Luncheon, President`s Farewell Speech, Change of Office

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LU-2:
Luncheon, President’s Farewell Speech, Change
of Office
LU-2 :
Déjeuner, Discours d’adieu du président,
passation des pouvoirs
MODERATOR/
MODÉRATEUR :
SPEAKERS/
CONFÉRENCIERS :
Michel Simard
Jacques Tremblay
Theresa Tremblay
Jacques Lafrance
Rob Stapleford
?? = Inaudible/Indecipherable
ph = phonetic
Unknown = Unidentified speaker
Speaker Michel Simard: The official change of office ceremony and the incoming President’s
address. In addition, we’ll hear from our keynote speakers David Suzuki and Jeff Rubin. Before
we enjoy lunch, though, I would like to call CIA President Jacques Tremblay to the stage for a
special presentation. Jacques?
[Applause]
As you know Jacques did a tremendous effort yesterday to put some pep in this convention,
and he of course now has to pay the price, and that’s the reason that he is with his better half
who will help him to carry the message.
Speaker Jacques Tremblay: My next President’s Award goes to Mike Hale.
[Applause]
Theresa Tremblay: Behind every good man, there’s a good woman.
[Applause]
M. Tremblay: Mike is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Fellow of the CIA. He’s a past
President of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. He currently chairs the recently-formed CIA
Committee on Public Positions. Mike is a long-standing member of the former International
Relations Committee, now a council, where he chaired the CIA Subcommittee on International
Accounting and Actuarial Standards. He’s a member of the designated group leading to the
development of the actuarial standards related to the IFRS 4, and has served on our Elections
Committee for many years.
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Mike worked for several years with Imperial Life, relocated to Hong Kong to lead the Laurentian
Group’s start-up operations in Asia, and eventually moved to the office of the Superintendent
of Financial Institutions as director general, insurance, with responsibility for supervision of
Canadian registered life and property casualty companies. He subsequently restructured and
led the office’s actuarial group with special responsibilities for demutualization. Mike finished
his working career as senior adviser with Assuris, the not-for-profit organization that protects
Canadian policyholders in the event that their life insurance policy company should become
insolvent.
[Applause]
Mike has been very good to me throughout my career, volunteering within the CIA. I was Chair
of the Practice Council when Mike was President of the CIA and he was extremely supportive of
all the initiatives we got going. Eventually after many attempts Mike and Michel Simard were
successful in recruiting me to run for the role of President-elect and I am extremely thankful he
convinced me. Thank you, Mike.
[Applause]
Mike Hale: Jacques, I just want to say that every time you put that hat on, I expect you to take
on a groundhog and sees if it sees its shadow. Jacques and I worked, as he said, when I was
President and he was chair of the Practice Council and I think through that working together on
stuff we thought was important, we formed a kind of friendship and trust that has carried us
forward from there. It’s very important, it’s fundamentally important, to our Institute that we
have the volunteers and the leaders that will take the Institute where it needs to go. So I want
you to remember my most important contribution to the CIA: I was the Canadian actuary that
got Jacques Tremblay to be President at our 50th anniversary.
[Applause]
M. Tremblay: Good lunch, everyone.
Speaker Simard: Well, thank you very much to President Jacques, and my personal
congratulations to Mike—you are doing a great deal for the social conscience of the actuarial
profession in Canada. Thank you very much.
[Applause]
Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to invite Jacques and Theresa Tremblay to make the
last President’s Award presentation.
M. Tremblay: I keep telling her that I picked her. C’est avec grand plaisir que j’annonce que
mon prochain Prix du président est décerné à Madame Micheline Dionne.
[Applause]
Mme Tremblay: Micheline is a past President of the CIA and the first woman to hold that
position. Micheline is a Fellow of the CIA, a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, and a member of
the American Academy of Actuaries, 1995. Micheline was recently elected to the Executive
Council of the International Actuarial Association. She is the Chair of the IAA Accounting
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Committee dealing with IFRS 4 Phase II issues, and is responsible for developing an IAA
standard on the subject.
