YW Calgary CEO Sue Tomney is stepping down after a successful 15 years in the role, during which she led the organization through tremendous financial growth, as well as the expansion into three new facilities. Read More
As this chapter of her career comes to a close, Sue Tomney sat down with Postmedia Calgary to reflect on what she’s seen in Calgary’s social services sector over the last 15 years.
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As this chapter of her career comes to a close, Sue Tomney sat down with Postmedia Calgary to reflect on what she’s seen in Calgary’s social services sector over the last 15 years.
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YW Calgary CEO Sue Tomney is stepping down after a successful 15 years in the role, during which she led the organization through tremendous financial growth, as well as the expansion into three new facilities.
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To ensure a smooth transition, Tomney will be remaining in the role until a new CEO is appointed. She said she’s ready for something new, but she’s not yet sure where her next steps will take her.
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“It’s hard to top this gig, to be honest. It’s been amazing,” Tomney said. “But it feels right. One just knows when it’s time to make room.”
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Prior to starting at YW, Tomney had been in the corporate sector for the majority of her career, working for companies like Canadian Airlines and Transalta.
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“I always had community investment as part of my portfolio in both of those industries, and was pretty well-versed in what not-for-profits and charities contribute to the Calgary community,” she said.
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As this chapter of her career comes to a close, Tomney sat down with Postmedia Calgary to reflect on what she’s seen in Calgary’s social services sector over the last 15 years.
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Could you talk a bit about the impact and the growth that you’ve seen over the last 15 years in your role?
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When I arrived at the YW in late 2010, we were still in our building downtown. That building was over 40 years old, and was certainly starting to show some wear and tear. As well, there were some funding challenges for the organization.
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We were just on the cusp of our 100th anniversary, so it was the board’s direction that they wanted me to help chart that path for what the next 100 years might look like — and to deal with the building, because it was not serving the YW the way that we needed it to. Much had changed in that 40 years. So a bit daunting, but I took the challenge.
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Fast forward to now, to 2025, with the work of a fantastic team over the last 15 years, we now have three beautiful new facilities that are really purposely designed to serve women and their families and help overcome crisis and challenges in their lives. That’s been the biggest piece, seeing those buildings come to fruition. Not only do they serve women and families, it’s beautiful space for our team, who really deserve the space.
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We now are in place where we’ve got the buildings, we have no debt, we’ve got sufficient funds in the in the bank to sustain us and great support from the community. The future is bright in terms of continuing to serve the Calgary community.
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From your vantage point as CEO of YW Calgary, what have you seen in Calgary as a whole in terms of helping those in need of supports?
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I’ve seen a lot in the 15 years. We’ve been through some pretty major events. We’ve had the 2013 flood, which severely damaged the YW building, but also was a huge impact to the city. Also the pandemic, and a shift in the affordability crisis.
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When I first got to the YW, we knew that housing was a was a big issue — affordable housing for our women and families. It wasn’t really on the radar yet, or top of mind for people. That’s been interesting, to watch that shift, because we knew it was coming because it was affecting who we were serving.
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That’s been a fairly significant shift, as well as what we’ve seen around the opioid crisis, and a shift in homelessness and how those mental health issues have affected the city. That has really changed a lot, even in the last five to seven years. Those have certainly shaped a lot of the work that YW and other social service agencies do in the city.
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What are some of your biggest takeaways from the last 15 years?
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The biggest takeaway for me is how fortunate it is to be able to do work where you can see that immediate impact and have that purpose in your role. When it comes to teams, the ability to see that what they do matters makes a really big difference. That’s sometimes unique, to some extent, in our sector, but I know that that’s equally important in the corporate sector.
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The other is being aware that dollars and funding and markets — external forces — really can make balancing the books tricky. The big learning is to be able to continually anticipate what can shift and how that might affect you and be able to pivot to minimize that impact.
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Whether it’s changing governments, whether it’s the economy — you know that that’s going to affect donors. They’re going to think twice before they give. When you see those things coming, what is it that you can do to insulate your organization or prepare for that?
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What have been the highlights for you from your time at YW?
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Having these three beautiful buildings that are serving so many women and children. Whether it’s our permanent housing at the YW Taylor Family Home, our crisis shelter, and the hub here with 100 units for women, and the expansion of the childcare — the buildings have made that possible. Being part of that creative process, to bring those buildings to fruition, and be able to build them on time, on budget, and not have debt, has been a huge highlight, because it will serve families well into the future.
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The biggest piece too, for me, is being able to work with spectacular people over the 15 years. I will miss that. There’s a lot of passion, there’s a lot of fun — because you have to, to be able to last. That’s really been a highlight – learning from my colleagues, and working with an incredible group of dedicated and talented people over that 15 years.
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Have there been any particular challenges over the 15 years?
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One of the challenges has been to continually grow the organization and adapt the programs and services to meet those needs of the community — and sometimes with minimal resources. That’s a real challenge, because we are on the ground and we can see things happening, sometimes way before governments or citizens will see things happening.
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One of the big challenges is to act on that, even when you’re not sure where the money is going to come from — to be able to take that risk and say, ‘We just need to do this,’ and then convince others to trust that we will deliver.
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Where do you see the Calgary going in terms of helping those in need, and where do you think that it needs to go?
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I think that Calgary is in a really unique place right now to really seize the moment. There’s some wonderful things happening here. There are entrepreneurs, there are newcomers, and I think that we are uniquely positioned to really thrive as a city.
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Part of that is making sure that everybody has the ability to fully contribute. From a not-for-profit sector, it means that we really need to work externally to tell that story to Calgarians, and to continue to advocate for the fact that their support is needed, because it’s easy to forget that.
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There are some spectacular leaders of not-for-profits in Calgary, and I have seen that continue to grow. The sector that does this work has got some wonderful, smart leaders, and I think that they will continue to work alongside business and government to ensure that that Calgary continues to be the best city in Canada.
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Edited for clarity and length.
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