A new department has been created at the City of Moose Jaw. 

To highlight the city’s need for growth and develop the city’s stakeholder relations and communications, City Manager Maryse Carmichael has created the new Department of Strategic Growth. 

Previously, communications and stakeholder and Indigenous relations were separate from economic development, which was part of the Department of Planning and Development. Carmichael has now amalgamated those sectors into a new department. 

“To me, it makes a lot of sense to have the communications, the stakeholder relations as well as the economic development all working together, and I need to add also the Indigenous relations is also part of this group,” said Carmichael. 

Carmichael added that this new department will be “external facing.” 

“They are the group that represents the city and is also looking, like I mentioned, for growth for our city,” she said. 

Currently, Craig Hemingway is the Acting Director of Strategic Growth, while Hayley Hart-Rushinko is moving into the Acting Manager, Communications and Stakeholder Relations role. 

Over the next few weeks, the city will open competition for the Director of Strategic Growth position. Because the city is hiring a grant writer, which was approved during the 2024 budget deliberations, Carmichael said she didn’t want too many competitions running at the same time. She plans to fill the grant writer position first. 

This is the second change in structure with the city’s administration in the past four months.  

In December, it was announced that the city was amalgamating the Department of Engineering and the Department of Public Works and Utilities to create the Department of Operations with Bevan Harlton as the director. 

Those two departments had worked under one umbrella until 2020 after former engineering director Josh Mickleborough left the city. At the time, the city named Harlton the director of engineering and promoted Darrin Stephanson to director of public works and utilities. 

Stephanson left his position with the city in April of 2023, leaving the director of public works and utilities vacant. 

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