After four decades and numerous positions held with the City of Saskatoon, General Manager of the Community Services Division, Lynne Lacroix is retiring this summer.
In an interview with Global Saskatoon, Lacroix reflected on her career, as well as what she hopes to accomplish in the future.
Global: “How does it feel calling it a career after nearly 42 years of working for the city?”
Lacroix: “It’s surreal, I will say. When I reflect back it doesn’t feel like it’s been almost 42 years and yet when I reflect back at other times on things that have occurred since I started, indeed, it’s been a journey and a really exciting one.”
Global: “How would you say the City has changed or working for the City has changed since you started?”
Lacroix: “Probably the biggest is the pace of change, the variety of communications channels and the pace at which information comes and goes. Another one would be the community engagement and how the community is so much more actively involved in the business of the City, which they should be, because that’s who it’s for. Another one that I just thought of is the new businesses that the City’s in that we weren’t in before, like in the area of housing and social development. Those kinds of things that we didn’t used to do work in are now a big part of what we do as well.”
Global: “How does it feel to have worked your way up over the years, and to now be retiring as the General Manager of the Community Services Division?”
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Lacroix: “That’s what I loved so much about working with the City, is the opportunities. There’s a lot of people who’ve said to me ’40 some years with the same employer’ and I say ’40 some years with the same employer with extraordinary opportunities for learning and growing,’ so it feels phenomenal because I’ve had such great experiences to work with such diverse teams of people. I’ve had great colleagues, I’ve had great mentors, I’ve had great folks I’ve worked alongside throughout my entire career, so it’s something I will always reflect back on with really positive memories of things that have occurred.”
Global: “Is there one position or anything that you enjoyed doing the most during your time here?”
Lacroix: “It’s changed I would say. Right now, I love the job I’m in and I think all along the way I’ve loved every job that I’ve had, from the time I started as a lifeguard and all the great people I got to meet and know and become friends with after that. I think every job along the way I have fully embraced.”
Global: “Do you have an accomplishment or a few accomplishments that you’re most proud of?”
Lacroix: “Some of the really big ones that I was personally helping lead. The Shaw Centre with the joint high schools, I was at the ground of starting the conversation with the two school divisions in that particular project, so that was a phenomenal opportunity and the first where the City actually had a leisure centre integrated with high schools. Some of the other ones I had great opportunities to lead on was our work with the Accessibility Action Plan and working with colleagues on the Immigration Action Plan. Some of those would be the ones that have really stood out for me in terms of connecting with community and really trying to make a difference in the community.”
Global: “Your retirement is coming up in the summer, do you have any plans?
Lacroix: “Golf, I’m going to head to the golf courses. I’ll be done here likely around the end of July and I just plan to have more time to spend with family and friends, doing activities that I enjoy, finding different learning opportunities. I’ve always considered myself a lifelong learner, I might go and audit some classes at the university and see what new I can learn as I continue to get older.”
Global: “Did you ever find it difficult to find the time to do some of those hobbies or learn some of the skills that you wanted to learn over the years?”
Lacroix: “Sometimes there wasn’t enough time. I always tried to work hard though, to balance work time with personal time and family time. Sometimes some of the family would say there wasn’t enough of that time along the way, but this will just afford me that much more time to do that.”
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