Ed Coleman announced on Tuesday that he will be leaving his position on June 21st of next year.

“I wanted to give the board enough notice so they could begin their search for my replacement because there are so many different partners involved with both Barkerville and Cottonwood, it’s really important to give people notice.”

Coleman says there is a lot of work to do before then.

“My main goal is to negotiate a six-year resource plan. It’s really important to know what your resources look like, we’re going into year five of a 10-year business plan, so I will be working really hard to get the resourcing organized for that plan, so my successor can have the resources they need to keep the ball rolling.”

Coleman is coming up on six years as CEO in January.

He says the highlights for him and his team have been improving all the services for the public.

‘The campgrounds, the cottages and the small cabins that we’ve done, the tube run and really refining the interpretation, the indigenous programming, really going hard on making sure that this is a class act resource for Western Canada, Western North America.”

Coleman says it really helps the region when Barkerville is pulling its weight.

– with files from George Henderson, MyCaribooNow.com