Micheline currently serves on the CIA Participation to the IAA Committee, and the designated
group leading the development of the actuarial standards related to IFRS 4. She is the past chair
of our International Relations Council. Micheline has twice served on the CIA Board and was a
member of the Actuarial Standards Board for four years. Micheline Dionne was senior vicepresident and chief actuary for RGA Canada, a life reinsurance company operating in Canada
since 1992. In addition to being a Montréal-based member of the senior management team,
she was also responsible for business development in Québec and the Maritimes and
developing new lines of business.
M. Tremblay: Mesdames et messieurs, Micheline Dionne.
[Applause]
Micheline et moi ont été bénévoles pendant plusieurs années sur des commissions de l’Institut
canadien des actuaires. J’ai un énorme respect pour Micheline. Micheline a de l’énergie, elle est
efficace, elle est très bonne à être capable d’arriver à des compromis lors de situations très
délicates. I’m extremely proud of Micheline and all the great accomplishments she has done
serving the CIA. Please join me in congratulating her one more time.
[Applause]
I forgot, I also refer to her as our First Lady. Notre Première dame. She was the only one who
was elected . . .
Micheline Dionne: Not the last one, I hope. I'm looking forward to the next one. J’ai hâte à la
prochaine.
M. Tremblay: All this to say she has enormous shoes for everyone to try to fill and we’re
extremely proud that she was the first lady President of the CIA. Thank you, Micheline.
[Applause]
Micheline Dionne: Je ne sais pas si vous savez, mais il n’y a pas d’obligations pour un président
de donner un Prix du président. There’s no obligation to give that prize, there’s not even an
expectation, there’s not been a tradition, it’s been given from time to time, but so it was
definitely a surprise to receive that call and be offered it, I guess. But what I want to reflect on
is, and for me, how much generosity it takes from Jacques to recognize like that, colleagues. I
think it reflects this prize on what I've done but also very much on who’s . . . and looking at the
fact that we are six, how much generosity Jacques has, and I cannot help but thinking that this
is a mark of a really great leader. So my sincere thanks to you, Jacques.
[Applause]
Speaker Simard: Now, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to commence the
change of office ceremony. Our first speaker will be Jacques Lafrance, Immediate Past President
of the CIA. Before I turn over to Jacques, let me share a few brief remarks about M. Lafrance.
Pour ceux d’entre vous qui avez tenté du droit, vous avez sûrement entendu parler de la notion
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d’homme raisonnable du Code civil. Si j’avais à personnifier l’homme raisonnable, je peux vous
dire, en tant que directeur général qui a travaillé avec Jacques pendant trois ans et qui l’a vu
aussi au Conseil, qu’on n’est pas trop trop loin du compte. Jacques personifies rigour, a dry
sense of humour, and a very, very, very sound judgment.
Jacques, it has been an honour to work with you and to be a part of your journey, your threeyear journey, and it allows me to also send a message to the CIA membership. Power could be
heavy and the burden of a crown is often difficult to bear, but for those of you who think of
assuming CIA leadership remember that there’s a group of very dedicated people at the officer
level that are there to support you. There’s a group of 700 dedicated volunteers and 25 firstclass staff that are there to bring your dream, your vision, into operation and more important
things. There are 5,000 dedicated Canadian actuaries that are there to support all of your
actions.
[Applause]
I will ask you, ladies and gentlemen, to join me in welcoming Jacques Lafrance, who will now
provide his tribute to our outgoing President Jacques Tremblay. Jacques.
[Applause]
Speaker Jacques Lafrance: Hello, everybody. I could do an address about thanking all the
people who worked with me and helped me during my mandate, but I was asked only to limit
my speech about Jacques Tremblay. So the title of my address is: Who Really Is Jacques
Tremblay? Now I have your attention. A few years ago, I didn’t know anything about M.
