Farewell, Keith MacDonald: A proud New Brunswicker, but also a proud Thompsonite, who helped make us a better community to live and work in

Keith MacDonald died a couple of days ago. That’s a big loss for his family and friends, of course, and my condolences to them, but it is also a very big loss for all of us here in the wider Thompson community, as Keith was tireless in both his work and many volunteer efforts in helping to make Thompson, Manitoba a better place to live. And he did it in a sort of low-key way with considerable humility.

I moved to Thompson in July 2007, a couple of years after Keith had arrived, and my first memories of him were serving as general manager of both the Burntwood Hotel and Thompson Inn (TI) for Winnipeg’s Manfred Boehm, who owns both hotel properties. These were nickel-fueled economic boom years for Thompson, and planned new hotels were on the drawing board. By 2010, Keith was also president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, and combined with his hotel management experience (which dated to back home in Moncton, New Brunswick and working as a young man for Keddy’s Motor Inns, and later for Inns of Banff), he shared valuable on-the-record insights with me about market dynamics at a time when Thompson would get 150 new hotel rooms and two brand-new hotels between 2011 and 2013.

Back in 2010, in addition to the Burntwood Hotel and Thompson Inn, guests could find accommodation at the Days Inn, Meridian Hotel, Country Inn and Suites (now known as Thompson’s Best Value Inn & Suites), Interior Inn, Mystery Lake Motor Hotel and Northern Inn & Steak House. The Interior Inn, which had burned down while under construction in October 1967, but was rebuilt, burned down again on New Year’s Day 2018, but is being rebuilt again. Choice Hotels’ 70-room Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, now known as the Quality Inn & Suites Thompson, opened in May 2011, followed by the 80-room Best Western Hotel, less than a year later in April 2012.

Another memory I have of Keith from that period is in his role as Thompson Chamber of Commerce president, as well as general manager of the Burntwood Hotel, barbecuing some choice steaks for a dinner to mark the chamber’s 50th anniversary year, out on the asphalt parking lot of the hotel, on a summer day so hot you could have fried eggs on the pavement. Such summer days are pretty rare in Thompson, so you perhaps tend to remember them. Keith, sweating over the flames, while getting smoked a bit himself in the grilling process, was, as always, the genial host. Having spent a good part of his working life in the hospitality industry, Keith was the consummate hotelier.  I also recall being at a Spirit Way gala with Jeanette about a year earlier on Nov. 12, 2009, at the North Star Saloon in the Thompson Inn, where Keith  bartended himself that evening, and had the place shipshape for the event.

Keith left the hotel business and became the property manager for the City Centre Mall in May 2011, a position he held until April 2018. While I had a number of interesting chats with Keith on any number of local issues during those seven years, one that stands out was from just after he left mall management. There were quite a few retail store vacancies at the time, so I asked him how close he thought City Centre Mall was to the tipping point where it becomes a so-called “dead mall.” Keith replied that he thought the two anchor stores, Wal-Mart and Sobeys/Canada Safeway, would both be fine, but said he worried about the future of the smaller bricks-and-mortar retail stores, national, regional and local, that fill up the space between the anchor stores in the mall. With such a competitive online shopping environment, Keith said he thought the future of such space in City Centre Mall and many other similar malls across North America, would be more about storefront government offices, along with dentists and perhaps other healthcare professionals, than it would be about retail stores and shopping.

While Keith spent most of his working life in the hospitality and retail service industries, he also studied civil engineering at New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) in Moncton between 1980 and 1982, and worked as a hydrographic surveyor for what was then Public Works Canada, and is now known as Public Services and Procurement Canada.

His volunteer service was considerable and diverse. It ranged from serving as treasurer of Spirit Way; active in leadership as president with both the Lions Club of Thompson and Rotary Club of Thompson; acting chair of the Thompson Zoological Society, and a passionate advocate for the Boreal Discovery Centre; serving as the Thompson Chamber of Commerce representative on the Thompson Regional Airport Authority board of directors; and serving as a board member of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM).

Keith’s final gig pretty much brought him full circle as he became, as he described it, the inaugural “non-executive director” of the new Thompson Hotel Association in April 2018, a not-for-profit entity managed by a board of directors and ordinary members of the corporation, who are any proprietor who is actively engaged in the operation of the business and pays accommodation tax to the City of Thompson, acting as a lobby group for local hotels, with a mission to develop a stronger tourism presence in the area, and to get “heads on pillows.”

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Rick Oberdorfer, longtime president of Thompson Unlimited’s board of directors, and veteran directors Don Macdonald and Manisha Pandya all resigning as of Jan. 1

Three  veteran members of the board of directors of Thompson Unlimited (TU) submitted their resignations to Mayor Tim Johnston after a board meeting July 29, including Rick Oberdorfer, longtime president of TU. Oberdorfer, Don Macdonald and Manisha Pandya have sat on the board since the economic development corportation was founded. Their resignations are contained in an Aug. 5 letter to Johnston, which was released a public document by the city Sept. 22. The letter was received by the city Aug. 7.

While the resignations were intended to take effect when received an approved by council resolution, Johnston told a regular meeting of city council Monday night that he had spoken to all three after receiving the letter and asked them to stay on until Jan. 1, giving a newly-elected council, which takes office at noon Oct. 23, a chance to get under way before a change of such magnitude.

