Retirement Speech: Brandon Land Titles Office

RETIREMENT SPEECH – for August 29, 2011
In 2005, I put in my notice of retirement to occur on March 31, 2010 and those five years flew by much to my surprise and as the time of retirement drew near I felt that I was not ready for that big step. So as any government employee would do, I requested and was promptly granted a one year extension which was in turn extended for another six months, and then another month. The time has actually arrived and I go with mixed feelings. Many plans that I had have now changed due to the death of my wife, Shay, so I will have to reassess what I will be doing in retirement.
I started with Brandon Land Titles Office on June 6, 1982 and for quite awhile I was not that keen on the work. There wasn’t the training
In 2006, I moved into a newly created classification of ADS. I am not sure what ADS stands for except that it pays more money. The process to finally have this new classification approved by the Civil Service Commission, Compensation Services and the Treasury Board took five years. Through the persistence of Evelyn Elias, the Assistant District Registrar of the MLTO and myself, this process was finally successful. When we initiated the process to create the new classification it was to be specifically for the Assistant District Registrar in the district offices outside of Winnipeg. I don’t think you should be saying this part as it sounds like a dig at people.
The Ottawa Land Titles Office succeeded in converting all of the paper titles to electronic format in March 2009. This has sped up the processing of work tremendously which is why this office can easily maintain its historic one day turnaround.

The Property Registry is in the process of moving forward to a complete makeover and I hope it all works out without too many job losses and to the benefit of existing staff and the
Over the past 45 years in Land Titles, I had the opportunity to work with some very wonderful people. During my 27 year stint at the Quebec Land Titles office, it has been a special pleasure to work with my fellow employees and I will always treasure the camaraderie with them in and outside of the office. I will truly miss you all and know that you will always have a special place in my life.

In spite of the fact that I supervised staff, I always tried to treat the staff as my friends. My approach was to take an interest in them personally and their families which proved to be a valuable insight in respect to performance and compatibility. I am a firm believer that it is better to be considerate of the staff and treat them with respect rather than being a task manager with no personal connection or interest in them. This has proven to build trust and respect amongst the staff which is hopefully one of the reasons that this office runs so smoothly.

I will miss the staff of the Quebec Land Titles Office and our regular clients. Hopefully I can remain in contact with them during my