Tremblay. I happened to get to know Jacques due to his involvement on the Practice Council, if I
remember correctly. Lorsque j’ai appris que Jacques se portait candidat au poste de président,
je me suis dit : « Ouin, comment ça va être avec ce gars d’assurance-là? » Il a été élu, vous
l’avez choisi, alors ne me blâmez pas. My expectations were very low because I didn’t know
much about Jacques, but Jacques, you managed to exceed by far my expectations, but
remember—the bar was quite low.
Being forced to work with Jacques, I soon realized the quality of this man. He is very dedicated,
passionate; people who work with him, and live with him, know he’s very passionate. As we
have seen yesterday, he’s very well-organized and sometimes can be very funny. Mais ce qui
m’a le plus surpris au sujet de Jacques, c’est sa renommée dans le monde de l’assurance-vie.
Quand on a fait le tour du Canada, on a rencontré des employeurs, des assureurs, des
organismes de réglementation, puis à chaque fois qu’on rencontrait des gens de l’assurance :
« Oh Jacques! Bonjour Jacques. » Everybody knows Jacques, and it seems like I was going with a
star, the star of insurance; I was jealous. I said that Jacques was passionate, it’s true about the
well-being of our profession, but it’s also true about other things like hockey and football. He’s
a huge fan of the Montréal Canadiens, and also a huge fan of the Toronto Argos, so Montréal,
Toronto—I wonder if he’s ready to go to national politics.
The question I ask myself, what will be his legacy at the end of his presidential mandate?
Obviously, we’ll all remember yesterday’s video, but also, let’s not forget that he’s the one who
started the monthly videos by the President—the monthly message that we have to suffer—so
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future Presidents will be stuck with that tradition. One word about the President’s Award. One
thing, one part of your legacy, is now the bank is empty—with six nominations, the bank is
empty, so good luck, future Presidents.
One thing I have to say about his mandate, we can say that the General List is “as alive as it has
never been”. Et aussi que nos positions publiques n’ont jamais autant créé d’intérêt. I
mentioned about depleting our bank of candidates for President’s Award, but I will also note
that at the end of this mandate our financial reserves will have decreased by 50%, but I'm sure
that’s for the benefit of our organization.
Seriously, you’ve done an awesome job. For those who know Jacques, he likes the word
“awesome”—he’ll say, “Awesome, awesome.” It’s awesome, so yes, you did an awesome job.
So you’ve set the bar very high for future Presidents. En résumé, je dirais tout simplement,
Jacques est parfait. Jacques, j’ai vraiment apprécié travailler avec toi. Tu as fait un travail
formidable. Tu as été un gars formidable puis on a eu bien du fun ensemble. One thing I have to
say, yesterday you said there was a mention about the good Jacques and the bad Jacques;
obviously you understand that I’m the bad Jacques, he’s the good Jacques. Now that I’m
leaving, there’s no need to have the good Jacques and bad Jacques, so I have a proposal to
make. Now we have “super Jacques”. OK, I am Jacques Lafrance, and I say, I am proud to have
worked with Jacques Tremblay.
[Applause]
Et pour terminer, un merci très personnel à Jacques et à Theresa, ça a été une superbe année,
puis bonne chance. I would say on behalf of the whole Canadian profession, thank you very
much.
[Applause]
M. Tremblay : Merci Monsieur Lafrance. On a eu beaucoup de plaisir à s’agacer entre good
Jacques and bad Jacques over the last year. This man is quite something. I used the expression
at the past Presidents’ dinner, that “sage”, and any time the General List was quite alive during
my year, which is fine—I have no difficulty with people being vocal, and I think we dealt with it
fairly well. But he was always one of the first persons I would call to get his advice on how to
deal with tough issues, and so I thank you very, very much for your support.
[Applause]
Hello, everyone. My name is Jacques Tremblay and I’m President of the CIA. It just feels great to
say it one last time. I’m just minutes away from handing the job to Rob Stapleford, a very
capable and passionate leader who takes on our tremendous agenda and will finish up the 50 th
anniversary celebration.
