Courtesy: City of Brooks

By Eli J. Ridder

New Brooks executive chosen to help city tackle housing, says mayor

Jul 17, 2024 | 4:36 PM

Brooks will have a new permanent executive officer for the first time in over a decade starting Monday after a multi-step hiring process focused on finding someone who could help the city tackle housing.

Christopher Parker, the incoming CAO for Brooks, was formally selected by council after a third-party search and in-person interviews, Mayor John Petrie said Wednesday.

“We wanted somebody that could meet some of our challenges and our biggest challenge — no different than what it is right across Canada, whether you’re in Medicine Hat or Brooks or Toronto — is housing,” Petrie told CHAT News.

“We need housing, we need economic development and these are the things we were looking for in a CAO,” the mayor added.

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Parker, born in Banff and raised in Calgary, began a long career in the public sector with the military reserves.

Christoper Parker, in shorts, poses with members of Brooks council. Courtesy: City of Brooks

Following that, he ran education-related small businesses for nearly 20 years, according to a city news release. During some of that time, he served as a municipal councillor for County of Kings in Nova Scotia.

Parker realized his talents would be better utilized serving progressive communities from an administrative perspective, according to the city.

He has served in several CAO leadership roles across five municipalities over the past 13 years.

Parker’s most recent stint as a CEO was in Athabasca County, where he served for eight months before county council voted unanimously to remove him.

While county officials would not go into specifics at the time, reeve Brian Hall said in a news release that council’s objectives did not align with that of Parker, adding that a leadership change was required.

It’s not uncommon for chief administrative officers to be removed or resign for a new position.

In Canada, the CAO is a municipal government’s top staffer and is accountable directly to an elected council.

Brooks needed to hire a new CAO after Alan Martens, who served in the role for 14 years, retired in May.