the territories of the Gitxsan First Nation in northwest British Columbia. He worked supporting the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs on the successful Delgamuukw-Gisdaywa aboriginal title case to the Supreme Court of Canada as communications director with the Gitxsan Chiefs Office. He was a co-founder of Storytellers’ Foundation, a Hazelton-based NGO focused on community economic development and reconciliation, co-established the Upper Skeena Development Centre and helped create the Hazeltons’ Farmers Market.
Donaldson is an associate fellow with the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies and holds a MA in journalism and a BSc in wildlife biology. He and his wife Anne live on Wilp Nikate’en territory in the Regional District of Kitimat Stikine, in Two Mile just outside of Hazelton.