Quand on me demande si j’ai aimé être président, je réponds toujours oui. J’ai adoré
enregistrer des vidéos pour vous, présider des réunions du Conseil d’administration, accueillir
nos collègues du North American Actuarial Council à Victoria, donner des présentations au
Conseil d’administration de la Society of Actuaries, assister aux célébrations du
100e anniversaire de la Casualty Actuarial Society et accomplir des activités de communication
externes. I had a blast, which clearly left me speechless. We just completed a very successful
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election: more than 14,000 members voted, pushing the voter turnout to 32.6%, which is the
highest we’ve ever had. My congratulations to Dave Dickson on becoming the President-elect
and to the others who are now in their roles as Board members.
The enthusiasm and drive had a huge impact on the success of the Research Committee over
the last two years. My special thanks and those of our members to those Board members who
completed their term of office two days ago.
Next is a bit of my list of wows this year. We had 5,000 members, we had 1,400+ attendees in
March on our anniversary on our 50th anniversary webcast; that was awesome. We created
great ad campaigns, especially the birthday cake one, which you would have seen I used for my
six President’s Awards. Clearly a sold-out meeting and gala. Didn’t we have an awesome time
last night? We actually rocked. That was awesome; that was really awesome.
[Applause]
Yeah, I do use that word a bit, I think. I’m very impressed as well about the Back 2 School
initiative; we reached out to more than 1,000 students—high school students, that is—and 20
of our actuaries participated. We need to do that more; we have an awesome career and we
need to tell the young students that this is the way to go. We gave away the first scholarship
award and we saw the first recipient yesterday. I think he’s going to buy a phone first. What he
does with the money is up to you, up to him. We are now giving to the Actuarial Foundation of
Canada $30,000 a year in funding from the CIA and they’re doing a multitude of great things in
collaboration with us; I’m very proud of that too.
Finally, we had a clean audit, so thanks John Dark and Jacques Leduc for not putting me in
trouble.
Let me speak about volunteers for a second. I say it often, volunteers are our life blood. Je suis
reconnaissant envers chacun d’entre vous, de vous être portés bénévoles au Conseil
d’administration, d’avoir contribué aux quatre directions ou d’avoir participé aux activités de
commissions, de sous-commissions ou de groupes de travail. Plus de 500 d’entre vous sont en
train de laisser votre marque et plusieurs autres sont actifs dans plus d’un groupe. Sans vous,
l’Institut n’existerait plus.
Recently the Board agreed to create a new Volunteer Management Committee to provide more
assistance to chairs in recruiting, staffing, planning to promote the involvement of younger
members and to establish an assessment program to find strong performers. These changes will
have a very positive impact on the Institute.
Le bénévolat m’a donné une connaissance approfondie des sujets actuariels importants et je
mets ce savoir à profit pour aider à modeler la pratique actuarielle canadienne. Le bénévolat
offre un excellent ratio risque-bénéfice. Le bénévolat est vital; j’espère que vous vous rendez
compte de l’occasion que vous avez de grandir sur le plan professionnel lorsque vous vous
impliquez auprès d’un groupe de travail, d’une commission ou d’une direction.
Next I’d like to talk about our public position. We can become more visible and respected by
contributing risk analysis and insight. We can show why actuaries are the ideal professionals to
assess and manage risk. We can promote the actuarial profession and raise awareness of the
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high-quality analysis and advice our profession delivers. This means that actuaries in the CIA
must contribute to media and policy dialogue; the CIA needs to be more vocal in presenting its
views and bringing facts and deep analysis to the discussions. Individual members must write
articles and engage with the media and put forward their own view. Rob Brown does it, Fred
Vettese does it, Jacques Boudreau used to do and hopefully he’ll do it again. We as a profession
need to this more often.
