Annual General Meeting
President's Report

Ottawa, May 14, 2010

Bonjour et bienvenue. Il me donne un très grand plaisir d’être ici avec vous ce matin, en tant que Présidente de l’Institut Vanier de la Famille

My name is Verna Bruce and I have the wonderful honour of being the current President of the Institute.

Whoever said family life is never dull knew of what they were speaking. In the time since we last gathered for our Annual General meeting, it has indeed been quite a year for families, both for the country and the Institute.

We have just come through an election campaign, during which promises and platforms for families were front and centre. It was good to see family issues raised in the campaign. We can only hope that when the members of our political families gather in their House, the one up on Parliament Hill, they will be serious about addressing some of the crucial challenges facing Canada’s nearly 9 million families, issues which are extensively documented on the VIF website.

For the Vanier Institute family, it was a year of tremendous creativity. The Institute went into what one might call its Royal Commission mode. When it was created, Governor General Georges Vanier described the Institute as an “on-going Royal Commission” one that was necessary “to investigate and learn all there is to know about the families of Canada in a world of change.”

The Institute has carried out that mandate in many different ways, but perhaps none as important as the study we produce every five years, our status report on the state of family life in Canada. This year’s edition, Families Count – Profiling Canada’s Families IV was released in October, and we think it is the best yet. For that we are indebted to all our staff at the Institute, who put in long hours and extra effort which resulted in a first class piece of work that has prompted increased traffic to our website, and which continues to be a hard-copy best seller for the Institute. Particular thanks go to Katherine Scott, who as the Institute’s Director of Programs, was the lead on this major project.

In addition to Families Count, the Institute, through its quarterly Transition magazine also looked at the impact of the recession on households, family diversity and the many ways in which Canadians are creating and recreating “family”. Our annual report on the state of family finances again received widespread coverage in the media and the monthly, web-based feature, Fascinating Families, covered issues such as retirement, debt, the necessity of two income families, seniors and stepfamilies. All of this was added to the rich array of information available on our website –information that is now much easier to find and use because of another major project.

While everyone else was rebuilding their roads and bridges with stimulus funds, the Vanier staff was busy reconstructing the Institute’s intersection with the information highway. There were, unfortunately, no stimulus dollars for that type of construction. With the Internet as the Institute’s face to most of our stakeholders and the broader global audience, our website was due for a much needed overhaul. A quick coat of paint was not going to be sufficient – we needed some serious structural work. While it took longer than we had expected, the end result was worth the wait. With a new content management system as its backbone and with an improved search engine, we have made navigating through our extensive library more straightforward. We are seeing the results with more visitors spending more time on different pages within the site. Yet to come, some of the next generation of features which make the web more interactive, tools that will allow the Institute to expand its capacity as a convener of dialogue on the future of the family in Canada.

This is such a vital role for the Institute, one that has grown in importance as we have seen many other voices on societal issues either diminished or even silenced by lack of resources. The Vanier Institute is one of the few national, non-partisan and inclusive voices still contributing to the discussion about families, contributing to the knowledge base, and providing facts-based context to the many issues which have an impact on family life.

We are enabled in this role by our Endowment Fund, which, while somewhat bruised by the recession is mending nicely as the economy continues to strengthen. It is a very fortunate situation in which to be, one envied by other organizations in the not-for-profit community. The Institute today is indebted to previous boards and management teams for their careful stewardship of the fund which has allowed the Institute to prosper.

However, even though it provides a sound financial footing in terms of operating revenues for the Institute, it also acts as somewhat of a ceiling, in that it restrains how much we can do, and limits expansion without other sources of funds. A renewed focus on marketing and fundraising will be on Board agendas for the coming years, and we will be studying the findings and recommendations of the Telfer marketing group to see what new initiatives have possibilities for the Institute.        

These annual general meetings are, in the words of Charles Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times.  It is the best of times because we can rightly celebrate the Institute’s accomplishments over the past year, and welcome new members who will bring their ideas and energy to our Board.  We are pleased to welcome Aileen Reid, David Cork and David Northcott to the Institute, and you will hear more about them in a few moments from the Nominations Committee.

But today is also the worst of times, because we are saying good-by to talented individuals who have made such a substantial contribution to this marvelous organization. 

