I would like to begin by thanking my predecessor Tina Lagacé Rivard for her service as President over the past year. Our immediate past president has set a standard that I will strive to achieve. I know that Tina made many sacrifices, personal and professional, on our behalf during her tenure. Tina participated in meetings both at the national and local levels as well as representing us at numerous ceremonies around the province over the past year. Thank you Tina for all of your hard work and I look forward to having you remain on the executive in the role of past president over the next year.
As we open the chapter on this new term, we are also very excited to acknowledge our own Kevin Haché of Caraquet who recently joined the National Board. I’m sure you all join me in congratulating Kevin and wishing him all the best as he embarks on this challenge.
I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate several of our past presidents on their receipt of the Queens Counsel designation. Recipients included Scott Brittain, Ed Keyes and Deloras O’Neill. Current Counsel Member Rob Dysart was also a recipient. I was honored to represent CBA NB at the ceremony at the Legislative Assembly to offer congratulations to all the recipients on behalf of the profession.
As we embark on a new term for CBA Council and the Executive, an ambitious agenda is forming. Recent deliberations have begun the work of prioritizing our work for the year 2018-2019. Key priorities that have been identified include advocacy, sections and member engagement. An emphasis will be placed on collaborative leadership and relationship building, such as strengthening our relationship with Government, the Law Society of NB, Law Schools, the Judiciary and other stakeholders. Council established the Strategic Priority Implementation Team (SPIT) which is comprised of the executive and members of Council. There will be more information to follow as we begin our work in the coming months.
On the advocacy front, we would like to congratulate the Honorable Andrea Anderson-Mason, Q.C., on her recent appointment as Minister of Justice and Attorney General. We look forward to meeting with the Honorable Minister and the new Deputy Attorney General, John Logan, Q.C. I would like to thank John for his contributions to CBA NB over the last number of years; his willingness to contribute and sage advice has been appreciated.
We recognize the value and importance of Sections and see the opportunity to increase the benefits to members through Sections. We have much to be proud of in the work our Sections achieve, whether in terms of contribution to PD, advocacy or law reform – Sections truly are the life blood of CBA. While we will continue to support Sections as we always have, we believe that Section membership has waned. In an effort to re-ignite Section engagement, we are revising our section enrollment process. In order to accomplish our goal we are calling on all members to complete the new online Section enrollment form before December 31, 2018.
SECTION ENROLLMENT FORM
Capturing your current preferences ensures that you are receiving the information and services for those areas of law that are of most relevant to your practice.
Finally, increased member engagement is the overarching goal of our association for this year. Our goal is to increase Section participation and establish a network within the legal community that ensures our voice is present.