Portage la Prairie's City Manager Jean-Marc Nadeau will be leaving his position according to a news release yesterday afternoon. With mixed emotions he says he accepted the position as Chief Executive Officer at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) in Regina.

"I'm leaving behind a great team with some great projects," says Nadeau. "Of course, we had the sod-turning at Roquette last week, and there are a number of other initiatives that are underway at the City that I would have loved to see completed. But having said that, when I received the call from the president of SUMA, it was an opportunity that I simply couldn't let go by."

Nadeau came to Portage almost five years to the day when Dale Lyle left the position of City Manager in November of 2012. He was able to work with Lyle for a few months before Lyle departed in February of 2013.

Nadeau explains highlights from his tenure here as City Manager include accomplishing one of the strategic directions for council which was reducing our tax burden. He adds in 2017 he was part of the success in bringing a zero percent increase budget to the citizens of Portage. Nadeau says they worked quite hard to find internal efficiencies they could achieve, to enable them to accommodate the increased cost of living inside the existing budgets. He adds he's also proud of being able to find efficiencies in their departments so they could bring decision-making to the front line. One particular example includes the great work the captains are doing at the fire hall. Nadeau says they're able to manage their area of responsibility quite well, and when they're on the scene they're the decision-makers. Nadeau explains people like that have great learning and leadership skills we need to capitalize on.

Another highlight is the expansion of their strategic framework that has solid timeframes for decision-making, planning purposes, and the strategic direction council issues annually to provide the department heads a framework so they can prepare budgets and plan accordingly. Nadeau says generally speaking, there is a great solid team that they've built in the City while some have come and gone. All in all, he adds, it's a great team and their work over the last five years has been something he's extremely proud of.

Nadeau says he first came to Portage as Detachment Commandment for the RCMP detachment back in April of 2009. He was in charge of the local RCMP for three years with a one-year stint in Afghanistan where he was part of Canada's contribution to the Afghan National Police Development Mission, There, he was assigned to the NATO mission in the country.

Leaving behind many friendships that will carry on, accompanied by missing the people of our city, Nadeau says life goes on nevertheless.

The City will now go through some decisions on how to proceed with several options at their disposal. His announcement of departure was so new that some meetings will be necessary that Mayor Ferris will lead to establish a process to gain a new City Manager. Nadeau notes there are some great opportunities currently in the works, and someone else can take them on and move it forward. He adds he's happy to have been able to move those a bit as well.