Andrea Steenbakkers has been with the Barrhaven BIA since the beginning, when it launched in 2006 as Ottawa’s first suburban BIA. Now, she’s received a lifetime achievement award in recognition of her contributions to the community.
Last month, the Ontario BIA Association (OBIAA) awarded Steenbakkers the Alex Ling Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes individuals who have played a significant role in strengthening and promoting BIAs beyond their own organizations.
“A lot of my earliest mentors in this job are past recipients of the Alex Ling Lifetime Achievement Award,” Steenbakkers told OBJ. “So it’s very humbling and I’m extremely honoured to be in their company. It’s actually amazing how fast two decades have passed.”
Steenbakkers is currently the executive director of the Barrhaven BIA, which represents more than 600 businesses. When the BIA launched 20 years ago, she said Barrhaven was growing at a rapid rate and has only continued that trajectory as one of the fastest-growing communities in the city. In 2023, the area reached a new milestone, surpassing 100,000 residents.
“Today, I think the difference is that Barrhaven is really functioning as a small city within a city,” she said. “In fact, based on our current population, we’re like the 40th largest town in the country. That gives you a bit of perspective. And our boundaries are fairly finite.”
What’s been most meaningful for Steenbakkers is how much the BIA has contributed to shaping the community throughout that growth.
“We’ve always been focused on building a complete community since day one,” she said. “Supporting local businesses, advocating for real jobs in the community and also creating spaces where people want to spend their time. That doesn’t just happen by accident. That kind of evolution takes real alignment, persistence and strong partnerships.”
For Steenbakkers, the award comes at a pivotal moment for the organization, which is seeing some of its original aspirations finally come to life. The most significant of those, she said, is the plan to build out a downtown area in Barrhaven. In 2019, city council approved the Barrhaven Downtown Secondary Plan, which outlined a vision to create a “compact and transit-supportive area,” with mixed-use development, greenspace and a central square.
It’s something the community has been pushing for since pre-amalgamation, she said.
“It’s something we’ve seriously protected over the years, in terms of making sure the integrity of that plan stays intact,” she said. “We realized that’s the heart of our community and it’s really the last piece to pull everything together. Now that is well underway.”
According to Steenbakkers, the city has purchased the land and is moving forward with the plan for a civic building and gathering space, which she said will be integral for community activities such as festivals and markets. She said the downtown is set to be operational by 2030.
Seeing a 20-year goal finally come to fruition has been rewarding, she said.
“It’s something we’ve had our eye on since day one,” she said. “The fact that it’s actually coming together in a timeframe that feels real is super-exciting to us. I would say 90 per cent of our market is Barrhaven residents. People who live here stay here. This is going to give the entire community, and especially the businesses, that extra sense of place and belonging and fun. It’s that central meeting space we’ve been missing.”
In addition to her role with the Barrhaven BIA, she’s been a leader in the BIA space at the municipal and provincial levels. She spent three years as chair of the Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas (OCOBIA) and is currently chair of the membership and education committee for the Ontario BIA Association (OBIAA).
Over the course of her career, Steenbakkers has navigated major challenges for businesses, from economic uncertainty and supply chain delays to technology disruption and COVID-19 lockdowns.
Throughout, she said relationships have been her most important asset as a leader.
“Success comes from building strong governance, surrounding yourself with the right people, really leaning into those collaborations and those partnerships and being willing to have honest conversations and debate difficult topics in a respectful way that moves ideas forward so that everybody can win,” she said. “I feel that’s really the way to create lasting impact.”
People on the move
After more than 30 years, Ottawa lawyer Lynda Bordeleau is retiring from Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall. Bordeleau, who is head of the firm’s police law group, joined the organization in 1994, providing advice to police management, police services boards and municipalities around policing issues. Her career has included roles as general counsel to the Peel Region Police and Greater Sudbury Police Service. She has also been general counsel to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. In a LinkedIn post last month, Bordeleau said that while she’ll be “working on my half marathon time and improving my golf score,” her work in the police sector will continue in a consulting capacity.
Quebec manufacturer Volatus Aerospace announced this week that Kristina Davis has joined the organization as vice-president of corporate affairs and strategic positioning. Based in Ottawa, Davis has more than 20 years of experience in communications within the defence and government sectors. Most recently, she led the communications practice at Ottawa public affairs firm Compass Rose and, prior to that, was senior director of corporate communications and government relations at Calian Group. From 2004 to 2015, she held a variety of roles at the Department of National Defence and Global Affairs Canada. In a LinkedIn post, Davis said returning to the defence space “feels like coming home.”
Kate Wolfe has joined Syntronic Canada as vice-president of business development based in the telecom company’s Ottawa office. In a LinkedIn post last week, Wolfe said her role will involve developing relationships across the Ottawa ecosystem and beyond to explore partnership opportunities. Wolfe has held a variety of managerial and business development roles through her career, including sales manager at the former EY Centre (now Cohere Centre), business development manager at Real Property Management Advisors, and more than three years as head of sales and business development at Trexity. Most recently, she was head of sales at Management One.
CHEO communications specialist Marie Belanger is retiring. After 25 years with the children’s hospital, Belanger announced in a LinkedIn post last week that May will be her last month in the role. Belanger joined the organization in 2001, following previous roles as communications adviser to the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) Canada and the Parkinson Society of Canada. She said in her post that working in health-care communications “has been rewarding in ways I could never fully explain.” In her retirement, she said she’s looking forward to new adventures, including skiing, pickleball and European travel.
Hats off!
Ottawa chef Joe Thottungal, owner of restaurants Coconut Lagoon and Thali, has received this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from Volunteer Ottawa. At a breakfast last month to celebrate Volunteer Week, the organization presented him with the award for his contributions to the community, which include regular food donations to those experiencing food insecurity. During the breakfast, Volunteer Ottawa also announced a new pilot project, the Ottawa Youth Service Year. Championed by former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, the initiative is designed to encourage young people to engage in service while building skills, confidence and pathways to future employment.
