March 12, 2021

Dear Registrants, 

It’s been just over seven weeks since I joined the College of Naturopathic Physicians of BC and I must say it is both an honour and a privilege to be the new Registrar and CEO. I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my thoughts and observations from these past few weeks.

First, I would like to thank everyone who has reached out to either welcome me or to share thoughts. I would also like to thank our hardworking staff for their briefings and all that they have done to bring me up to speed.

I’ve had several meetings with the Ministry of Health, other health regulators, staff, and of course with the Board. It’s given me an opportunity to develop a greater understanding of the College and to do a bit of gap analysis on areas that could be improved upon to ensure better protection of the public. I’d like to share with you some of the areas that we will be focusing on, as I’m sure you’re interested.

One area of focus is improving our IT system and policies. We have a lot of work to be done in that area so we can all access more information faster and more easily. I know this is an area of concern to everyone. Trust in these systems is vital to any organization.

We all share the College’s mandate of public safety. To that end, a number of people have asked about my thoughts on amalgamation. Looking forward, we know it will happen and it will be sooner rather than later. We do not know with whom CNPBC will be partnered, but we do know that the Ministry of Health wants to decrease the number of colleges.

There is a lot we can do that will be helpful to our amalgamated future. Staff will be intensively involved on the operational side of planning for amalgamation and the Board will focus on the governance side. We all want to ensure that amalgamation has the best possible outcomes for the profession and for the public. These two are entwined. We’ll be doing a deep dive and strategizing on how to do this well.

There are many things to consider as the way we function as an organization will change. It will mean working collaboratively with other professions while ensuring that we continue to do our job of protecting the public. It will be a long process. We know there will be a lot of work and we know that it will take some time.

As we keep our focus on the protection of the public let me also assure you of my respect for the profession.

I look forward to seeing many of you, virtually, at the upcoming AGM and hearing your thoughts on the issues of the day. I know this past year has been difficult for many of us on so many levels, both personally and professionally. Now that we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel, we can look forward and focus on issues taking us beyond the pandemic.

Regards, 

Carina Herman
Registrar and CEO