Ministry Meets With COTBC Board

Ministry Meets With COTBC Board to Reinforce Good Governance

On January 26, 2018, Ministry of Health representatives attend the board meeting to discuss regulatory governance and role clarity. The goal of the session was to reinforce the College’s mandate of regulating in the public’s interest. The key message was “Good governance is key to building a foundation to effectively protect the public.” The presenters were Mark MacKinnon, Executive Director for Professional Regulation and Oversight at the Ministry of Health, and Bradley Chisholm, Director of Strategy for the College of Registered Nurses of BC, formerly of the Watson Group.

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Registrar Kathy Corbett (left) with Board Member Carin Plischke as she takes her oath.

In preparation for the meeting, the presenters reviewed College Board and governance documents. At the beginning of Bradley’s presentation he commended the College Board for its Board Evaluation Framework. He confirmed this was an important indicator of good governance and congratulated COTBC as it is often a challenge to implement a board evaluation process.

Sample Consent OrderThe Health Professions Act requires each board member to take an oath of office. Coincidentally three board members were to do so at this meeting. Mark and Bradley were able to witness Carin Plischke, Debbie Ruggiero, and Jeff Boniface take their oaths. This is not a symbolic action but signals that the board member’s motivation and responsibility to protect the public is paramount. Mark reinforced that board members are responsible for monitoring and overseeing the organizational leadership and ensuring the processes for public protection are in place.

In addition to reviewing role clarity, i.e. the College is not in place to represent or promote the profession, Mark ended with a list of important trends to monitor and consider strategically. Of particular interest to COTBC were those focused on board composition and the ratio of public members to registrant members, public engagement and transparency, inter-professional collaboration, and pan-jurisdictional regulation.

With respect to governance Bradley highlighted trends such as increase attention on a competency-based recruitment process for board members, investment in board evaluation, orientation and education, and attention to CEO evaluation and development.

It was a full day. The Board was grateful for the presentation and looks forward to continuing its efforts for ensuring excellence in good governance.

For more information about the session or COTBC, email info@cotbc.org, or call: 1 (250) 386-6822.