With respect to research, the Board is very committed to research to increase our profile and to
fill our public positions, close to 10% of our annual revenue is spent on research. The dots can
be connected between research, actuarial expertise, and public policy. We created a Task Force
on Genetic Testing, commissioned research from Bob Howard which led to meeting provincial
privacy commissioners, and meetings with the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and
with the Federal Privacy Commissioner himself, on the way to testify at the Senate Standing
Committee on Human Rights regarding Bill S-201, an act to prohibit and prevent genetic
discrimination. We have also partnered with the AAA, the CAS, and the SOA to create the
Actuaries Climate Index that has caught the attention of the U.S. Insurance Commissioner, the
World Bank, and the IFoA.
With respect to the international scene, the Canadian actuarial standards of practice are
positively recognized worldwide and I did say that in my rant yesterday, and I meant it. Actually
I meant everything that was in my rant, to be honest. The CIA has been a strong supporter of
the need for robust standard-setting capability, which will position the world’s actuarial
profession to be a full participant in the development of global practices. We need to continue
to have a strong international representation. There are clear benefits in achieving greater
global consistency in measurement of actuarial risk. We must bring the best of Canadian
actuarial expertise to the international tables like the IAA.
With respect to education, the Canadian education system continues to be based on the
International Actuarial Association’s syllabus. It aligns with the educational requirements of the
CAS syllabus and the SOA syllabus, but it is uniquely defined in Canadian terms as a stand-alone
education system leading to the ACIA and the FCIA designation. The following are just some of
our achievements in education this year: the creation of the CIA’s first proprietary education
syllabus; our first-principle review of the University Accreditation Program after its first three
years; more than 200 UAP exemptions have been granted and more to come; 11 universities
have been accredited. We also have established a code of conduct for CIA candidates and we
conducted a CPD analysis to better serve member needs in continuing education.
L’ICA et l’Association nationale des étudiants en actuariat ont aussi une longue histoire de
partenariat. L’ANÉA célèbre ses 25 ans en 2015, tout comme nous célébrons notre
50e anniversaire. L’ICA valorise sa relation avec l’ANÉA et nous sommes constamment à la
recherche de nouveaux moyens d’appuyer les étudiants en actuariat ainsi que les programmes
universitaires au Canada.
Finally, I’m very proud and grateful for what we’ve accomplished together over the last year. I
want to congratulate and thank Rob Stapleford, Jacques Lafrance, and Michel Simard, my fellow
Board members and volunteers, and the Head Office staff, for their support and constant effort
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to help us accomplish our strategic plan. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve you.
Thank you.
[Applause]
It’s been a pleasure; a real, real, real pleasure. I’m very proud to be a Fellow of the CIA. Je suis
très fier d’être un Fellow de l’Institut canadien des actuaires. I like that one clearly, but it’s been
such a rewarding year, so thank you very much. Having said that, I’d like to introduce my good
friend Rob Stapleford.
[Applause]
Speaker Rob Stapleford: Je suis un actuaire canadien, and I’m darn proud of it.
[Applause]
Following up on Jacques Lafrance’s remarks, Jacques Tremblay leaves big shoes to fill. But at
this meeting, the hat’s been the thing and I can’t fill that hat, so I’ve got my own hat.
[Applause]
The only word of advice I got with this hat is, “Don’t wear it internationally because walking
around with a CIA hat is not good for your health.” It’s been an amazing last couple of days for
me, I’m sure it has been for you, to see all of the past Presidents here. I’ve retired and I can
think back during my working career, seeing all of these folks leading the CIA, making major
contributions in business. I respected them; some were my mentors and guides and it just
reminds me what a great legacy and responsibility I have to fill, to fulfil, and it’s my
commitment to all of you, I’ll do my best job to hold our legacy very high.
But what I’d like to do now would be to say my few words about Jacques Lafrance and Jacques
Tremblay. One of the responsibilities of the past President and President is to train the
incoming person and help them be ready for this year. Jacques involved me in all the major
discussions and debates, and was a good role model with his energy, his patience, his firmness
when it was required, and his gracious approach to things. So Jacques leaves a big hat, big
shoes to fill. He did a wonderful job, so congratulations, Jacques.
