It almost doesn’t seem possible that another year has come and gone already. On behalf of the RMA Canada Board of Directors I would like to extend our best wishes to you for what we hope will be a prosperous and healthy New Year.

I would also like to thank you for the continued support you show for your Association, without which we would not be able to effectively represent the receivables management industry as we do. Through that support we had a very busy, yet successful 2018, including all our government relations work, hosting our second annual golf social and another well attended conference.

We were very active with our government relations activities and our success is having an impact at both the Federal and Provincial levels in Canada. We have been invited to various meetings with the Federal regulators, Ontario Ministry and Service Alberta. Under Steve Sheather’s continued leadership, the RMA has been successful in becoming a recognized voice for the receivables management industry within the various levels of Government. We attended several private meetings with Ontario officials consulting on two specific Bills that will have impacts on our industry and I am glad to say we did affect influence on a number of specific regulations that came into effect. We also made an initial presentation to the Treasury Board, speaking to them on modernizing the receivables management approaches taken by the Ontario Government and have been invited back for more detailed talks in the next several weeks. We were also invited by the Minister of Service Alberta to participate in an industry event entitled “Encouraging Innovation in Alberta’s Credit Industry”. We not only participated in the discussions of the day, but we also had the chance to meet and establish relations with several Ministry staff and regulators.

We twice brought together members and friends of the Association; first our Annual AGM and Social Event, which was well attended and allowed us to move the business of the RMA forward with the participation of members in the establishment of revised guidelines along with the validation and support of our initiatives. Secondly, at our Annual Conference in November, which we moved to the Toronto Hilton. The new facilities were impressive and very well received, we had very good attendance and a record level of Sponsorship for the event. I would like to once again thank all our Sponsors and in particular our Title Sponsor – Equifax and our Champion Sponsor – Score Statistical.

Additionally, at the conference we held a silent auction in order to begin funding our new scholarship/outreach program. The event was a success in that we raised $2400 for the program. Thank you to all of you who participated in the auction your support is greatly appreciated. A special thank you for those who donated auction items: Score Statistical, American Lawyers Company, Razor Capital, Metropolitan Credit Adjusters, Kingston Data & Credit, Gatestone Company, KRMC Law, National Credit Recovery, AJS Canada, Common Collections, Dion Consulting, Cleanlist, Groupe Solution Collect, Pentor Finance, Equifax and Chris Winkler.

Now on to 2019, we will continue with the above-mentioned activities and initiatives and we encourage you to get involved in your Association, through volunteer opportunities and continued participation. Important dates to remember: AGM and Social Event, May 29th, Royal Woodbine Golf Course and Annual Conference, November 13th and 14th, Toronto Hilton. I look forward to seeing you at both events!

“Talk” with you soon!

Dale Leslie
President, RMA Canada