Lucie Dagenais details the leap of faith that brought her to the Stream-Flo Group of Companies for the past 20 years
Her boyfriend said to her that he wished someone had the guts to pick up and move to Alberta, where stories of Quebecers having success in Wild Rose country were making the rounds in local Montreal newspapers.
Lucie Dagenais had the guts.
It was on a weekend in February 2006 when Dagenais’ then boyfriend Patrick, who is now her husband, made the offhanded comment. Come Monday, Dagenais had faxed his resume to a bunch of roofing companies in the province.
“By Monday night when he came home, he was freaking out, he goes ‘I had over 10 phone calls’ and he didn’t answer any of them because he didn’t speak a word in English,” recalls Dagenais. “So I called them back, I set up interviews, then we came over in March for a visit for the interviews and I had to go with him so I could translate.”
Dagenais obviously did a good job translating because Patrick received multiple job offers as a result of the trip, and after choosing the one that suited him best, the owner of the roofing company helped the pair from Chateauguay find an apartment to live in.
There was only one problem. OK, a few problems. But as you’ll learn, Lucie Dagenais likes a challenge.
“Back then I owned a house, I had an eight-year-old-kid, I had a dog,” listed Dagenais of the life in Chateauguay she was getting ready to pack up and leave. “I had one month to sell the house, get a moving truck, find a place for my dog, and then find a place for my daughter because I didn’t want to scrap her whole school year.”
Her dad said it was going to be impossible. That she would never be able to do it.
“I took that as a challenge,” said Dagenais, who got everything done and was on the road Apr. 29 for Patrick’s early May start date with the roofing company.
They drove to Alberta in a Mustang. Something Dagenais says she will never do again.
“It’s like riding a horse for four days because you’re so low.”
Thrown into chaos
But they made it, only to find they were moving into an apartment that was one street down from Whyte Ave.
During an Oilers playoff run.
With Patrick’s first job also taking him out of town right away.
“So I was left all alone,” remembers Dagenais. “The moving truck was late by a week, so I had nothing.”
Top: Lucie Dagenais with her dog Toby the day before she moved to Edmonton in Apr. 2026. Bottom: The pair after being reunited in July of that same year.
Top: Patrick and Lucie pose for a photo together the day after they moved to Edmonton. Bottom: The two on their wedding day in 2011.
When the moving truck did get there, it was of course on a night when the Oilers were playing.
“That was chaos.”
Yet it was chaos she managed.
After taking a month off to get settled, Dagenais then began applying for jobs.
She had an interview with Fujitsu before a call out of the blue changed her life.
“Master Flo called me and I just went, I never applied there, how did they find me?” remembered Dagenais.
She thinks Workopolis was the culprit, which she had uploaded her resume to when beginning her Edmonton job search.
Dagenais arrived at 4611 74 Ave NW to interview for the open purchasing admin assistant position and met with then manager Lisa Kitt.
A handshake offer
Her next 20 professional years were sealed with a handshake.
“We got along right away,” said Dagenais about her first meeting with Kitt. “So, got a job offer, accepted, started July 4th.”
Dagenais then got to work getting her daughter and dog to Edmonton, moved apartments a few times, and began her Master Flo advancing within journey.
But not before realizing that being bilingual and actually living in a predominantly English-speaking city are not the same thing.
“Not the same at all,” said Dagenais with a shake of her head. “People are saying ‘double-double’, what the hell is a double-double??”
After getting acclimated to her idiom loving English surroundings more, Dagenais proceeded to move on to the operations and then engineering departments at Master Flo.
All the while having a fun contest with a certain early-to-rise CEO.
“Mark and I usually had a contest to see who was the first to get in,” laughed Dagenais. “I beat him a few times.”
‘Treated like family’
As the years went on, Dagenais formed close bonds with those she spent her time with at Master Flo.
Something she attributes to the unique and special atmosphere the company possesses.
“You’re treated like family,” said Dagenais when asked what has made the connections she’s created possible. “You’re part of the big whole family, like, I have my own Master Flo kids, they call me mom.”
Asked who these Master Flo “kids” of hers are, Dagenais said Alanna Burwash and Hazel Sarinas are two of the remaining ones.
Which are two very rambunctious kids, as most around the organization are well aware of.
“I know, different fathers,” joked Dagenais in reply to the rambunctious comment from the one interviewing her.
She says Marius Bratu is also her brother-in-law and that the genuineness of those she’s encountered across the Stream-Flo Group of Companies over the past two decades is why she’s built such great relationships.
“People here are just down to earth,” continued Dagenais. “Just take Mark (McNeill) for example, he could think he’s higher than everybody else, but no, he’s very, very down to earth. He jokes with you all the time, he’s always asking me, ‘How’s your husband?’ Every time he sees Patrick he says, ‘Hey Patrick, how are you?’ Like he remembers names, you’re not just anybody.”
Dagenais represents her Montreal roots with former Master Flo employees Randy Usherwood and Carolyne Webber.
Her Stream-Flo era
In 2021, Dagenais moved to Stream-Flo to work as a data steward to help with the transformational SAP push across the organization.
Looking back at the success of that big project, Dagenais says the thing that sticks out most for her about the big team accomplishment was being there to help people as they navigated their new normal.
It’s something she’s still doing, such as when someone recently told her they had done something wrong in SAP because it was convenient.
“And I said, ‘Well, it’s not about convenience’,” Dagenais told the person. “It’s about consistency.”
Which is exactly what Dagenais has been over the past 20 years, as she’s successfully accomplished roughly four different careers within the Stream-Flo Group.
Master Flo HR Manager Brad Tomnuk even playfully tried to bring her back to the blue not that long ago after she paid her old building a visit and bumped into him. It was an “offer” Dagenais politely turned down.
“But it’s nice to know you’re still missed,” joked Dagenais after mentioning how much she misses her old Master Flo gang.
A joke that worked out
And to think, all of it could have never been.
“My husband a few years later he goes ‘You do know I was only kidding when I brought that up’,” said Dagenais about his offhanded comment about moving to Alberta. “I said, ‘Well, too late now, eh?'”
So it would seem.
And though Dagenais says her daughter did hate her at first following the move, Edmonton and Alberta have now become home. For all of them.
Sure, they miss their respective families still living in Quebec, but Dagenais says the thought of moving back has never crossed any of their minds.
“Never…ever, ever, ever,” she says to emphasize the point.
Top: Dagenais and her cattle dog Luna practicing new tricks on the left and then enjoying a day out on the boat, while on the bottom the pair pose together in what is arguably the cutest photo ever. The animal lover also has a cat she rescued five years ago.
She and Patrick keep themselves busy outside of work with the boat they bought, skipping it across the lakes of Wabamun and Minnewanka. The latter worth the extra drive for the views.
Dagenais also devotes a lot of her free time to the Greater Edmonton Animal Rescue Society (GEARS), a cause the animal lover is extremely passionate about.
Her daughter Caroline, who got over her initial anger, has her friends here, a university degree, and a job.
Patrick is fully bilingual. Albeit with a very thick accent, still.
And Dagenais is blunt about how having the guts to take Patrick up on his what turned out to be a joke offer, has shaped her life.
“Best decision I made,” she wrote to CEO Mark McNeill after he congratulated her on reaching 20 years with the organization.
“Master Flo, Stream-Flo, best companies I’ve worked for,” she said in conversation with me.
There’s only one thing she wishes.
That she could stay for 20 more years.
“But I don’t think my body will make it,” she laughs.
Start with 10? I suggest.
“Maybe another 10 years,” responds Dagenais. “If my body says yes.”
We hope it does.