Yesterday at lunch the Board had an opportunity to say thank you to Clarence Lochhead for his leadership of the Institute. We are very grateful for his contribution and deeply appreciate the integrity and compassion he demonstrated during his four years as Executive Director.  As a Senior Fellow of the Institute, and a champion for Canadian families, we know he will continue contributing to our research work in the years ahead. 

Around the Board table, we know we will all miss the strong voices of Jean Fournier, Daurene Lewis, Rollie Thompson and Dan O’Brien.

Jean Fournier has served as the chair of the Executive Committee, and has been a voice of reason, wise counsel, and of course ethical principles around the Board table. This is, in fact, his second departure from the Board. He stepped down a number of years ago when he was posted to Australia as the Canadian High Commissioner. When he returned home, we asked him to renew his relationship with the Institute, and we are thankful he said yes. I am especially grateful to him as Chair of the Executive, and as someone I called on so very often for advice and problem solving.

Daurene Lewis has been a prime ministerial appointee to our Board – and we are fortunate that the PMO chose so wisely. As an educator and policy advocate, Daurene’s observations on issues before the Board always cut right to the heart of the matter. Over the past year, she has shepherded the work of the Human Resources Committee, which has resulted in a  complete re-write and updating of the VIF’s HR policy manual – something which had not been done in many years. It is a solid legacy of accomplishment for which the Institute and its staff are very grateful.

Rollie Thompson has brought a combination of maritime charm, professorial wisdom and lawyerly candor to our Board –although not necessarily in that order.  One always knew where Rollie stood on an issue and his ability to parse complex issues was always valuable in any board discussion.  Rollie has chaired the Program Committee this past year, and has led the transition of programming at our meetings from a small committee into a committee of the whole, which will ensure broader Board participation in this vital aspect of the Institute’s operations.

With Dan O’Brien on our Board, you always had to be at the top of your game. He regularly challenged conventional wisdom, and prompted us to examine questions through different lenses. He made us think hard about the issues before the Board – but what else to expect from a university president emeritus. Dan’s schedule did not allow him to attend his final Vanier Institute meeting but his work on behalf of the Institute has been visible all year. Dan chaired both our Investment Committee and the Nominations Committee – and both dossiers are in excellent shape. As mentioned earlier, the Endowment Fund continues rebound, and we have a superb slate of candidates for the Board.

To each of our departing board members, a deep and sincere thank you for everything you have done on behalf of the Institute.

Also highly deserving of our thanks is our staff: Katherine, Jenni, Jennifer, Sara, Lucie and Paula. All of us around the Board table deeply appreciate the support you provide to us, and the work you do every day on behalf of the Institute, and all who depend on what it does. We know the past year brought with it some challenging times, and each of you has dug deep to get the job done. Merci mille fois.

I would like to take a minute to say a special “Thank You” to Al MacKay, a former President of the Vanier, who has served as the Interim Executive Director of the Institute for the past few months. It is never easy to fill a leadership role on a temporary basis, but Al did it so very well. I was a thousand miles away, but never had to worry that things were humming along at the office, and he accomplished much on many corporate files over that time. He was always there when I needed to bounce ideas off someone, and did all of this while supporting the Executive search process at the same time. There were many long hours, and many volunteer hours, and I appreciate every one of them.

And now we are about to write a new chapter in the history of the Vanier. When Clarence Lochhead stepped down at the end of December, the Board began an intensive process to find the next leader for the Institute. The result of that search is here with us today - our new Chief Executive Officer, Nora Spinks. Nora has already begun the transition which will see her assume full-time responsibilities of the Institute in early June. The reputation of the Vanier Institute attracted the interest of many talented individuals – and as we went through the application and interview process, we became more and more convinced that Nora is the right person to respect and build on the legacy of the past, and bring fresh energy and direction to the Institute as it moves towards its 50^th anniversary in 2015.  

This Institute that has been entrusted to the care of its staff and all who have served with distinction on its many Boards over the years is a unique Canadian treasure. It was created to honour a man trained for war and who saw great devastation when society was at its worst, but whose greatest legacy is the celebration of society at its best – the family. We think that his Excellency would fully support the words of another Excellency—South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who once observed you don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. 

Verna Bruce

President