Pat Pimm (born March 31, 1957) is a Canadian politician, who was elected as a BC Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2009 provincial election, and represented the riding of Peace River North. He has lived in Fort St. John, British Columbia and has a business background working at an instrumentation company that specializes in the oil and gas sector. He spent 12 years on the Fort St. John city council before his election to the Legislative Assembly. In the 39th Parliament of BC Pimm served on several committees and first became involved with the Executive Council in October 2010 when former B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell appointed Pimm as the Parliamentary Secretary for the Natural Gas Initiative under the Ministry of Energy. When Christy Clark became Premier of British Columbia in March 2011, she retained Pimm at the same position.
Pimm was re-elected to his Peace River North riding in the 2013 provincial election and was appointed Minister of Agriculture on June 10, 2013, by Premier Clark. He previously served as Parliamentary Secretary for the Northeast and has served as chair of the Northern Caucus and two Select Standing Committees: Aboriginal Affairs and Finance and Government Services. Pimm has also served as a member of Treasury Board. A lifelong resident of the Peace River region, he served 12 years as councillor for the City of Fort St. John from 1993 to 2005. With 25 years experience in the oil and gas industry, he was co-chair of the BC Oil and Gas Conference in 2002 and 2005, bringing together industry stakeholders to identify further strategies and opportunities for economic development in British Columbia's northeast region. He has also served on a variety of other local community boards and committees.
Background
Pat Pimm was born and raised in Fort St. John. He married at the age of 21 and raised two daughters. In 2005 he remarried to another woman, Jody, who had two grown sons. He established a career at an instrumentation business, Alpha Controls Ltd., specializing in the oil and gas sector. He enjoys curling and golf and has been a volunteer coach for youth baseball and hockey. He spent 12 years on the Fort St. John city council, from 1993 to 2005. While on council he advocated for the regionalization of services and the creation of a regional municipality. During a 2001 municipal referendum concerning a Fort St. John boundary expansion around a proposed manufacturing plant (oriented strand board), Pimm threatened to resign his council seat if the referendum failed. While on council Pimm worked with the province and other municipalities in establishing the Fairshare grant program which redirected some oil and gas revenue to local governments in northeastern BC for use on infrastructure projects. He also supported the BC Lottery Corporation locating a gaming centre (bingo, off-track betting, slots and other electronic games) in Fort St. John.
Provincial politics
The appointment of MLA Richard Neufeld to the federal Senate of Canada in December 2008 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper created an opening in the BC provincial Peace River North riding. Such an opening was rare as Neufeld had represented the riding since 1991 and by Tony Brummet for the 12 years prior to Neufeld. There were five candidates in the race for the BC Liberal Party nomination: Chetwynd mayor Evan Saugstad, Fort St. John councillors Lori Ackerman and Dan Davies, School District trustee Linda Sewell, and Pat Pimm. With 1,200 BC Liberal members eligible to vote, Pimm won in the third round of preferential voting in March. He was soon thrust into the provincial election where he faced Fort Nelson town councilor and NDP candidate Jackie Allen, former chief of the Fort Nelson First Nation and Green Party candidate Liz Logan, and others. Pimm oriented his campaign around economic issues stating "The economy is the number one issue and everything else falls around the economy. You have to have a strong economy to have good health care, good education...." Pimm won the Peace River North riding with 43% of the vote and his party formed a majority government.