For 35 years, Ramona Fauchoux has been part of the financial backbone of the City of Prince Albert, quietly shaping how budgets are built, explained and carried forward.
Now, as she prepares to retire from her role as Director of Financial Services at the end of December, Fauchoux is reflecting on a career that began in the City Clerk’s Office in 1990 and evolved alongside the city itself.
“I’m very proud to be a public servant, and I just found that City Hall was a great place to work, and I never had any desire to move anywhere else throughout my career,” she said.
Fauchoux started with the city 35 years ago, spending her first year in the clerk’s office before moving into finance, where she remained for the rest of her career. She worked her way through several roles, including accounting clerk, chief clerk and payroll manager, before becoming Director of Financial Services in March 2022.
Looking back on her time as director, Fauchoux said the last few years brought meaningful progress in how the city plans and communicates its finances.
“I feel in the last three years, we’re doing a better job budgeting, and we’ve been providing better financial reporting to the community,” she said. “Our team is committed to upholding fiscal responsibility and transparency.”
During her tenure, one of the biggest challenges came from rising costs following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The biggest pressure has been the results of COVID in that everything, all prices have skyrocketed throughout our entire operations, which has led, of course, to higher taxation just to cover these increased costs,” she said.
Fauchoux noted that budget decisions are often more complex than they appear from the outside, particularly when council is required to prioritize among competing needs.
“Everything seems important, but you can only choose a few in order to be able to cover it within the current budget,” she said.
Aging infrastructure has also shaped financial planning in recent years, alongside the need to prepare for future growth.
“Our infrastructure is aging, so we have to start planning for the future so that we can be able to replace the aging infrastructure, as well as building new infrastructure going forward,” she said.
As technology evolved, so did the city’s financial systems. In recent years, the city automated its budgeting software and introduced online budget books to improve access for council and the public.
“Technology is moving very quickly,” Fauchoux said. “Our current software system Great Plains will no longer be supported in 2029, so for the next few years, we will be working on replacing our ERP software, which will be a massive job.”
Asked what she is most proud of, Fauchoux pointed not to numbers, but to people.
“I think I’m most proud of my team in financial services,” she said. “They’re a great group of people. I’ve seen them excel in their positions, and I feel that they’re a lot happier in the last three years than they were before I came into this position.”
She also credited leadership at City Hall during that period for helping drive improvements.
“I feel that we’ve made a lot of progress in the areas of budgeting, financial reporting, being fiscally responsible and being transparent to the public,” she said.
As she steps away from the role, Fauchoux said she hopes council and residents remember the effort behind municipal finances.
“I hope council and the residents know that the City of Prince Albert employees are working the hardest they can at making this city a better place to live, work and play,” she said.
Although she is retiring from her position as director on Dec. 31, Fauchoux will continue working part time in 2026, helping cover workload pressures and assist with training while a manager is on maternity leave.
“I won’t be retiring completely, but I will be retiring from this position,” she said.
She said the transition will allow for knowledge sharing and support on projects that were delayed due to staffing shortages.
When asked what qualities matter most in her successor, Fauchoux emphasized leadership and communication.
“They have to be a good leader,” she said. “They have to be a good communicator, a good listener, and forward thinking.”
As she looks ahead, Fauchoux said she remains optimistic about Prince Albert and its future.
“I think that Prince Albert is a great place to live, and we have to quit listening to the negative noise around us about Prince Albert and be the ones to promote it,” she said.
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
