REGINA — On July 10, a panel of women leaders of Canada spoke at the Trailblazers and Triumphs: Opportunities and Challenges for Women Leaders in Canada event, held at the Innovation Place in Regina.
The speakers at the event included Canada’s Ambassador to the United States of America Kirsten Hillman, the Mayor for the City of Regina Sandra Masters, and RCMP Assistant Commissioner for Saskatchewan Rhonda Blackmore.
The event was organized by Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Women Entrepreneurs in Saskatchewan (WESK) and Global Affairs Canada.
Throughout the conference moderator Pam Klein asked the panel of women how they found themselves to be in the roles they are in today, how they balance informing the public and media about everyday operations while maintaining the responsibilities in their profession, and advice they would give to women who are early in their careers.
Importance of keeping in touch with the community
After the event, panelists told the World-Spectator how speaking to residents and associations from the areas they serve play a huge role in being able to do their jobs effectively.
“It’s simply not possible to function without hearing from others,” said Masters, the mayor of Regina.
“If you’re data and evidenced based in your decision making—I try to be as much as possible—but if you don’t have that information, some of it is qualitative, meaning conversations. The difficulty becomes is I can’t get to 20,000 or 40,000 people to get their opinions, so you’re going to representation associations depending on the issue, whether it’s First Nations Chiefs, or community based organizations like Regina Treaty Status Indian Services, you have to actually speak to them.
“You have to talk to Multicultural Council Of Saskatchewan or you’re going to talk to Regina Open Door Society or you’ll know the leads of the Sikh community, the Nigerian community, the Filipino community, you will know who the people are or you’ll know who to call to find out who they are. You can’t do your job without knowing all of those things, speaking with people, associations and representatives.”
Blackmore added that building relationships with people from communities and constantly communicating with divisions in the RCMP is extremely important for her profession.
“I agree, and for me it’s all of those folks because what’s important to someone who is a farmer in Swift Current who had their combine stolen, is completely different than violence and domestic issues in the north, where we see a lot of those violence and relationship issues,” said Blackmore.
“It’s really important that you hear all of that impact, but also for me because I have 78 detachments, 113 with community detachments, I need to hear from our members too on what’s working and what isn’t. Because I don’t have them on my fingertips and I hear from my senior management team, I reach out to them regularly.
“When I hear about a member who gets hurt, it doesn’t matter if they’ve sprained their finger or broken a leg, you’re going to hear from me and I’m going to reach out to them and see how they’re doing, and make sure they know that if there’s anything they need, I’m here.
“It’s all about that communication and connecting with them. It’s amazing the stuff you hear when you have those conversations, both from the members and from the community.
“For me, let’s say the City of Melfort, Melfort has a mayor, but then I have my three chiefs at James Smith, I have other chiefs at other First Nations, I have reeves in the RMs, and what’s impacting the RM may not be the same as what Melfort is dealing with, or what James Smith is dealing with.
“You always have to remember, we used to call it the mayor’s report and it drives me crazy because we have First Nations all across the province so we have to do a First Nations report, but really we’re just doing a leadership report. It’s all that engagement, you can’t just talk to one person and think I’ve got it now.”
Ambassador Hillman said having a great team of people to work with helps translate the needs of Canadians and Americans, that lead to building stronger partnerships and relationships with both countries.
“I don’t do it alone. I have a full team of people in the United States in the embassy and across the country, and one of the biggest parts of their job is to get out there in the community,” she said.
“To find out what’s going on, what’s making people happy about Canada’s and the U.S’s relationships and partnerships, but also the things that maybe aren’t working so well.
“That’s how I keep in touch at the broadest level, it’s a big country right, so getting down and talking to everyone across the country is certainly not the job just for one person. We have a fairly organized and motivated team that does that. Then I interact with them and based on what they tell me about what’s going on, I get out there myself and try to understand it better and understand what’s happening.
“It’s the same in Canada. The reason I’m here in Saskatchewan this week is because there’s a lot going on in Saskatchewan that is really of interest in the United Sates, agriculture, agriculture innovation, obviously potash, uranium, the cultural industries have really exciting growth happening here, and these are partnerships that Americans are really interested in working with us in.
“I’m here to learn as much as I can about it, so when I go back and I’m talking to either an American business or American policy makers or the White House, I can say I’ve been there, this is what I’ve seen and this is what’s going in Regina or Saskatoon, or somewhere else.”
Advice to other women leaders
Masters was asked what advice and tips she would give to women leaders in the province.
“A part of something like today is the networking piece, but a part of it is about being available for questions,” she said.
“If I’m on a panel that gets moderated like this one, these questions come from somewhere.
“When WESK is a sponsor, when the Chamber is a sponsor, you know these questions have percolated out of somewhere and specifically around women entrepreneurs, it’s a question I would still ask myself because there’s no book on how to be a mayor.
“From an entrepreneurial perspective or a leadership perspective it’s like well how do you do this? When you think of Kirsten Hillman, the ambassador, you’re thinking well how do you become that? It’s a natural question.
“And really it’s about them walking away understanding that there is no one singular path. There is a desire to be involved and to serve the public. There’s a desire to look for solutions and for innovations, and there’s a desire to be better all the time. We’ve heard it, it’s just a common theme that comes out.
“I always think if you’re constantly curious, you’re constantly learning, you have the desire to serve, and you’re trying to be better, only good can come out of that.”
Based on her career and experience from working in the RCMP, Blackmore spoke about what she hopes women would take away from the event.
“I think it’s good to share leadership journeys,” said Blackmore.
“I’m always so impressed when you hear someone talk about themselves you’re like ‘wow I didn’t know that.’ When you heard the ambassador speaking and find out she’s a lawyer, that’s already pretty cool, then you see what she does and it’s like my goodness. It’s empowering to hear those stories from other women.
“When I first started the job I was asked if we should still be celebrating firsts, and I said I think we have to, sadly, because when you realize we never had a female person do that before, we never had an Indigenous person do that before, that’s kind of shocking to me.
“I think it’s important we continue to celebrate that, and ultimately, you just want to get to the point where, for example, Sandra Masters is the 34th mayor and it’s just that.
“But, I think we still need to tell people that there’s a lot to do because it’s not like because we have lots of females doing stuff now that we can go home, there’s still work to be done. I hope people hear that from today because I’m always inspired. When I listen to these two ladies talk, that’s impressive stuff.”
Hillman also shared her the advice of what she hopes women learn from her experience as they are entering their careers.
“I think that representation matters. People seeing people they can relate to doing jobs they might be interested in really matters,” said Hillman.
“It helps people, women, or others who have traditionally not have had access to certain kinds of positions say ‘well she can do it, I can do it,’ and ‘she’s talking about things that makes sense to me, maybe that’s the path I can go down too.’ Representation really matters and that’s why I like to do these kinds of things.
“Frankly, I’ve said some things here today and so have the other panelists, but we get a lot out of talking to the people who come to these events, and why they’re here, what it is they’re looking for from members of our country and our society, who they want to interact with.
“It’s sort of a give and take, I get a lot out of it.”
