Retiring TAC Executive Director Gives Farewell Speech

Friday, October 24, 2014

After 15 years of service, Transportation Association of Canada’s (TAC) Executive Director Michel Gravel gave the following farewell speech at the 2014 TAC Conference & Exhibition in September.  Michel retires in early January 2015.

Retiring TAC Executive Director Michel Gravel delivering his farewell speech at 2014 TAC Conference.

This year is special in two ways.  From the Transportation Association of Canada’s perspective, it signals a major milestone with its centennial celebration.  From a personal perspective, 2014 will end a very enjoyable and fulfilling fifteen-year period of employment for me with the organization. 

In April of this year, I informed the TAC Board that, effective early 2015, I will be retiring as TAC Executive Director as well as from all of the other responsibilities that the Board has entrusted to me. These include the role of Secretary of the Councils of Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Transportation and Highway Safety, Director of the TAC Foundation, and Secretary General of the Canadian National Committee of the World Road Association (PIARC).  Rest assured your Board of Directors is working diligently to select my successor prior to my departure and that you will be informed of their decision as soon as possible.

The decision to retire from TAC was not an easy one. I will find it very difficult to leave behind the friends I have made and the colleagues with whom I have both worked with, and learnt from, over the years.  I have been truly blessed with a Board that has shown strong leadership in its strategic direction and the level of trust and confidence it has demonstrated towards me, allowing us to jointly weather some critical times and to grow TAC into the dynamic and successful organization it is today. Of course these successes over the last 15 years would not have been possible without the support and dedication I received from TAC’s members and staff – for that I will always be thankful!

I joined TAC in 1999 at a time when the organization was facing major challenges, including a loss of member confidence amongst a growing number of constituents.  Thankfully, those bleak and challenging times are now behind us and the organization has evolved into the dynamic and successful organization it is today.

As you know, TAC is all about connecting knowledge and people.  Its success is due in large part to the hundreds of passionate volunteers and funders who contribute unselfishly to the organization. Its mission statement acknowledges its road-related expertise and two other key areas in which it has a special interest – linkages between roads and other modes of transportation, as well as urban transportation.

TAC contributes to making Canada’s streets and highways among the safest in the world by facilitating the development of national standards and practices, and by encouraging harmonized regulations.

The organization is widely recognized and respected for the work it does, including research, development of best practices, and knowledge transfer activities such as courses and seminars. 

Furthermore, TAC has long emphasized the need to support students interested in transportation, and has played a pivotal role in educating Canada’s future transportation leaders. For over 60 years, talented Canadian students have benefited from scholarships provided by TAC and, more recently, the TAC Foundation, of which I am proud to have been a founding member and to whom a donation of $3,500 is being made by TAC in my name.

The organization I continue to be passionate about offers many benefits to its members.

Networking opportunities are one of the key benefits of being an active TAC member.  Networking allows professionals from across the country to share experiences and knowledge.  Oftentimes, information can be obtained from colleagues on a particular issue by a simple click of the mouse or a telephone call!

TAC’s annual conference and exhibition is the largest of its kind in Canada and is cited regularly along with TAC’s publications as one of the most valued products offered by the organization.

TAC’s pooled funded projects have been embraced by members and have led to unprecedented levels of activity by TAC’s councils, task forces and committees.

TAC’s communications tools such as the Transportation Intelligence Bulletin, TAC News, and e-blasts, as well as newly introduced technologies such as collaboration platforms and social media allow members to be kept informed, engaged, and abreast of new or emerging methods or issues.

In the future, I am convinced that TAC will continue to remain relevant and of great value to its members.  I see its members tackling a wide range of current, emerging and future challenges in coming years. These include such things as:

  • Canada’s infrastructure deficit and the need for innovative funding methods to address the deficit
  • Implication of new technologies such as driverless cars and real time navigation systems on road safety, roadway design and signage
  • Effects of climate change on infrastructure due to such things as severe weather events and melting of the permafrost
  • Reducing transportation’s environmental footprint
  • Assuming transportation’s essential role in facilitating social equity and creating healthy lifestyles
  • Thinking mobility – the best way of moving people and goods rather than vehicles; and ways of better integrating land use and transportation
  • Ageing of the population, resulting in a loss of corporate knowledge in the industry as well as new challenges in designing and operating our infrastructure and systems
  • Doing more with less through increased productivity and innovation, and achieved in large part with the assistance of new technologies and the entry of bright young minds into the industry

Many of you have been asking what my plans for the future are. My lovely loving wife of 40 years, Jane, and I are fortunate in having acquired a pied-à-terre in Thailand.  We also have children and grandchildren scattered around the world – a son, daughter-in law and two wonderful grandkids in the Turks & Caicos Islands and a daughter in Dubai.  We are also active in many sports such as skiing, cycling and tennis. For these reasons, travel and sports will definitely be part of our future.

I am also very proud of having been the founding President of Chelsea Trails, a not-for-profit and registered charity with a mission to plan, develop and maintain a network of non-motorized community trails in the Municipality of Chelsea where I reside. Two years in the making, the Active Transportation Master Plan, developed jointly by Chelsea Trails and the municipality, was recently adopted by the municipality and is widely recognized as an example of a successful public-community group partnership effort!  The plan sets the stage for a comprehensive network of on-road bicycling facilities and off-road recreational trails as a legacy for future generations.

In addition to travel, sports and volunteerism, I will be looking for new challenges or causes that are intellectually stimulating and for which I am passionate.  This may lead to our paths crossing again in coming years.

In closing, I believe I am leaving an organization that is as strong, or stronger, than it has ever been in its 100 year history.  I am confident that TAC is well positioned for the next 100 years - although I am quite certain that I will not be present to celebrate that milestone!  I hope to remain in contact with as many of my friends and colleagues at TAC as possible, so when I leave in January to start a new chapter in my life, my parting words will not be goodbye but rather au revoir! 

 

 

 


Thank you to our Premier Sponsors