Employees at Manitoba Hydro take pride in service

Lindsay Melvin worked as a summer student at Manitoba Hydro after her first year of university. She joined the engineering-in-training (EIT) program and quickly found a permanent position as a system modelling engineer after graduate school. Nineteen years later, she is a director of integrated resource planning.

Melvin had a placement every summer during university, and then Manitoba Hydro provided a stipend while she completed her MSc in engineering on a project related to the corporation. “Working here offers such a breadth of opportunity, and people are patient and generous throughout,” says Melvin. “It’s not just how collaboratively Manitoba Hydro employees work together – we’re also passionate about the benefit we provide.”

Manitoba Hydro is a provincial Crown corporation and one of the largest integrated electricity and natural gas distribution utilities in Canada. The corporation has its head office in Winnipeg with facilities and operations throughout the province.

“It all boils down to serving Manitobans,” says director of talent Jonathan Ryman. “We provide energy to every corner of the province, and our employees are also our customers.”

Manitoba Hydro provides a variety of development programs, from over 250 annual summer student and co-op placements to paid technical and trades-related training programs. Pre-placement programs for Indigenous Peoples and women offer paid academic upgrading and work experience to address systemic barriers.

And Ryman says the corporation has a charitable presence in the communities it serves, providing close to $450,000 to sponsor events. My Charity, a voluntary employee deduction plan, provides another $500,000 in pledges from employees – which are matched by the corporation. Employees are active volunteers in their communities both in events, such as the annual Manitoba Hydro Santa Claus Parade, or in their own activities as Employee Champions.

Melvin volunteers with Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba, which governs and regulates the practice of professional engineering and professional geoscience in Manitoba.

“Manitoba Hydro is one of the largest employers of engineers in the province, so it makes sense for us to support the volunteers required for the self-regulation of the profession,” she says. “I was president for a year and it really influenced my development as a manager, not to mention my understanding of the evolution of skills in engineering.”

Melvin also honed her leadership skills by taking a part-time MBA. Ten years after graduating as an engineer, Melvin credits her ability to take on the MBA program to the flexibility she was afforded at work. “I still got my work done, but I was able to take a vacation day if I needed it for class or study time,” says Melvin.

Since starting as a summer student, Melvin has had the opportunity to move through different areas of the corporation. A benefit of the integrated utility is that she can work with both gas and electricity, and from generation to transmission to distribution – all without leaving Manitoba Hydro.

“It’s so hard to move from any area because of the fantastic people you meet,” says Melvin. “But I’ve learned so much. I’ve benefited from a broad systems view where I get to understand how the pieces interact.”

Melvin finds that she can reach out across the organization to gain the benefit of someone else’s experience. And she is always excited to help out when a colleague reaches out to her. “The more we learn about how everything fits together, the better,” she says.

When asked why he came to Manitoba Hydro, Ryman says he welcomed the opportunity to serve the community. “I noticed in a very short time that people here are open and supportive, with a sense of pride in giving back,” he says.

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Manitoba’s Top Employers winners, published March 19, 2024 in the Winnipeg Free Press. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

Lighting up a range of roles at Manitoba Hydro

When Karan Patel immigrated to Canada in 2019, he began working on a college diploma and felt lucky to do his industry co-op at Manitoba Hydro. After graduation, Patel saw a posting at the corporation for a digital and technology career development program. “As a new graduate this is perfect for me,” said Patel, now an intelligent automations developer.

He applied for the program while waiting for his work permit, which was delayed by the immigration backlog during the pandemic. “I interviewed and was offered the position,” he says. “I asked if they would wait for me until my permit came in, and they did! I started in the program two months later.”

With its head office in Winnipeg and operations throughout the province, Manitoba Hydro is a provincial Crown corporation and one of the largest integrated electricity and natural gas distribution utilities in Canada.

