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CONGRATULATIONS TO ROY BRIDEAU
RECIPIENT OF THE 2023 CAMA HONOURARY
MEMBERSHIP FOR LIFE
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Huntsville, ON (May 31, 2023) – Roy Brideau, a long-time dedicated member, ambassador, advocate, supporter, and promoter of the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA), has received the 2023 Honorary Membership for Life Award from the association. The presentation was made remotely during the President’s Dinner at the CAMA Annual Conference.
Brideau has been a member of CAMA for more than 25 years and has more than 35 years of experience in municipal government, serving much of that time as a Chief Administrative Officer. He has worked in Alberta, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
Brideau has served as President of the Association of Municipal Administrators of Nova Scotia (AMANS) and spearheaded the Certified Municipal Manager (CMM) credentialling program. As an advisor, he helped develop the National Advanced Certificate in Local Government Administration (NACLAA) program including curriculum, teaching, and learning standards and marketing strategy. He has also served on many Federal, Provincial, Municipal committees with the goal of improving governance to the citizens we serve.
With a stellar reputation as a public service professional, he has repeatedly transformed the municipalities where he served into policy driven, efficient, effective, and professionally managed organizations. Good governance matters and Brideau was a diplomatic and persistent advocate for governance improvement, integrity, and good / best practices.
He was always an effective leader down through the ranks of municipal employees, up to the councils and out to the communities he’s served. He was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, served as President of the Hantsport Memorial Scholarship Foundation, and is a past Rotarian.
Brideau’s passion for building teams, empowering people, and building community is unsurpassed. He is truly a leader with a huge heart who cares about people, community, and the betterment of municipal government overall. He has a personal and professional reputation as a knowledgeable, dedicated, fair-minded and principled manager, and has been unwavering in upholding the values of CAMA.
“Roy Brideau is a very deserving and accomplished honorary life member recipient and is a true credit to the profession of local government administration and our Association,” said Bev Hendry, CAMA President, CAMA Member-At-Large (For Municipalities with Populations Under 100,000) and CAO for the Township of West Lincoln, ON. “On behalf of the CAMA Board of Directors, it was my honour to present this year’s award to him.”
“I thank the CAMA Board of Directors. I am honoured to receive this award from CAMA, an organization dedicated to high standards of good governance and professional management of municipalities across Canada," said Brideau. “My years as a member have provided me with the necessary resources for both professional and personal growth and friendships that will last a lifetime.”
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CAMA RECOGNIZES JANICE BAKER AS
THE RECIPIENT OF THE 2021 HONOURARY MEMBERSHIP FOR LIFE
Also recognized at this year's President's Dinner at the 2023 Annual Conference, was recently retired CAO Janice Baker. Janice was presented the Honourary Membership for Life award during a virtual ceremony in May 2021 but we wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate her in person.
After several years in the private sector, Janice Baker discovered local government in 1987 and found her passion. Janice retired in 2023 after a 35 year career in municipal government. She joined the City of Mississauga in 1999 as Commissioner of Corporate Services and Treasurer and was promoted to City Manager and Chief Administrative Officer in 2005, a position she held for 15 years. In 2020, she was asked to serve as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Region of Peel, leading that organization through COVID response and recovery.
She has spent her career helping to build communities, having held senior roles at both the City of St. John's, Newfoundland and the City of Oshawa, Ontario before moving to Mississauga. Believing that leaders need to give back, she served on a number of Association Boards, including a term as President of the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) in 2017-2018.
During her career, Janice has received a number of awards including:
- The Vanier Medal from the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) in 2019, becoming the first local government leader to be recognized with this award;
- A three time WXN Top 100 Award winner in the Public Sector Leaders category (2005, 2007 and 2009)
- She was inducted into the WXN Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women’s Hall of Fame in 2010;
- Janice was also elected to the the FCPA designation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO) in 2011;
- That same year she received the Excellence in Municipal Finance Award from the Municipal Finance Officers Association of Ontario (MFOA) in 2011.
Janice has a long history of community and professional volunteer and board service and currently serves on the Board of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.
Janice also becomes the first woman in the Association’s 50-year history to receive CAMA’s Honorary Life Member Award. Congratulations Janice!