[Applause]
Jacques Lafrance and I never did really get the good and the bad Jacques, but I didn’t need to
get it. Jacques Lafrance m’a transmis l’essentiel de sa sagesse et de son expérience. Merci
beaucoup Jacques.
[Applause]
Je tiens également à reconnaître Michel Simard, notre directeur général, ainsi que tous les
membres du personnel du siège social de l’Institut pour leurs efforts soutenus tout au long de
l’année. J’anticipe avec enthousiasme de travailler encore une fois étroitement avec vous
durant l’année à venir.
[Applause]
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Jacques outlined much of the progress we made in the past year in terms of achieving the
strategic goals of the Institute, and they include, just to reiterate them very quickly, ensuring
that the profession continues to contribute to the public debates where we can make a
contribution, to increase the level of engagement of our members, to promote the FCIA and
ACIA designations and ensuring our education system, both initial and ongoing, enables current
and future generations of actuaries to practice effectively and meet the expectations and trust
of our public.
So as the CIA starts its next 50 years, I look forward to working with the Board but also with
actuaries across the country to build upon the strength created by prior generations of CIA
leaders. I thought that I would just pick on three issues that I think are particularly important
for the next year, and as I thought about them, they could actually all be categorized into one
general theme, and that’s to harness the collective efforts and collective expertise of all of us to
help contribute to the future and current financial programs that impact Canadians. So I’ve got
three that I wanted to talk about and to the people back at the translation booth, I apologize
because I’m going to digress just a little bit from the written remarks that you have, but unlike
Rex Murphy it’s only one digression because I’d probably get lost if I tried to do any more.
The first one was pensions, and so you can imagine how I felt this morning when Jeff Simpson
got up and said, “Well pensions, they don’t discuss issues in elections and don’t think that
you're going to have a big impact”, but I think that that did not lead to the conclusion that we
should fold up our tent and go home. I think they actually talked about it later on; it means that
we have to be very purposeful and very directional in how we go about it that we still can make
a contribution.
You know, this may be the perfect storm for pensions. Consider the number of issues that are
underway now and where the Institute and its members are making significant contributions.
There are new funding rules that are coming down in the province of Québec. Michel StGermain, Jacques Lafrance, among others, have been actively meeting with the Régie to
establish an appropriate actuarial basis. Ontario—my province—is actually considering the
Ontario Retirement Pension Plan. Last December, Ian Edelist, Jason Vary, Elliot Hughes, and
their government relations team and I met with the minister and it was a very positive and
healthy discussion. I think it was ended on the basis—even though they’re going to engage a
private actuarial firm, I think they’ve actually already done so—they want to stay in touch with
the profession, because we are respected and they want to hear what we have to say.
We’ve got the introduction to broader rules on target benefit pensions plans. In the report of
the CIA’s Task Force on Target Benefit Plans, led by Barbara Saunders, is an excellent analysis,
and I’ve been to several meetings with provincial pension regulators and they’re all anxiously
waiting to see what the CIA had to say on that important topic.
And there’s the recent announcement by the federal government to have a consultation on the
voluntary expansion of the Canada Pension Plan. Jacques and Michel and I, Michel St-Germain,
and Elliot, went up to meet with the political parties, and we had a good discussion about
pension policy. Don’t know how big an issue it will be in the upcoming election, to follow up
from what Jeff said, but I felt very positive that we can make a contribution. All of this has to be
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wrapped up within the whole question of people living longer, the mortality study that we did
that actually measures how long people are living, and that can certainly be a warning for
governments in terms of how they go about things.
So if you go back to what Jeff Simpson and the other journalists finished with today, they made
the point that an organization with expertise and independence can make, indeed, a valuable
contribution. At the CIA we have lots of expertise as Jacques noted. We’re spending an awful
lot more money on research and we’ll try to coordinate our research effort with public policy
issues to ensure we get the maximum bang for our buck. The creation of the Committee on
Public Positions, the government relations person, new policy on public positions, means that
we are ready to act. I think the message from this morning is yes, be ready to act, take a
position, stand up and be counted, but do it with clear and good thought, because there are a
lot of issues out there.