“Manitoba Hydro has a well-rounded approach to developing young people,” says Lisa Leochko, talent acquisition and diversity, equity and inclusion manager. “We hire over 200 post-secondary students every summer. We also offer a range of opportunities upon graduation. These include opportunities in careers across the province, from trades trainee positions to professional areas such as accounting, digital and technology, engineering – the list goes on and on.”

The corporation finds ways to connect with young people at career days and presentations starting in high school. “We let them know the prerequisites they need for the careers they’re interested in,” says Leochko. “We also connect with students and job seekers through information sessions, trades hands-on days, and by supporting Take Our Kids to Work Day, a national event for students in Grade 9.”

Manitoba Hydro provides $100,000 per year in scholarships, bursaries and high school awards in categories determined by both need and performance, for students in programs that could lead to jobs at the corporation.

Patel’s career path demonstrates the breadth of opportunities available. His education was in business and technology and his co-op program was geared toward learning to be a business analyst. Patel started his trainee program on a business rotation and moved on to a developer rotation after six months. He found he enjoyed and excelled at the developer work.

A role in the area happened to open up and was posted. Patel applied and got the position. “I thought I would end up on the business side of things and I wouldn’t have known I’d excel in technology except for the co-op work and rotational opportunities in the trainee program,” he says.

“I’ve been a member of four teams so far at Manitoba Hydro,” says Patel. He feels that his work with other teams is an asset to his position. He works closely with a team he rotated through in training and finds it easy to collaborate.

Patel says he enjoys the camaraderie and some of the benefits of being at the corporation. When he was learning new skills, he could just walk around the wall of his cubicle to find help with a problem from a colleague. He likes get-togethers from barbeques in the summer to meeting some of his trainee group for lunch in the head office building’s atrium. And for positions that are eligible, employees are offered a work schedule that usually provides every second Monday off.

“It’s a great time to be a young person working at Hydro,” says Leochko. “A growing segment of our workforce is under 30. These employees bring an energy to the workplace, are excited to take on new projects, question how we do things and offer new perspectives.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Top Employers for Young People winners, published January 23, 2024 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

An opportunity for women in trades at Manitoba Hydro

Alyssa Seniuk had worked for four years as a tradesperson doing plumbing when she heard about the culture at Manitoba Hydro. “People were saying it has a patient environment, not to mention great benefits and job security,” says Seniuk, now a trainee power electrician. “It seemed that people there had put thought into making it a company you’d want to work for.”

Manitoba Hydro started a pre-placement program for women in trades in 2021. Seniuk applied, went through an evaluation process that includes both an aptitude and skills assessment, and was ultimately invited to join a woman’s pre-placement program for power electricians.

“Physics is a pre-requisite and, at 31, it would have been hard for me to support myself to go back to school, but they allowed me to upgrade during my paid pre-placement,” she says. “Two years later, I have a trainee position with Hydro, which supports me in going through the power electrician program at Red River College.”

Manitoba Hydro is a provincial Crown corporation and one of the largest integrated electricity and natural gas distribution utilities in Canada. The corporation has its head office in Winnipeg with operations throughout the province.

“Manitoba Hydro is committed to having a workforce that reflects the community it serves,” says Lisa Leochko, talent acquisition and diversity, equity and inclusion manager. To this end, new hires complete an employment equity self-declaration form, which assists the corporation in understanding the makeup of its workforce, particularly marginalized groups.

“Currently, 24.6 per cent of our workforce is women and we would like to see that grow to 30 per cent,” says Leochko. As a sub-component, the corporation set a goal 10 years ago to have women in trades make up at least four per cent of the workforce, and the pre-placement programs have helped to achieve this goal as of 2023. The six-month women’s pre-placement program provides access to work that Leochko says women have found challenging to break into in the past.

Once a woman is hired at Manitoba Hydro, the support doesn’t stop there. “We have a women-in-trades forum which facilitates mentoring opportunities and acts as a feedback mechanism to the corporation,” say Leochko.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work at Portage la Prairie and at our Dorsey Plant in Rosser,” says Seniuk. “I’ve completed three rotations and there have been women working at every location. The people I’ve met have put time into me, giving me hands-on training.”

