Letter to BCPA Members - April 20/2010
20-Apr-10

To BCPA Members


As you probably already know, the legal action that Al Potter, Ken Eng and the BCPA had initiated with the Bank of Canada has been discontinued. This means that essentially, this course of action is terminated, fortunately with no costs charged to Al, Ken or the BCPA.



However, the termination of the legal action, along with discussions held at the last annual general meeting, mean that we now must consider the future of the BCPA. The BCPA was originally created, in some large measure, to provide a formal way for the legal action against the Bank to proceed and to provide support to Al and Ken (and of course Al Bouchard) who had agreed to take on the role of representative plaintiffs on behalf of all Bank pensioners.

The Executive Committee has noted the waning interest in the BCPA in recent years as measured by: the considerable lack of participation at annual general meetings; non-activity on the website; absence of volunteers coming forward to support the association; and, declining membership. For example, at the last annual general meeting held in October 2008, only 17 members participated and of that number, none were willing to step forward to replace members of the Executive Committee who had completed their terms.

Therefore, the interim Executive Committee is proposing a special meeting, to be held in conjunction with the annual spring retirees’ luncheon. The purpose of the meeting will be to:

Ø Discuss and determine the future of the BCPA;

Ø Confirm the requirement to wind-up the Litigation Fund and refund the contributions of those members who had contributed money to the fund;

Ø Confirm that those members who had pledged additional funds in the event that they were required for the legal action are released from that obligation;

Ø Depending on the discussion of the future of the BCPA determine and if necessary, approve an appropriate approach for handling the money currently in the association’s Operating Account;

Ø Discuss and decide on an appropriate form of recognition for the commitment and courage of Al Potter and Ken Eng for accepting the role of representative plaintiff.

Does the BCPA have a future? If yes, what is that future? If no, then how do we efficiently wind-up the association’s affairs. To answer these questions the Executive Committee invites all BCPA members to attend a special meeting on May 12, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at the Ottawa Curling Club.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting and to a lively and interesting discussion.

Feel free to reply with comments or suggestions on the web-site.