In only a few weeks, Josee Migneault, the Health, Safety and Environmental Systems Manager, will celebrate fifteen years in our industry. It’s clear she is where she
wants and needs to be.
Her area of responsibility is ensuring compliance with health, safety and environmental regulations company-wide, including at the Port Hardy Processing Plant and with MHC’s main contractors. Her main goal and passion, however is to keep all employees free of injuries.
“Born and raised on the ocean” in Sept-Iles, Quebec, Josee remains strongly connected to her parents. “We talk every day,” she said, adding that’s important to maintain a family connection and to “help them (her parents) realize they still matter to me.” Josee’s path to the industry was, in her words, “one of karma”. After joining the military in 1979, she was transferred to Comox two years later. One day she read her horoscope that said she’d become a “fish keeper”. Josee mentioned this to Diana Pickwick, current manager at Pott’s Bay. Josee spent a weekend at Sargeaunt’s Pass, where Diana was working at the time for Stolt Sea Farm. Consequently, Josee “fell in love” with the work and the industry.
“I had to be here,” she said.
Upon returning to dry land, Josee handed in her resignation at Realty World, presented a resume to Stolt, and received a phone call two weeks later. She began as a fish tech, later became an Assistant Manager, and moved into compliance in 1998, an area that energizes her and “makes me want to be here every day.”
Away from work, Josee has a passion for riding her motor bike and wood working. Her current project is a four foot humpback whale that will welcome visitors to her home in Fanny Bay. Her home is in a perfect location to indulge in the kayaking she loves so much because it connects her to nature.
By Gina Forsyth