Terrace city council hopeful Lucy Praught says she will bring a fresh approach to city council's dealings with industry if elected.
Her education and work background lies in business, as she holds diploma in business from Northwest Community College and an MBA from the University of Northern British Columbia obtained in 2013. She also owned and operated a bike shop in Terrace for five years called Out Spoke'n – that was between 2005 and 2010 – and currently owns a consulting business Called Spirit Strategies.
Praught is 35 and moved to Canada from California when she was 11 with her parents who were missionaries in the Terrace area. Her father is now a well-known veterinarian working in Thornhill.
Praught sees industry as potentially solving social problems and thinks the current council could do more to draw value from dealings with the big companies coming to the area.
She mentioned high numbers of locals relying on charity food programs such as one offered by the Kermode Friendship Society.
"As we look at services like Kermode Friendship that are in our community, what are their needs?" she said.
Praught said that as someone who rents housing she knows first-hand the challenges facing housing in the north.
"I myself rent, and I myself feel vulnerable. If I were to be renovicted I would have to think about where I am going to live," she said.
"We're talking a staggering number of people," she said of the thousands who would come if LNG facilities and pipelines get built.
Praught played a lead role in arranging a trip for 100 northwest secondary school students to a provincially-sponsored LNG conference in Vancouver earlier this year.
She said she did it to empower students about making the right educational choices now to secure local careers in the future.
Praught's foray into consulting started with a one-year job at Enbridge as one of its northwest community liaisons in its bid to build the Northern Gateway pipeline.
"Enbridge was such a small portion of my life," she said, adding that her work with companies that might not be universally accepted "don't reflect on me."
She now works for EllisDon, a major Canadian construction services company.
Praught was nominated by Heimke Haldane and Bert Husband.