The next issue is just attaining greater consensus within our profession. I noted in our strategic
plan that we were striving to increase member engagement; we want people to be involved.
Part of that then involves listening to people. It’s something I said a year ago in my introductory
remarks, and it’s clear from recent discussions that we do need to communicate better and
more effectively as we move into new areas of activity, such as climate change. We also need to
talk about what it means to serve the public, as defined in our first guiding principle.
We need to have a better understanding of how we can communicate effectively among
ourselves. We’ve had lots of discussions around the listservers and such, and some challenges
with that. That’s an effective tool, I believe in it, but we have to have appropriate respect and
good conduct on it to make it the tool that we need so that we can indeed get input in a timely
manner, and also then all the work I mentioned on the creation of public positions. So we’ve
made lots of progress, more is required, but I would like to note just the Committee on Public
Positions under Mike Hale’s leadership has developed a new policy on public positions and his
committee approved a whole bunch of existing CIA positions and several new positions. I
sincerely believe that the CIA is much better structured and positioned to make thoughtful and
timely contributions in the public policy area.
Caterina Lindman spoke to the Board and spoke in a session about the actuaries climate index
and the actuaries climate risk index, and this will be released fairly soon. You’ll see some
publicity around it when some of the legals get sorted out, but here’s another opportunity
again, if we use the opportunity wisely, to make a contribution in public policy. It just shows
that we have the skills, the toolkits, we just have to make sure that we go about it in a
thoughtful way.
I’m happy to say that the Board listened to the comments that came up earlier this year in that
whole discussion around climate change. The Board agenda, on Tuesday, had a good discussion
about the CIA’s approach to establishing public policy; it was a healthy debate. But I think it’s
safe to say that the Board supports the CIA taking an active and informed role in the
development of public policy, but also being willing to look at our Bylaws, for example, so that
that discussion has led the Board to ask the Governance Committee to take a look at Bylaw
19.01, so that we have set our policy in place and we’re open enough to look at things when we
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DÉLIBÉRATIONS DE L’INSTITUT CANADIEN DES ACTUAIRES
JUNE 2015 ANNUAL MEETING – OTTAWA (LU-2)
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do get comments from members. I fully expect that the Board will have lots more discussions
on the fundamental issues of serving the public and increasing member engagement in the
coming year. The CIA is only going to succeed if we’re all on board working together.
The last was volunteer management and Jacques mentioned that there are over 500, I think it’s
close to 550, volunteers. We did an analysis of our committees and the number of people that
are required to fill the current list of volunteer spots, that’s around 800. We have over 5,000
members, so we have the opportunity and perhaps even the responsibility to take and manage
our volunteer effort to make good use of people and make sure that the volunteer experience
is a very positive one. I think through our employer outreach, we want to get that message out
to employers, maybe then more willing to allow people to serve in volunteer capacity when
they realize that, one, they are making a contribution, and two, they come back to head office
with hopefully some additional skillsets in their toolkits.
So the world is busy, the CIA must compete for the time and energy of its volunteers. I think
with the Volunteer Management Committee, we are well-positioned to do so. That committee
will help chairs in their planning, their recruiting, succession planning, will support the
development of volunteers as they take on greater responsibility, and plan for the future. Then
in identifying ways to make our committee structure even more efficient; for example, perhaps
a task force will suffice rather than a standing committee.
So making progress on these and other important issues will require leadership from the Board
and the support of our members. I look forward to working with all of you in that endeavour as
we start the CIA’s journey in its next 50 years in a manner that will make us proud, not only
about what we have done but what we will continue to do in the future. Merci beaucoup.
Thank you.
[Applause]
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE OF ACTUARIES
Vol. 46, June 2015