Saskatchewan's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 24
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SASKATCHEWAN’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Saskatoon views its employees as its best assets
C
ommunity engagement, a high value
for many private
employers, is an area
of focus for the City
of Saskatoon. The front lines of
resident-government interactions
have always been on the municipal
level, notes Angela Gardiner, the
City’s general manager of utilities
and environment. And that’s one
of the main reasons she’s enjoyed
her 22-year career there.
“Working for the municipality
really provides all of us with the
ability to impact the daily lives
of residents in everything they
do, from the water they drink
to driving around Saskatoon,”
Gardiner says. “That is one of the
things that drew me in when I
started out with the City as a traffic engineer – providing services to
my community.”
What the city’s government
owes its residents is no different
from what it owes its employees.
“Our employees are our biggest
asset,” says Gardiner. “We strive
to provide an environment that
fosters open communication and
wellness.” One ongoing initiative
has been the Coffee Talk program,
opportunities for small groups
of employees to meet over coffee
with a member of the executive
leadership team and share their
perspectives while asking questions in a safe and casual setting.
“The feedback we get from
the employees – that it instills a
feeling of helping to shape the
direction of the city – is positive,”
she says. “Which is great. We
welcome the ideas employees
offer because we encourage them
to be courageous and, from an
innovation perspective, take risks
that could improve the way we
deliver City services.”
The City offers good benefits –
from defined-benefit pensions to
discounted access to city leisure
facilities and programs and on-site
noon-hour yoga programs – to
promote both physical and mental
well-being. Last year, the City
devoted one of its quarterly allemployee town halls to the topic
of mental wellness, where employees were invited to share their personal stories, says Gardiner. “We
seek an environment of psychological safety, where employees
can feel comfortable expressing
their concerns and feelings.”
We’re becoming a
workplace where we can
openly talk about mental
health without worry
about stigma. It’s been
meaningful to be part of
an organization where
that is happening.
— Carter Hunks
Asset Preservation
Manager
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The City of Saskatoon focuses on teamwork and is dedicated to prioritizing diversity and psychological safety
in the workplace.
An open and welcoming
workplace is also a safe workplace,
says asset preservation manager
Carter Hunks, and Saskatoon’s has
become increasingly so over his
four years with the City. “There
has been a lot of effort put into
prioritizing mental health issues,”
says Hunks, “and recently there
was some very valuable training in
safeTALK, suicide prevention and
trauma-informed response I was
able to attend. It was great to see
that conversation be normalized
and approached with empathy.”
Other supports the City of
Saskatoon now has for employees
is a mental health resource hub,
