Recent Ajax hirings are simply smart business

ARMCHAIR MAYOR SAYS — I hadn’t planned to weigh into the discussion on recent hirings by KGHM Ajax, because people have a right to make their own career decisions, but since I’m acquainted with the three gentlemen in question, maybe a little common sense would help the discussion and relax the hand wringing.

Robert Koopmans, of course, was editor at The Kamloops Daily News until a week ago, and John O’Fee recently parted ways with the Tk’emlups Indian Band, where he’d been the CEO for the past two years.

Before that, he was a lawyer with Morelli Chertkow, and a City councillor.

Koopmans will be a communications strategist at the KGHM open-pit mine project office, while O’Fee returns to lawyering, this time as a corporate legal advisor. (Interestingly, a few months ago, Norm Thompson left his job as community relations manager at Ajax for a position with the Band.)

The new hires were preceded by the surprise announcement early this year that Supt. Yves Lacasse would be leaving the RCMP in favour of becoming KGHM Ajax’s manager of external affairs.

That’s a whole lot of locally famous people going to work for the most controversial project in the history of the community. Which is, apparently, cause for concern by some people, especially those opposed to the project.

I really can’t figure out why the critics would get their shirts in a knot. Isn’t it just possible that KGHM Ajax is hiring such people because they have high-level skills? And isn’t it just possible that Koopmans, O’Fee and Lacasse made it high up on the rung in their respective fields because they’re good at what they do?

Koopmans, for example, worked with me for 20 years at The Daily News and I know the quality of his work. He was a top-notch photographer before he went into writing, won a bunch of awards, and has been wrapping up a Master’s degree this summer.

O’Fee made his mark in civic politics for his sensible approach to issues, his high sense of integrity, and his work on the airport expansion. Again, having served on the same council with him, I can attest to that.

As for Lacasse, I’ve known him only through official channels via City Hall and The Daily News, and there have been times when we’ve disagreed (which I’ve also done from time to time with Koopmans and O’Fee, but that’s to be expected).  His record is well-known: operations commander for the Kamloops detachment, then detachment commander, and well experienced in dealing with the public.

Does name recognition help? Does knowledge of the community and connections with community leadership help?

Of course they do, and KGHM Ajax gets the benefit. But while I’m no big fan of this project, I suggest that, if anything, opponents should be concerned about the amount of local expertise this giant mining corporation is attracting, rather than dismissing it all as just an exercise in putting familiar names on the staff list.