- Organization: City of Lethbridge
- Posted: May 15th, 2020
Members of city council’s City Manager Search Committee are pleased to announce Craig Dalton as the new City Manager for the City of Lethbridge.
Mr. Dalton is coming to Lethbridge from Victoria, P.E.I, where he has worked most recently in the position of Veterans Ombudsman, leading a 35-member team charged with advancing fairness of Canadian Veterans. His first day on the job will be May 19, when he takes over from Jody Meli, who has served as Interim City Manager since January 13, 2020 while city council embarked upon selecting a permanent city manager.
“What an exciting day for Lethbridge as Mr. Dalton joins our organization,” says Mayor Chris Spearman. “His exceptional leadership, extensive experience as deputy minister at the provincial level, and his ability to lead through change makes him the right candidate to steer the City of Lethbridge through this pandemic and beyond. On behalf of city council, we welcome Mr. Dalton to Lethbridge. We have no doubt that he will serve this community well.”
In previous roles, Dalton led an 1,800-member province-wide organization with a $1.3 billion budget responsible for the delivery of social services and programming as Deputy Minister of Social Development for the Government of New Brunswick. Other roles include Deputy Minister of Public Safety, CEO for Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, and Strategic HR Advisor for the Canadian Armed Forces.
“I am honoured to be working for the City of Lethbridge and to call this great city my new home,” says Dalton. “I am a strong believer in values-based leadership, focusing on the importance of innovation, relationships, and communication as keys pillars in good public service.”
City council’s four-member committee led the search and recruitment of a new city manager following the resignation of Bram Strain in late 2019. The committee, consisting of Mayor Spearman and councillors Jeff Coffman, Belinda Crowson, and Joe Mauro, engaged a recruiting firm to invite applications as well as search out candidates from within and outside the City of Lethbridge.