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CAMA HONOURS FORTY YEAR
LONG SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENTS
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CAMA's Long Service Recognition Awards Program recognizes and celebrates CAMA members’ dedication to public service and municipal management. These awards are based on the number of years of full-time, paid employment in municipal government in a management capacity (a Chief Administrative Officer or reporting directly to a Chief Administrative Officer). They are granted at ten years and given in five year increments and some awards were presented at this week's Long Services Awards Luncheon held at the 2023 CAMA Conference. The list of recipients can be found here.
Recognized at the President's Dinner were the following three forty-year recipients:
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Ivan Bruneau
Chief Administrative Officer
Rural Municipal of Victoria, MB
Ivan Bruneau began his career in municipal government on April 1st, 1982 as he was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary-Treasurer at the age of 20. Ivan worked in this position for two years under the supervision of Walter (Doc) Rutherford, before being appointed as Secretary-Treasurer in 1984 for the Rural Municipality of Victoria.
Ivan became a member of the Manitoba Municipal Administrators’ Association in 1983 and began taking the course offered through the University of Manitoba Continuing Education Division for the Certified Manitoba Municipal Administrator’s program. After graduating from this program in 1986, Ivan became additionally involved with the Manitoba Municipal Administrators’ Association, participating as a director as well as a co-chair of the annual conference committee on a number of occasions. In 1994 Ivan graduated from the Advanced Certificate in Municipal Management offered through the same division of the University of Manitoba.
Ivan’s time spent in municipal government spans over 40 years, however, only involves 3 municipalities. The Rural Municipality of Victoria, Town of MacGregor, and the Rural Municipality of North Norfolk.
Ivan was instrumental in the establishment of municipal finances to computerized systems and sat on a committee to assist other municipalities transition their records to similar systems. As a director of the Manitoba Municipal Administrators’ Association, Ivan initiated the mentorship program to pair newly appointed Chief Administrative Officers with other “senior” Chief Administrative Officers to assist and provide advice to these newly appointed individuals.
Ivan is very active within the community and sits on numerous organizations. Although 40 years seems to be many years to be involved in a work dynamic, he mentions that many of his family and friends have similar number of years involved in a work dynamic.
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Jim Puffalt
Retired Chief Administrative Officer
City of Moose Jaw, SK
Jim has a forty-year career in Municipal Government starting in 1982 as the Town Administrator in Elrose, Saskatchewan, and Wilkie Saskatchewan for ten years. He was then recruited to the position of City Administrator for the next ten years in Dauphin, Manitoba before returning home to Saskatchewan in 2001 as City Manager in Estevan, North Battleford and Moose Jaw.
He has a proven track record as a change agent and visionary leader that creates high-performing customer service based teams. He has had great success in focusing Towns and Cities, ranging from a population of 600, staff of two and budget of $500,000 to a population of 35,000 staff of 300 and a budget of $115 million on their core business services, creating the most efficient and effective method to deliver those services and transforming cultures to become entrepreneurial.
His expertise includes efficient and customer service-based government, strategic planning, community safety, economic development, effective governance, municipal and inter-governmental team building, enhancing relationships and communications with all stakeholders, inclusion and diversification.
Other legacy highlights include being a project member of almost every Municipal Infrastructure project that a City can construct. Jim was also the Saskatchewan City Managers Chair that helped to negotiate the ground-breaking Saskatchewan Revenue Sharing Agreement in 2007.
His leadership and strategies have seen the City of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada create its first ever corporate values based Strategic Plan in 2018. All activities and resources support and align with the Strategic Plan and ensures objectives are reached and exceeded.
Economic development in Moose Jaw has become highly performing with a strategic focus of reducing red tape and creating an atmosphere and culture of growth. This plan has facilitated over 1.3 billion dollars of investment in Moose Jaw in just under five years during COVID-19. Moose Jaw’s brand, Canada’s Most Notorious City was created under this strategic plan and takes advantage of its decidedly colorful past and places Moose Jaw at the forefront of a visionary marketing and tourism strategy.
He is a lifelong learner and holds a Masters of Business Administration . Away from work he participates in golf, hockey, cross-fit training, pickleball and slo-pitch. He also enjoys camping and carpentry/building. He is married to Monique with three children and two grandchildren; two in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and the youngest graduating from Mckendree University in Lebanon, Illinois finishing a four year hockey career.
