BC's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 18
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BC’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Moving north means opportunity at BC Energy Regulator
A
fter 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 vicepresident, 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
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Employees at the BC Energy Regulator receive individual development plans crafted directly between them
and their supervisors to encourage long-term career mobility.
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.
Employees are the heart of
the organization, We want
to ensure that they have a
positive experience from
the moment they click on
our career website.
— Sara Dickinson
Executive Vice President,
People, Reconciliation and
Transformation
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.”
