A Big Shout-out to Our TRCA Seasonal Staff

August 27, 2021

As the end of another spring and summer field season quickly approaches, I would like to thank all our seasonal staff for their dedication and contributions towards advancing TRCA’s mission and partner programs and projects.

As I visit our sites, I never cease to be amazed by the good work that our TRCA teams, comprised of both full-time, seasonal, and private sector vendors, are advancing across our jurisdiction. I had the pleasure of meeting several field staff over the past few months on our sites, at our offices, and at other locations across our jurisdiction. During these visits, it was great to see the passion and knowledge that you brought to your work daily.

I also want to personally thank you on behalf of the Senior Leadership Team for your continued efforts in working with our partners, including our community stakeholders and the public we serve, to advance and accelerate restoration, green infrastructure, and maintenance work across our fast-growing jurisdiction. The tangible impact you make on our TRCA managed landscape through the broad range of work you are involved in is outstanding.

Left to right: Sang Lee, John MacKenzie, John Hunkin, Sophia Clement, Sarah Kim, Darryl Laramy, Amanda Partovi, Thanya Aathavan, and Shayla Snobelen at TRCA’s Eastville Office

I appreciated seeing the progress you made on our high priority restoration sites through invasives management and plantings. I also valued hearing about the detailed information collected during your inventories and monitoring work and new approaches being applied to inform our ecological and hazard monitoring programs. Your work facilitated beautiful outdoor experiences and lasting memories for visitors in our conservation parks and lands while maintaining exceptional professionalism.

As safety is a key priority at TRCA, I want to commend all our staff on adherence to, and communication of, health and safety measures which reflects our organization’s shared emphasis on safety as we work towards our COR certification. I appreciate the efforts of team leads and seasonal staff in ensuring that all health and safety measures are carefully adhered to, particularly our COVID field protocols.

Over the course of the last few months, as COVID-19 restrictions eased enough to allow for limited physically distanced site visits, I was thrilled to meet with staff, industry partners, government officials, and occasionally residents of the communities we serve to see firsthand the fruits of your labour. I spoke to many of you about the passion for your work, your daily challenges, future opportunities, and your successes on advancing our programs and projects.

I appreciated learning about how many of you were applying your education, background, and training in your work and leveraging TRCA networks and experience to advance your career objectives. I hope that all our summer students enjoyed their placements within TRCA and that you have gained valuable knowledge and skills that you can bring forward in your academic work and your career.

With schedule constraints I cannot meet with all of you, but as many of you know, I am around, often on weekends and evenings (sometimes by paddleboard, by bike, or on foot) to check in on operations and progress on our construction works. On these visits, I am so thrilled to see our beautifully maintained parks and conservation lands, and to see firsthand the headway being made on so many fronts including legacy projects like the Scarborough Waterfront, the Ashbridges Bay Landform, Jim Tovey Lakeview Conservation Area, Erosion Risk Management projects, or key segments of our Trail Strategy for the Greater Toronto Region that are of vital importance for our bioregion.

It is rewarding to see these important projects being delivered by our highly skilled, diligent, and passionate workforce and I hope you see yourselves and your contributions in the legacy and impact of these projects for years to come

Though there were too many incredible moments throughout the spring and summer to capture all of them, here are a few of our favourites:

To view the photo album full-sized, select the options menu (the three dots to the right of the navigation arrows) and then choose Enter Full Screen.

In addition to thanking our seasonal staff, I am also pleased to congratulate our HR team for their nomination as a Finalist for The Gallagher Award For HR Team of the Year (500 Employees or More) in the 8th annual Canadian HR Awards, the leading independent awards event for the HR profession in Canada. Presented by HRD Canada and Canadian HR Reporter magazine, the Canadian HR Awards recognizes HR teams, individuals, and employers for their outstanding achievements, leadership, programs, and initiatives in the field of HR over the past 12 months.

This nomination would not have been possible if it were not for our amazing team under Natalie’s leadership. The team’s continued dedication and drive to implement HR best practices, excel in addressing the needs of our stakeholders and their unwavering support of our HR transformation is outstanding!

Thank you to all our TRCA staff for the great work you do every day.

Sincerely,

John MacKenzie, M.Sc.(Pl) MCIP, RPP
Chief Executive Officer
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)