President’s Report – October 2026

It has been a busy first quarter for ACER-CART! The following committees have met to prepare for the upcoming year: Executive, Finance, Communications, Pension and Retirement Income, Health Services, Western Conference, and Eastern Conference. The first Board of Directors meeting will be on November 16. Briefing Notes from that meeting will be available on the website in Board of Directors found in COMMUNICATIONS.

My name is Lawrence Hrycan and I am ACER-CART’s newly elected president. Thank you to everyone in ACER-CART for their trust in me as I take on the role of President. In order to have a position in ACER-CART, I had to be nominated and supported by the ARTA Board of Directors. I thank them for their support.

There are challenges to being a national non-profit organization. This year, the President is from Alberta, the Vice-President, Sharon Penney, lives in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Treasurer and Communications Chair, Helen Sukovieff hails from Saskatchewan, and the Executive Director, Bill Berryman is from Nova Scotia. Katherine Snow, from Quebec, is the Health Services Chair; the Pension and Retirement Income Chair, Jayesh Maniar, is from Manitoba; and the Political Advocacy Chair, Bob Fitzpatrick, lives in New Brunswick.

As you can imagine, the logistics of coordinating Executive, Board, and Committee meetings can be a challenge. Bill Berryman has done an excellent job of doing this. The Committee Chairs and Eastern and Western Representatives have also shown their commitment to ACER-CART by organizing their meetings.

Thank you to ARTA for taking the reins while we were without an Executive Director. Bill, along with the Executive Committee, is slowly getting things in order. CRA updates, budget updates, and banking changes are a few of many things that have to be done. We are all new to our positions this year. Bill has the most experience and I am glad he has taken on the role of Executive Director.

Most of our meetings are by Zoom. Every second year we have in-person Regional Conferences. In 2027, the Eastern Regional Conference is in Halifax, and the Western Regional Conference is in Winnipeg. An AGM is held every year, with one year being by Zoom, and every second year, in-person. In June 2026, the AGM was held in Vancouver.

Remember: ACER-CART exists as a National Voice on Canadian Senior issues only if the Provincial Associations continue to support the organization.

Lawrence Hrycan

ACER-CART President