Todd Flynn is the director of the City of Corner Brook’s new protective services department.
Flynn grew up in Little Rapids and went to school in Corner Brook. After high school he attended Memorial University and then Holland College in P.E.I. A graduate of the college’s police science program he spent 12 years — including two in Corner Brook — as a constable with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.
While with the RNC, Flynn was a representative with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Association.
“I was the union rep that challenged the police force on uniforms and equipment,” he said.
He left the RNC in 1999 and joined a company that supplied products to the force that he had dealings with through his union role. He later worked in construction and with Air Canada Jazz doing security, environment and emergency response. Cutbacks at the airline saw him once again looking for a job and two years ago he started working in the emergency management department at Enbridge Pipelines in Edmonton.
A friend, who felt he’d be a good fit for the director’s position, advised him of the job opening with the city.
When he looked into it, he was interested.
“What an opportunity for a person who enjoys emergency management to have that input and to be able to be that involved in that type of role.”
Since starting in May, amalgamating all the departments he oversees has been his primary focus.
Drawing on the people he works with and their expertise has been a part of that and will be continual.
“In this type of position you don’t have to know everything. You’ve just got to have the people around you that do know certain things, that are experts in certain things.
That will be particularly important in the Corner Brook Fire Department. The department has not been without controversy and morale among firefighters has been low.
Flynn said the department is an interesting challenge for him.
“Not that it’s broken or anything like that, but there’s ways to do things better," he said. "And I know how to manage and to build morale.”
Already though he’s figured out he’s not in it alone.
“There’s great people and there’s dedicated people. People that are very talented firefighters, and we just need to now manage that resource and engage that resource.”
Another area he’d like to make changes in is animal control and making the interaction with the NL West SPCA a more formal one.
Twitter: @WS_DianeCrocker
