A strong voice for BC

by Eric J Rice QC

Eric J Rice QC, provided the following report on recent changes to the CBA governance structure.

National Council has adopted a new governance plan to streamline the Association. It was the second run at a ponderous but delicate issue. Six months earlier at the Ottawa National Meeting, Council agreed in principle with the concept of change, but found the proposal before them difficult to swallow. After that, the steering committee in charge worked out a modified proposal by consensus with the Branch Presidents. The final approved version was the result of further changes, some of them major, imposed after debate by Council at the Victoria Mid-Winter Meeting.

Board of Directors
Council agreed to a new Board of Directors to replace two powerful committees—the 17 member National Executive and 32 member Branch Presidents, Vice Presidents and Executive Directors. The proposed new Board would have brought 33 people to the table.

After extensive debate, and a close vote, an amendment passed, adopting a smaller 21 member Board. At the same time, the Branches were urged to appoint each representative for a two-year term to preserve continuity.

Council
Beginning in the Fall of 1999, Council will stand at 430 members, of which 210 will hold the right to vote, and 220, including Past Presidents, will be non-voting. The number of seats per province is set by a formula based on the member population, subject to a minimum threshold for the small Branches such as the Territories and PEI. The largest Branches, BC and Ontario, give up strict proportional representation to facilitate broad participation, but the concession is by no means excessive.

BC now has 54 seats - 27 voting and 27 non-voting members. BC controls 20 per cent of the votes on Council (up from 17 per cent under the old formula). Only Ontario, with 29 per cent, has more.

History shows that our Branch is continually the source of strong representation on National Committee. Thus, we are likely to also occupy a great many of the designated positions, and thereby add to our impact on any vote. It will be for us to keep up that momentum.

Officers
Executive Officers will now include a second Vice President and no Past President.

Planning
The finance and planning committee will cede to the Board of Directors its planning function and will now report directly to the new Board of Directors instead of to Council.

Conclusion
The new structure, however much an improvement it may seem to be, or seem not to be, is at least aimed in the right direction. For too many years in the past, many of the Branches, notably ours, had felt dissatisfied with the division of responsibilities and funding between the two levels. Lately, there has been a concerted effort to overcome such problems, and this initiative is one of them.

The new system will have to be tested to ensure that it enables us to build and keep the strong, practical, and relevant organization that we want. I hope that members will take an interest in it and say what they think. As for me, I’m optimistic. I have never seen the national bodywork as well with the Branches as it does now. Great credit is due in part to many of our own members who have worked on these improvements. Eric J Rice QC is a member of the National Executive Committee and a partner at Campbell, Froh, May & Rice.

This article was published in the June 1998 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2006, all rights reserved.