Alvin Orlias to resign as Colville Lake chief
Orlias cites stress and inability to balance position with full-time job as reasons for his resignation
Only seventeen months after his election, Alvin Orlias is resigning from his position as chief of Colville Lake, N.W.T.
Orlias was elected chief of the Behdzi Ahda First Nation in 2013, replacing Richard Kochon, who had held the position for nearly a decade. He had previously served the small N.W.T. community — population approximately 150 — as a band councillor.
Orlias returned to his job as plant superintendent with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation in October of 2014, and cites the difficulty of balancing his public position with a full-time job as his reason for resigning.
"It was getting too much," he says. "It was starting to stress me out, starting to affect my family life.
"So I decided that, after talking with my wife, that maybe I should step down. It deserves more than I can give it right now. It deserves 100 percent of a person's time."
Sub-chief Ryan Kochon will act as chief in Orlias' place until the community is able to set up a by-election. Orlias says his resignation will be made official on March 31.