From civil engineer to director general: A conversation with Kim Lesage

Charles Dickson
Campbell’s Bay February 27, 2023
Kim Lesage had been MRC Pontiac’s Director of Engineering and Infrastructure for just over four years when she heard that her boss, Bernard Roy, was leaving the Director General position.
That was in November. After a three-month recruitment process involving a short list of four candidates, of which she was one, the Council of Mayors voted unanimously to appoint her to the position of Director General.
Last week, Kim agreed to sit down for a chat about her background and her path to this position. We started at the beginning, with Kim telling me she was born in Hull and raised in Otter Lake.

CD: What brought you to the Pontiac?
KL: We were living in Hull. My dad was a notary, Guy Lesage. He built a cottage in Otter Lake in the ‘70s, and we ended up moving there when I was two.
As a notary, he would have been well known . . .
He worked locally for many, many years. He was also a president of the CLD for a time. He was a commissaire for the school board. Same with my mom, Hélène Boulet. She worked for the schools. She’s retired now but she was on the health board in Shawville. My father passed away. My mother still lives in Otter Lake.

Where did you go to school?
I went to high school at ESSC (École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge) in Fort Coulonge, and then I went to CEGEP in Hull. I tried university in Quebec City in geomatics. It’s like GIS, software programming, mapping. I didn’t really like it. I did one term.

What got you interested in engineering?
I always liked science and was very high in math and things like that. So, I tried to find something I could use my talents in. I looked in ‘the big book of possibilities’ at the university, and thought engineering looked really interesting. And I loved it.

Which university?
University of Ottawa. I worked three summer terms at Golder Associates, a large consulting firm in Ottawa, 4,000 employees worldwide. So, I knew I would have an opening there. They encouraged me to do my Masters of Civil Engineering, so I did that at Ottawa U. and Carleton, combined. Then I went back to Golder Associates where I worked for 12 years.

You were commuting to work in Ottawa . . .
I got married to Chris Sauriol from Vinton. We had three kids and built a house in Vinton. I commuted to the city to work for about ten years.
So, whenever the MRC Council of Mayors decided to open up an engineering position here, of course, we saw that in the paper and I said, ‘Oh, I’ll apply.’
It wasn’t my original career goal. I thought I’d be a consultant, and I was about to become an associate with Golder. But I love the Pontiac. My roots are here. I’m raising my children here. I was getting home late at night, so the possibility of a bit more home life and being able to see my family – it was a great decision.

Now your whole universe is practically within sight . . .
My kids go to school just across the street. My home is seven kilometres down the road. My mother is close by. Plus, I got to mold the position how I wanted it – I created it.

What did you mold the job into?
I had a lot of experience working with MTO (Ministry of Transport of Ontario) doing foundation design for culverts and bridges on highways, so I was able to bring that experience back here and help municipalities – changing culverts, roadway projects, doing the tender documents, applying for grants. This was really economical for the municipalities because I could do the engineering work. Then whenever a construction project was happening, I could supervise it, approve the invoices for them, so it was a win for the municipalities.
While I reported to the DG of the MRC, mostly I worked with the DGs of the municipalities, that’s who my clients were. I developed a relationship with every mayor and every municipal DG throughout the Pontiac.

And then your boss left . . .
In November, yes, it happened quite suddenly.

A recruitment process was launched, meanwhile the DG job was vacant . . .
So, I raised my hand. I said I could sit in, even though I was really busy with my engineer work. I didn’t want to let our partners down. There were emails coming in. There were meetings to do.
I didn’t mind sitting in, at least to fill some kind of a gap.

So, you were now acting DG. Must have been all kinds of different things going on, and quite a learning curve . . .
All kinds of different things. But I had touched a lot of the departments through my engineering role. We deal with water courses for culvert replacements, for example, so it kind of touched a bit of our environmental department. In land use planning, I’d have to check if bylaws were correct. And like our bike path, the PPJ, I managed those employees, so I worked a lot with the tourism department. And with the economic development department with our waterway service, too. So, I touched a lot of departments, and nothing was really unknown to me, I guess.

Infrastructure seems to be a common thread across a lot of it . . .
Exactly, and maybe that’s why it all interests me. Having a curious nature, I kind of like to know what’s going on, how all the departments work.

Then in January the mayors voted unanimously to appoint you permanently to the DG job . . .
Before Christmas, I wasn’t sure if I was going to apply for the position. Then I thought, ‘You know what? This door is open right now. This is a challenge, and I’m doing it.’
I’m pretty sure I can help. I can make things better. I can improve things that I saw maybe could be improved, improve relationships with some of our partners. My goal is to help any way I can. My heart’s in it.

That says something about who you are . . .
I knew when I came back here, I wanted to try to do more for my community, so I joined the Conseil d’administration for the school board. I like to volunteer, I like to help with town functions, things like that. My parents were always very involved in the Pontiac as well. I think we learn that from what we see growing up, we kind of aspire to be like that.

And the work so far?
As you know, it’s all quite new. I’m trying to wrap my head around a lot of files. And trying to meet as many people as I can, to start off the year on the right foot. I think we have a good team, a young team with a positive energy, and I think we can all work well together.
I’m reading a book called Emotional Intelligence and it’s about being happy at work. It’s like a Harvard Business thing. If you can show you are making progress, it kind of motivates everybody. And I am excited and motivated to bring some positivity. I’m a very positive person.

Too soon to say you have any regrets?
Right now, my only regret I can say is that I am still doing my two jobs – regional engineer and DG.

How can that possibly work?
We have some construction projects that are out to tender right now for paving and culvert replacements, and things like that, and ditching, so I am still assisting municipalities with that work. I’m not taking on anything new right now.
At the next Council of Mayors, we’ll have a discussion about posting the engineer position. There’ll be some reorganization in our structure because of the fact that I took the DG position.

But you’ll be keeping a close watch on the engineering file . . .
Yes exactly, and that will be fun for me, because I can still dabble in it, because I do love engineering.