Moving north means opportunity at BC Energy Regulator

After earning a diploma in resource management and natural resource protection, Dax Bourke envisioned a career as a conservation officer. But his life took an unexpected turn when a colleague alerted him to a job posting at the BC Energy Regulator (BCER).

“I had never heard of the organization,” recalls Bourke, executive director of compliance and enforcement. “The organization was recommended to me by a co-worker, I took a look and applied. Ten years later, I’ve been up in the north. I have a house, got married and had kids.”

By “up in the north,” he means Fort St. John, where the BCER’s head operational office is — some 1,256 kilometres north of Victoria, site of another office. The provincial Crown corporation also has regional offices in Kelowna, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Prince George and Terrace. It regulates the energy industry, including oil and gas, and geothermal, but recently its mandate has been expanded to include hydrogen, methanol, ammonia and carbon capture and storage.

“Employees are the heart of the organization,” says Sara Dickinson, executive vice-president, people, reconciliation and transformation. “We want to ensure that they have a positive experience from the moment they click on our career website.”

The BCER’s training and development program includes mandatory in-house training around safety, equity, diversity and inclusion, and reconciliation. The organization also subsidizes the cost of external accreditations.

“We have individual development plans for our employees,” says Dickinson. “There are conversations between supervisors and their employees, not just about what they need today, but where they want to go in the organization.”

Employee development leads to a considerable amount of career mobility. Bourke began his career with the BCER as a natural resource officer reviewing permit applications. He then transferred to the compliance and enforcement group as an inspection officer, which involved visiting sites. He moved up to area supervisor, and in his current role manages a team of 26 spread across the province.

Dickinson has enjoyed an equally diverse and rewarding career. She started as an analyst in the environmental stewardship group, worked in operations, then moved to the Indigenous relations group. As director of that group, she was able to drive the evolution of the BCER’s relations with First Nations.

“Reconciliation has always been important for the organization,” she says. “That’s evolved tremendously over the years in terms of how we build trust with the nations.”

These days, she leads a group that includes human resources, IT and communications. “Each step showed me that it’s not necessarily about being a subject matter expert,” she says. “It’s about developing transferable skills and being able to work with people.”

The BCER puts considerable effort into preparing employees for leadership roles. “In today’s world, leadership isn’t just about driving results,” she says. “We develop our future leaders to lead from a place of authenticity, humility and curiosity.”

For his part, Bourke has six front-line leaders under him and has taken on the role of mentor. “Some are around my age or younger and have long careers ahead of them,” he says. “We coach and mentor to help them move along and to think about their career growth.”

Fort St. John is a long way from Victoria, but Bourke and Dickinson have no regrets about moving north. “It’s a great place for young families,” Dickinson says. “If I’m talking to someone from southern B.C. that’s looking for a job I always say, ‘Come north. The opportunities are here.’”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's BC’s Top Employers winners, published February 11, 2025 in the Vancouver Sun. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.