New Westminster native Tim Smith was a “whippersnapper” when he started working with City of New Westminster’s electrical department. Forty years later, he's the city's manager of electrical operations and is set to retire at the end of March. Record reporter Theresa McManus chatted with Smith about growing up in New West and his four-decade career with the electrical department.
Q: You were born and raised in New Westminster. Do you have any favourite memories of growing up in Sapperton?
A: I think it was just the number of kids that were in Sapperton when we grew up. We lived on Garrett Street, right next to Hume Park. It was heaven.
Q: You had an interesting first job – can you tell me about it?
A: I worked at Pacific Fur Breeders on Brunette Street. It was a place that made mink food for the mink farms up the Valley. What they make mink food out of is basically chicken guts and fish guts, and all kinds of stuff. They’d bring in these big dump trucks full of fish guts and chicken guts and we’d run it through a big grinder and put it in bags and put it in a deep freeze. It was a really glamorous job. The cats used to follow me home.
Q: You started with the city 40 years ago. Do you remember your first day on the job?
A: I remember being this young whippersnapper walking through the gate and thinking, holy smokes, there’s nothing but a bunch of old guys here. It was a pretty big crew in those days. The crew had been together for many years. I was the young whippersnapper.
Q: What was your first job with the electrical department?
A: I was actually hired as summer help to paint the overhead electrical transformers from green to grey. The standard had changed and all the new ones coming out were gray so they wanted to paint everything they had grey. That’s what I did as student help for the first couple of months there. Just painting.
Q: You have been in electrical for you whole career, have you ever thought of moving to a different department?
A: No. I have never really thought about going to a different department at all. Not at all. We thought we were the best department. Once I became an electrician, there was really no thought of going anywhere else.
Q: You graduated from New Westminster Secondary School – did you return to school to upgrade your skills for this job?
A: Actually, no I didn’t. I got a fulltime job that summer in ‘74 as a labourer. I was a labourer for a couple of months and became what they called a truck driver helper, which was helping the line crews. I started to prepare to take a linesman apprenticeship with the city. While I was waiting for that to happen and training for it, an electrician’s apprenticeship came up in the meantime. I put in for it and actually got it. Again, that was for the electrical. I served my apprenticeship with the city.
Q: Have you had any mentors during your career with the city?
A: There are probably four that come to mind: the first three journeymen that trained me – Ken Corns, Bert Houston and Digby Turney. Not only did they give me the skills as an electrician, but they kind of took me under their wing. I felt they kind of treated me like their son. The other fellow was Ralph Zbarsky. When I moved into the office he mentored me in becoming a manager. It was really quite different. There were two of us who came into the office together at the same time, and he kind of took both of us under his wing and brought us along.
Q: You’ve been with the same department for 40 years – has it ever gotten boring?
A: No. Because I moved through the ranks on a fairly regular basis there was one challenge after another. You start and get comfortable with the guys, then you take an apprenticeship and you go to school and that’s a challenge. Once I finished with that it’s the challenge to become experienced in your trade because you are now a tradesman. Then I became a foreman of an electrical crew. Then I moved into the office. It was like one challenge fell into place when it needed to happen.
Q: New Westminster has the oldest electrical utility in B.C. – is that a source of pride for the folks who work there?
A: Very much so, for all of us here. It’s because it is a small utility and has been the oldest. I may be the longest serving guy here right now but there are a lot of guys that are very close behind me. So our staff doesn’t change very much. We do have a lot of young guys now. Some of our crew has retired. We are in that changeover – the baby boomers are retiring and new blood is coming into the department. We are pretty proud here of what we do.
Q: The electrical department often has job postings. Is this a competitive field these days?
A: It’s hard to find people that have the right skill sets, yes. Electricians, not so much, but linesmen definitely. Even finding electricians with the experience we are looking for on the municipal side – we do a lot of traffic signals and street lighting – a lot of electricians don’t get that in a day-to-day operation so it’s tougher to find.
Q: Is this a good career for young people who are starting out?
A: Definitely. I would recommend it to anybody coming out of school. I think it’s going to be long-term employment. It’s a very technical trade, it’s very interesting. Of course, the pay grades are fairly high. It’s a good way to make a living.
Q: Any funny stories or favourite moments you’ve been reflecting on as you prepare to retire?
A: We used to have some really good Christmas parties in the early days. Our Christmas party in electrical was so good that the mayor and aldermen of the day used to come. We used to roast turkeys; the guys would bring in salmon. We’d have barbecued salmon and a couple of turkeys. It used to be quite a spread. It was pretty neat. Of course, things change over the years so we got a way from that. We still have a nice Christmas lunch but it’s with all the engineering staff here, engineering and electrical.
Q: Is it hard to leave the City of New Westminster after 40 years?
A: It is hard to leave, but once I finally made the decision and committed to leaving, I am now starting to get excited and look forward to being retired.
Q: What are your retirement plans?
A: Just some travel. My wife (Julie) and I, who is also from New West – we met at high school. Our 38th anniversary is next week. I had a good job so we decided to settle down. We bought a motor home a couple years ago so we are looking forward to using it a little more. And spending some time with our two grandkids.
Q: Any final thoughts?
A: The city has been a really good place to work. The city is all about the people. There are a lot of really good people who work for the city. That’s what I will miss the most.
