Greetings Real Property Community,
I am truly honoured to be writing to the community as your ADM Champion. As you heard from RPIC’s President in the inaugural newsletter, your work is critically important to Canadians.
In my own role as Vice-President, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer at National Research Council (NRC), I oversee the operations of the Finance and Procurement Services, Client Service Centre, Real Property and Planning and Management, Health, Safety and the Environment, Information Technology as well as Security branches.
Each day, I see the important work you do. This is why I am driven to promote professional development for this community and volunteer with RPIC to ensure there is a forum for us to exchange knowledge that recognizes and enriches the profession as well as celebrates the achievements of this unique community.
This is also why I, in conjunction with RPIC’s President, am passionate about the importance of collaboration and advocacy in real property to address current challenges facing this community and more globally the Government of Canada in support of Canadians.
Many of you will have heard or read that the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, John Hannaford has said “Our ability to innovate and solve complex problems comes from collaborative teamwork and from the combined skills and perspectives of public servants from diverse backgrounds.”
And he also notes that this means collaboration not just across the federal family but with other levels of government and other sectors.
As a public servant, I see the opportunity and benefit of collaboration every day. For example, the NRC has major facilities on university campuses across the country where we work with academia as well as public and private partners to achieve amazing outcomes. Just recently I was in Montreal and visited the Biologics Manufacturing Centre which was built in less than a year during the pandemic – with the support of key public and private sector partners I might add – and is now operated by a not-for-profit organization supported by a collaborative agreement with the NRC. All of this has been enabled by real property professionals like you who continue to demonstrate a commitment to collaboration to deliver services to Canadians.
RPIC has always been a proponent of collaboration and advocacy and you will see more of this; from issues such as those being addressed today, to advocating on behalf of the community to protect professional development funding, to pursuing equal profile as other professional associations to ensure you and your teams are provided top quality learning opportunities while shining a light on the critical role real property professionals play every day in support of Canadian Crown-owned assets.
Never has the real property community been such an integral component to moving the federal government’s agenda forward. Our work is complementary to ongoing efforts to drive progress on other important priorities such as sustainability, accessibility, workplace wellness, community housing, adaptive reuse of crown-owned property and/or empowering through technology
Collaboration and advocacy with YOU and for YOU, that is what you can expect from RPIC, its Board members, its Senior Advisory Council and me, as your ADM Champion.
As your ADM Champion, I pledge to continue promoting the critical role the real property community plays in support of serving Canadian. You can expect that I will continue to underscore the importance of professional development opportunities to provide you with the competencies needed not just for today but for the future.
To conclude, I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on how RPIC is doing and welcome your ideas. If you would like to volunteer, or share best practices and celebrate success, be sure to contact us!
I look forward to continuing to work with RPIC to advocate and to find ways to best serve the real property community’s needs.
Best Regards,
