I moved from Punjab to Williams Lake, B.C., in 1974. At age 21, I hadn’t planned on moving to such a remote town—the population was around 6,000 at the time—but, while visiting Vancouver, a friend and I happened to stop in Williams Lake. There, I met a woman named Sharon, and she was so lovely I didn’t dare leave; we were married two months later, and I’ve lived here practically ever since.

1974 was a rough year economically, so I worked odd jobs before becoming an electrician in 1985 and starting at what is now Tolko Industries, one of the largest lumber companies in town. Then, in 1993, I was approached by people in town to run for the Williams Lake City Council—I had done a lot of volunteering and was well-known in the community. I ended up serving on the council for 21 years, and eventually, I was elected mayor in 2022.

Williams Lake is an industry town at heart. When you drive in, you see stacks of processed wood in the lumber factories and massive trucks rumbling to nearby mines. A railway that transports our products to the rest of Canada runs through the town. The lumber industry was just starting to gather momentum when I first arrived. Since then, it’s grown to become the biggest industry in our region and is central to the town.

Our population is only around 11,000, but the two biggest lumber companies, Tolko and West Fraser Industries, each operate two mills in the region that employ a total of about 870 people. In addition to the lumber producers that process the wood that eventually becomes furniture and buildings, we also have Drax, a company that uses forest residuals to create pellets to burn for heat, and Atlantic Power, a biomass plant that uses residuals to produce electricity sold to the B.C. Hydro grid. Drax employs 30 people, and Atlantic Power........

© Macleans