A Jan. 10 Facebook post officially announced the retirement of long-time CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Veldron Vogan after over 30 years working for the town. Stepping into the role is a face new to the area but experienced in working with municipalities.
Shara Lavalee steps into the role after working with different communities in northwestern Ontario.
Originally from southern Ontario, Lavallee moved to the Thunder Bay area when her husband retired from the military and wanted to go back to where his roots were after having lived all across the country.
Lavallee’s journey in municipal work started simply as a part-time administrative assistant with the Township of Gillies.
“Essentially it’s kind of like a whirlpool, where they say ‘you’re already here.’ What happened with Gillies was that they had already gone through a bunch of staff changes and they said ‘do you want to be deputy clerk?’ then from the deputy clerk ‘do you want to be clerk?’ and it snowballed,” Lavallee said.
After working for Gillies for about five years, Lavallee says she decided she wanted to advance her education and decided to go back to school as she only had a high school diploma at the time.
“When I was done school I was working for Thunder Bay DSSAB for a bit, then we bought a house in Conmee at about the same time that their entire office staff quit,” she said. “So I applied for a job. I got the job, but because they were deciding whether or not to amalgamate with Oliver Paipoonge or not I just took it on temporarily but when the amalgamation fell through they asked me to stay on, so I was there since 2020.”
Taking on the role in Rainy River came by coincidence when her daughter and family decided to move to the area.
“My son-in-law is from here,” she said. “His parents said ‘we have a house in Dawson, do you want it?’He got a job at New Gold so they moved here and I said ‘well that’s my only kid and my only grandkid,” so I took a look and Rainy River was hiring, so I applied.”
Lavallee started working in November, learning the ropes from Vogan, but officially took over at the start of the year, though she hasn’t fully moved to town as she is still doing renovations on her home in Conmee in order to sell it.
Through their municipal work, Lavalee was already familiar with Vogan who she is replacing.
“I already knew Veldron from conferences and stuff, but I still did my due diligence, you do the interviews and make sure it seems like a good fit, and it seemed like a good fit, that’s how I got here,” she said.
The role in Rainy River will have a few additional responsibilities that she hasn’t had to deal with in the past, she added.
“There’s water, waste water, it’s a bit more work having more departments,” she said.
When the time comes that she’s not spending weekends driving back to the Thunder Bay area and can relax, she hopes to spend time gardening, raising chickens and living in the outdoors, hiking, and fishing and doing things that a country life affords including knitting and canning.
The community in Rainy River also has a different feel to Conmee where she’s coming from.
“I find Rainy River is very community oriented,” she said. “They’re very welcoming, very interactive like, they want to do things. They have events. Quite different, because I found, like in other places, like, especially like in Gillies and Conmee you just stuck to what you know, and there’s not many events, right, not that many social activities. But that’s just the way it is. I mean, they’re competing with Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay is only, like, maybe 20 minutes away, right? So proximity to the city. So essentially, they’re all bedroom communities, right? But Rainy River is quite nice. It reminds me of my hometown of Amherstburg, because where I grew up, it was like a small town, you know, like, population 3000 and we had the river kind of around it with all the historical stuff. So it’s kind of, kind of like, almost like coming back home.”