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Robert Jorgensen
Chief Administrative Officer
Municipal District of Fairview No. 136, AB
Robert started his journey in Local Government Administration right out of school in 1979. His Dad’s friend, Wally Bruce, was a Rural Administrator in Coleville Saskatchewan and convinced him to enroll in the Junior Local Government Administration program in 1980. He was required to work in a Rural Municipal Office, under the guidance of a qualified Rural Administrator and in 1980, he spent one year and 1,800 hours in the Rural Municipality of Elcapo, SK and lived on a government grant of $500.00 per month.
His next post was in the Rural Municipality of Chester, SK where he worked for a year but the office was in the Village of Glenavon and was an old converted automotive garage.
He then decided to go to the urban side of things in 1982 in the Town of Maple Creek, SK as Utility Clerk and Assistant Town Administrator where he spent two years before he felt a calling to the Oil Patch and got a class 1A truck driver’s license and started hauling cattle but ended up in the Kindersley Oil Patch working for Brawn’s Tankers. This was a great job with long hours and great pay, however he saw the writing on the wall as it was the first Oil bust so he applied to the Village of Glaslyn as an Urban Administrator where he worked for five years.
In 1991, he wanted a change and was hired as the Administrator for the Rural Municipality of Kellross No. 247. In 2003, he was getting bored so he decided to venture into the Province of Alberta and was hired as the CAO for the Municipal District of Fairview No. 136. He then had some family illness back home in Saskatchewan so he moved closer to home and worked for the County of Two Hills in Alberta which he truly enjoyed.
Robert then decided he needed a break from municipal work, so he resigned and went back driving truck for a year and hauled gravel in the Rocky Mountain House Area, and later worked for the Two Hills Landfill as scale operator, track loader operator, and temporary garbage truck driver. He found this change of pace very enjoyable.
The Village of Willingdon was then looking for a new CAO where he worked to help get their finances in order and then moved on to the Town of Irricana, a nice little town close to Airdrie in Calgary.
Most of Robert’s education in municipal government was done in Saskatchewan so he thought he’d try again as a Rural Administrator as CAO for the Rural Municipality of Kellross No. 247, however it was difficult to educate Council and the Reeve on what their responsibilities were so, he then moved on to the Town of Athabasca where he thought he would be until retirement, however sometimes Councils have a different vision. Within three weeks, he was hired as the Interim CAO for the Village of Boyle which was a three-month term that was a year and a half and the Council hired a different CAO.
At this time, Robert took eight months of retirement including daily fishing trips, spending quality time with his grandchildren and just enjoying life. He was then getting bored and after a discussion with his wife, he decided to give the Municipal District of Fairview another try where he was in 2003.
Robert says “Here I am again, in Northern Alberta, in the middle of the “peace Country” doing what I like to do best. The MD of Fairview No. 136 is the place I want to stay, work and play. I have a great Council, which know their limitations, and fantastic staff. Here is hoping I can remain here to my final retirement.”
He also said “It has been a roller coaster ride but well worth it. Forty plus years seemed to slip by very fast.”
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THE ROLE OF CANADIAN CITY MANAGERS: IN THEIR OWN WORDS
FEATURING CAMA MEMBERS
Local government has rapidly become both more important and more complex and the quality of municipal management is becoming more significant every day as local governments deal with a vast array of organizational and community challenges.
The Role of Canadian City Managers brings together experienced City Managers and municipal Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) across Canada (featuring some of our CAMA members) to analyze the daily issues that they face. Each chapter deals with a particular issue or challenge, such as Council/staff relations, collaborative initiatives, and crisis readiness. The book contributes to the literature on local government and public administration by providing insights from the "real time" lived experiences of City managers, spoken in their own words. The book also speculates about the contemporary leadership role of the City Manager and the future of the city management profession.
The Role of Canadian City Managers is a useful resource for scholars and students of local government and public administration, as well as public servants who work with or aspire to leadership roles within local government.
If you are interested in purchasing this book click here.
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WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Shaina Tutt, Chief Administrative Officer, Municipal District of Bighorn No. 8, AB
Michael Trabysh, Senior Administrative Officer, Town of Inuvik, NWT
Rosamaria Miller, Corporate Administrator, City of Prince Rupert, BC
Richard Pucci, Director of Operations & Intergovernmental Relations, City of Prince Rupert, BC
Mélanie Savoie, Ville de Beaurivage, directrice générale, NB
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