Leochko says Manitoba Hydro has been working to diversify its workforce for the past 20 years. Programming to address systemic barriers includes a course on interviewing without bias and the use of diversity competency questions for leadership interviews. The corporation also has pre-placement programs for Indigenous Peoples leading to trades positions, and offers Project Search, a volunteer work experience program for high school students with intellectual disabilities, among other initiatives.

“The face of Manitoba Hydro is becoming more diverse, which brings new perspectives and new ideas,” says Leochko. “That’s what we need to serve our customers.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada’s Best Diversity Employers winners, published March 5, 2024 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

Manitoba Hydro collaborates to improve waterways

Since she started with Manitoba Hydro 14 years ago, Stephanie Backhouse has been encouraged to think outside the box about how to improve the environment. “People here recognize past impacts of hydroelectric power plants and empower employees to work collaboratively to figure out what needs to be done and do it,” says Backhouse, now a senior environmental specialist.

Manitoba Hydro is one of the largest integrated electricity and natural gas distribution utilities in Canada. The provincial Crown corporation has its head office in Winnipeg with operations throughout Manitoba.

“We have had an environmental management system in place since the early 2000s,” says Allison Zacharias, manager, generation environmental services. “At Manitoba Hydro, environmental employees work with communities and other stakeholders to monitor and try to understand environmental issues and mitigate the impacts of power generation.”

One area where Manitoba Hydro is making a difference is with sturgeon stocking in Manitoba waterways. Backhouse explains that starting in the late 1800s commercial fisheries depleted sturgeon stocks. Habitat changes resulting from the construction and operation of hydroelectric generating stations further impacted populations. Conservation stocking programs help to recover sturgeon populations to a level at which they are self-sustaining.

Manitoba Hydro’s Grand Rapids Fish Hatchery undertakes lake sturgeon stocking programs on the Nelson River in northern Manitoba, in collaboration with the Nelson River Sturgeon Board and the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership. Every spring, the hatchery co-ordinates with other stakeholders to collect fish eggs in northern Manitoba. Lake sturgeon eggs are collected from the Nelson and Burntwood rivers and brought back to the hatchery to grow. These sturgeon are then stocked as fingerlings or yearlings into their native waterways to support populations in the area.

“We’ve been restocking sturgeon in the Upper Nelson River for more than 20 years, and for nine years in the area around the new Keeyask Generating Station,” says Backhouse, who supervises staff at the hatchery. “Monitoring shows us that stocked sturgeon are growing, and we hope they will soon start reproducing in the wild. The goal is for sturgeon stocking to contribute to the recovery of sturgeon populations.”

Recognizing the significance of sturgeon throughout Manitoba, and the cultural importance to Indigenous communities, Manitoba Hydro developed the Lake Sturgeon Stewardship and Enhancement Program (LSSEP) in 2008. It consolidates the work to maintain and enhance lake sturgeon populations in areas affected by its operations, now and in the future.

Within the LSSEP program, Manitoba Hydro works to address information gaps, provide resources, initiate research and work collaboratively with the Nelson River and Saskatchewan River sturgeon management boards, Indigenous communities and the provincial and federal government to improve the effectiveness of the conservation strategies being implemented.

Backhouse finds her day-to-day work is varied. She works with Hydro engineers and the Manitoba government on environmental mitigation. She meets with Indigenous groups to develop collaborative monitoring and research, and to hear and try to address concerns about environmental impacts. She also works with regulators on monitoring and reporting.

“There are lots of people at Manitoba Hydro working on a variety of environmental topics. We have a network of environmental colleagues who collaborate and support each other,” says Backhouse. “I work with people who care about relationships with others and are motivated to make a positive difference.”

“Ever since I started working at Hydro in 2001 there has been a strong focus on doing the right thing for the environment,” says Zacharias.

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Greenest Employers winners, published April 16, 2024 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.