The city’s director of development services Anthony McInnis is set to receive a promotion to become Thompson’s top administrator after less than a year on the job, having been unanimously approved as the next city manager at council’s June 18 meeting.
McInnis replaces Gary Ceppetelli, who was unanimously approved by the previous council in December 2011, having served about three-and-half-years as the city's director of planning and community development before ascending to the top role.
A native Thompsonite, McInnis attended École Riverside School and completed his first year of university studies through Inter-Universities North before transferring to the University of Manitoba, where he studied environmental sciences before obtaining a PhD from the University of Vermont, where he studied the treatment of tailings and wastewater created by mining operations.
McInnis joined the city as development services director in early December after having previously worked with the Harvard Project on American Indian Development at Harvard University and Manitoba’s Indigenous and Northern Affairs department, where he was a technical and public works consultant and helped northern communities implement public infrastructure and capital projects. Other past employers included Inco and Environment Canada, and his father first came to Thompson when they were sinking the first mine shafts for Inco’s local operations in the 1950s.
Ceppetelli’s six-plus-year in the city manager’s role is the longest since Lynn Taylor, now publisher of the Thompson Citizen and Nickel Belt News, retired from the job in June 2008, after having been in the role since 1993, having earlier served as interim manager and assistant treasurer. Taylor was succeeded by Randy Patrick, who served in the role for a little over three years before resigning Sept. 30, 2011.