In their Aug. 5 letter, Oberdorfer, Macdonald and Pandya write: “The members all feel that it it is time to give others the opportunity to participate in this board.” They go on to say in the two-paragraph letter: “It has been a great learning and growing experience and we will all miss working with Thompson Unlimited.”

Johnston, who is not seeking re-election Oct. 22, is the City of Thompson’s external committee appointment to the Thompson Unlimited board of directors.

On Dec. 31 each year, through the recommendation of the legislative and intergovernmental affairs committee and approved by resolution, council appoints a member of council to external committees for the following year. The role of the committee representatives to external committees are to represent city council on the committee; if necessary, to seek clarification from council of its position with respect to the committee; and to report to council on activities and decisions originating from committee meetings.

Johnston noted Gord Wakeling, interim general manager of Thompson Unlimited, had also offered his resignation. Wakeling recently sold his house in Thompson and moved to Winnipeg, but at Johnston’s request is remaining on in the post on a contract basis until Jan. 1, the mayor told council. In fact, Wakeling’s job at Thompson Unlimited was advertised last summer, resulting in a short list of several candidates. That hiring has now been postponed until the new council assumes office next month.

Before he retired last year, Wakeling had served  for 21 years as chief executive officer of the Communities Economic Development Fund (CEDF) here, the only provincial Crown corporation headquarted in Northern Manitoba. Wakeling joined Thompson Unlimited as interim general manager last December after the resignation of development co-ordinator Betty Landego – one of two employees at that time, along with Roxie Binns, who worked half-time but left the position for health reasons and moved to Winnipeg.

Mark Matiasek, who had been general manager of Thompson Unlimited since February 2008, was let go when his contract expired late in 2012. Thompson Unlimited’s budget for 2012 projected revenues of $354,900 – $250,000 of which was the annual operating grant from Vale – and projected expenditures of $449,950 for a deficit to be funded from its reserve of $95,050. The budgeted amount for wages and benefits in 2012 was $190,000 or approximately 42 per cent of the total expenses. Matiasek teaches sociology as an adjunct professor in the Business Administration program here at the University College of the North now.

Oberdorfer owns the A&W franchise on Thompson Drive North.  Pandya is a chartered accountant and partner with Kendall & Pandya.  Macdonald, who is making a run for a trustee’s seat in the Oct. 22 municipal election, is fisheries manager for the Northeastern Region here in the  Fisheries Branch of the Water Stewardship Division of Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship.

Other members of the board of directors of Thompson Unlimited include Manfred Boehm, of Winnipeg,  who operates Boehm Management Ltd. and Boehm Hotel Corporation, and owns through companaies controlled by him both the  77-room Burntwood Hotel and  45-room Thompson Inn, both of which are for sale and listed with Colliers. Asking price for the Thompson Inn, or TI as it also known as, is $2.5 million. Both hotels also house beer vendors. Boehm, and his business parner, Ted Bloomer, also own the historic Ramada Marlborough hotel in downtown Winnipeg.

Rounding out the board of directors are Jim Beardy, director of community and technical services for the Keewatin Tribal Council (KTC); Steve Spuzak and Kevin White.

Thompson Unlimited found itself embroiled in controversy last year after Oberdorfer, in his official capacity, based on “input from three business owners,” who remained unidentified, wrote a three-page letter to Johnston and city council dated Aug. 8, 2013, outlining what he describes as “to follow are concerns and suggestions.” The letter became a public document on Sept. 9, 2013 when it was officially received as correspondence during a regular council meeting.

Essentially, many of the 15 points in the letter raised downtown issues that were widely perceived to be a racist attack on the local aboriginal community. The situation became so heated the full board, including Oberdorfer, signed a letter to the editor, published in the Thompson Citizen Sept. 18, 2013, saying, “First and foremost, we truly regret any distress this may have caused to the people and organizations of our region.” The board stressed that the letter “read  into the minutes of the Sep. 9 meeting of mayor and council and which reflected comments that were provided to Thompson Unlimited. These comments in no way represented the views or opinions of Thompson Unlimited, its staff, the board of directors or its chair.” It ended its letter to the newspaper by saying, “Again, we accept responsibility for the way in which the results were presented and we truly regret any undue offense it may have given. We will take steps to ensure that our actions in the future will be more considerate and mindful of others.”

Thompson Unlimited, the city’s economic development corporation, was established in 2003 with $2.5 million in funding over 10 years, first by Inco and later Vale, to assist with diversifying the economy in Thompson for the post-mining era. It did business until 2005 as Thompson Community Development Corporation, which remains its legal name to his day.

Thompson Unlimited’s funding was slashed in January 2013 by 80 per cent – or $2 million – to $500,000 over four years under a new five-year municipal tax and funding agreement with Vale Canada Limited for Jan. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2017, which replaced an expired eight-year agreement between Vale, City of Thompson, School District of Mystery Lake and Local Government District (LGD) of Mystery Lake.

Thompson Unlimited got about 70.44 per cent of its total indirect funding through Vale in 2012. Last year it was to receive $250,000; followed by $100,000 this year; $100,000 again next year; and a final $50,000 in 2016. Technically, Vale earmarks the money for economic development and provides it to the City of Thompson; it does not directly hand over the money to Thompson Unlimited.