Clark will take over from career civil servant Lori Wanamaker, who was appointed by Premier David Eby less than a year ago to head utility under pressure to expand supply while keeping rates affordable
The province has appointed Glen Clark, the now-retired Pattison Group executive and a former premier, to head B.C. Hydro’s board of directors during a challenging period for the utility.
Clark was named chair Friday to take over from Lori Wanamaker, a career civil servant whom Premier David Eby appointed less than a year ago and will leave the position Dec. 31, in a shakeup of Hydro’s board that will see three other new directors join its ranks.
In a news release, staff in the ministry of energy wrote that “Clark brings extensive leadership, corporate relations and resource development experience,” to the position at a time Hydro is under pressure to expand the province’s power supplies to meet ambitious objectives of government’s CleanBC plan.
Clark retired from his high-profile job at the Pattison Group in 2022, 20 years after the firm’s founder, Jim Pattison, surprised the political world by hiring the former premier.
As premier, Clark used Hydro to implement some populist but controversial policies, such as a three-year freeze of rates starting 1996 which critics wrote off as vote-buying.
Clark quit politics in 1999 after allegations were raised that he had accepted favours, renovations to his east Vancouver house and a new deck from a neighbour who happened to be involved in an application for a casino in North Burnaby.
He was charged with breach of trust in the matter, but acquitted at the conclusion of a 2002 trial.
Pattison hired Clark in 2001, starting him as head of the B.C. branch of his Jim Pattison Sign Group. Clark then rose through the ranks to become president and chief operating officer of the Jim Pattison Group for the last seven years of his corporate career.
The province announced Clark’s appointment on the same day it approved a proposed 104-megawatt solar farm in the southern Interior near Logan Lake, which will be added to the roster of nine wind energy projects intended to deliver enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.
He is joined on the board by new appointees Merran Smith, a well-known environmentalist and founder of Clean Energy Canada, union leader Bryn Bourke, executive-director of B.C. Building Trades, and forestry executive Don Kayne, CEO of Canfor Corp.
They will replace Irene Lanzinger, a former president of the B.C. Federation, resources expert Daryl Fields, both of whom are retiring, as well as financial consultant Victoria McMillan and financial executive Amanda Hobson whose terms are ending.
With files from Canadian Press