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Yellowknife’s city manager has announced that she’ll resign in the new year.
Sheila Bassi-Kellett announced in an email to city staff on Friday that she’ll step down in March 2024.
“It’s been such an honour to serve my community. But it’s time,” she told CBC News later that day.
“There’s so many things that I want to do that I don’t really have time to do, given the demands of my position as city manager. The days are long and you’re always on when you’re in this role.”
Bassi-Kellett was hired as city manager in March 2017.
During her tenure, she led city administration through multiple crises including the COVID-19 pandemic, last winter’s municipal strike, and Yellowknife’s evacuation this summer.
Stacie Arden Smith worked with Bassi-Kellett as a city councillor in two separate administrations. She described Bassi-Kellett as having “mom vibes,” when she would help new city councillors get up to speed.
“Sheila’s style is to give a person as much information … as she can possibly give them, because she wants to make sure that we’re going to be making the most informed decisions,” Arden Smith said.
She also said that Bassi-Kellett had a lot of institutional knowledge about how the city and the territory worked because of Bassi-Kellett’s time working for the territorial government. That knowledge helped Bassi-Kellett work effectively with other governments as city manager.
But she also had her critics.
In the lead-up to Yellowknife’s municipal workers strike last winter, the union accused Bassi-Kellett of undermining the collective bargaining process when she sent emails directly to unionized staff, detailing the city’s latest contract offer.
The City of Yellowknife has also faced criticism for the response to this summer’s wildfires, with many residents saying Yellowknife’s evacuation was poorly planned.
Bassi-Kellett told CBC that despite the challenges, she was proud of the city’s wildfire’s response.
“Was it absolutely seamless? No. But at the end of the day, there was so much collaboration that went on to ensure that our community and our residents were safe,” she said.
City council will be responsible for hiring Bassi-Kellett’s successor. The city manager told CBC News on Friday that as far as she knows, councillors have not yet started the process.
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