By Jessie Weisner

Bradley Maynes takes over as energy and utilities commissioner

Jun 3, 2019 | 8:24 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Bradley Maynes has been appointed as the new energy and utilities commissioner.

Maynes began at the city roughly four years ago as the general manager of Natural Gas and Petroleum Resources (NGPR).

He was also vice president with StatOil in Calgary.

“I have some experience, not a lot of experience in some of these areas but we have a lot of very strong managers there,” says Maynes. “With that I feel quite confident that I can take my leadership skills and experience I’ve had with the city and do a good job at the new role.”

Maynes replaces Cal Lenz, who retired from the position at the end of May.

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“Cal was an exceptional seasoned leader,” says Maynes. “He had a lot of experience on the electricity side and we certainly find some common ground on the oil and gas side as well, a mutual understanding, so we learned a lot from each other.”

Maynes says there’s still financial hurdles ahead in the energy sector, but the city hasn’t stopped looking into different avenues.

“We’re looking at new ideas, we’re talking about helium, we’ve looked at lithium, we’ve looked at many different models for our business,” says Maynes.

He adds Helium has been looking up.

“Certainly our focus has been on the growth strategy primarily with new oil deposits in and around the city of Medicine Hat, but helium was part of that program in that we were testing similar depths where you can find helium in conjunction with the oil as well,” says Maynes. “We’ve had some interesting results, certainly in the last six months there’s been quite a bit of interest. I’ve been fielding calls for the last month ‘do you have any helium?’ and those calls are coming from all over the globe.”

Maynes says the city will continue to try and grow the local helium sector.