After 25 years, Linda Machniak leaves Battlefords businesses connected and heard

“Honestly, she’s kind of a Jackie of all trades for the chamber,” Babin said.

Her work ranged from advocacy and policy to planting flowers in the chamber’s pots and keeping gophers away. It was a level of care Babin said extended “down to the teeny little details.”

For chamber members, that commitment meant having someone available when they needed support.

Madalin Barclay, front store manager at Fisher’s Drugstore, said the business had worked with Machniak and the chamber for many years.

“She is always around when we need her. She’s always there to support us,” Barclay said.

Barclay said Machniak also encouraged local businesses and organized events that brought them together.

“And I’m really going to miss her presence around here,” she said.

Those professional relationships often became personal.

Duane LaFreniere, owner of Bridges Chevrolet Buick GMC and a former chamber board member, dealt with Machniak through the chamber and his business.

“Linda’s a friend. She’s a customer, actually,” LaFreniere said.

He said Machniak made a point of contacting businesses and remaining active throughout the community, allowing her to understand what owners were experiencing.

Noah Cooke with Bralin Technology Solutions knew Machniak long before beginning his own career. She lived near his grandparents when he was a child, and he later saw her chamber work from a professional perspective.

Cooke said, “Seeing all the work that she puts into it is just really inspiring.”

“Before Bralin, I was at the newspaper, and so just seeing a lot of the ways that she would just inspire community engagement and she’s making sure that everybody has a place and encouraging every small business that comes into it, that they have support and have a system there.”

Machniak also connected the business community with government.

Jeremy Cockrill, the MLA for The Battlefords, said he dealt with her first as a local businessperson and later as an elected official. She was easy to reach when someone had a question or wanted to discuss an idea, he said.

Cockrill said Machniak gave local businesses a unified voice in provincial discussions. Her relationships with chambers elsewhere in Saskatchewan also allowed her to follow issues in other communities and bring that knowledge back to the Battlefords.

He credited Machniak and the chamber with “making space for good conversations to happen and for engagement with leaders from all levels of government, whether that be municipal, provincial, or federal.”

Her influence eventually extended beyond the region.

Teri-Lynn MacKie, executive director of the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce, said Machniak mentored chamber executives and became a trusted resource on complicated issues, including border trade, older legislation and chamber operations.

“But Linda understands it, and she knows it, and she’s always the first call not only with the network, but with provincial chambers,” MacKie said.

Machniak also helped establish Chamber College, which prepares new executive directors to operate chambers and work with their boards.

Machniak’s contribution will be recognized nationally in October when she receives the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada’s Council of Excellence award, MacKie said. Babin said the honour reflects the influence Machniak had on chambers across Canada, not only in the Battlefords.

“It’s been an incredible run for her,” Babin said. “Hearing everybody speak today, she’s obviously had a big impact on lots of individuals.”

MacKie said retirement would not remove Machniak from the network she spent decades helping to build.

“But she is not gone because she gave us a phone number,” MacKie joked.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com

by Kenneth Cheung

After 25 years, Linda Machniak leaves Battlefords businesses connected and heard

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