Moose Jaw's new Director of Parks and Recreation is on the job.

Derek Blais is the new man in charge of our Parks and Recreation department after a 14-year career in sports and recreation. His last job was the Recreation Manager for the City of Prince Albert.

Blais graduated from Mount Royal College in Calgary, with a Bachelor of Applied Business and Entrepreneurship, majoring in Sport and Recreation.

He has now been on the job for the last two weeks, scouting out the city. He says he likes what he sees.

"Moose Jaw has a lot and has a lot to work with. On the recreation side the indoor pools, the indoor arenas, the field house, the event centre - everything is here. There's not a whole lot of work to do as far as new infrastructure when it comes to indoor stuff. On the outdoor side, it's been a little cold so I haven't seen a lot there, but I'm looking forward to that too."

Blais says the biggest challenge with his new job will be to make sure facilities are affordable for youth, seniors and for the vulnerable people in our community.

His past work also includes 7 years with Hockey Canada as the Coordinator of the Men’s National Teams and Manager of Hockey Operations, where he helped Canada win gold in 2014.

"The Olympics was a lot of planning, a lot of work. I actually went out there a year before the Olympics started to scope things out. It was a good solid 2 years of prep to execute everything and I'm glad it all paid off."

Blais also spent two years in the SJHL with the Flin Flon Bombers, where he amassed almost 600 minutes in penalties.