News CANASA Update Opinion
Expanding CANASA membership

Almost halfway through 2021 and it has been a very busy start for the Canadian Security Association.

We recently completed our election process which occurs on a regular cycle to determine our Board of Directors and our Regional Councils. Our Board of Directors are all volunteers from across Canada and work with the staff to determine the direction of our organization and to assist in the process.

A big thank-you to any Board or Committee members who are not returning. Your commitment to CANASA has been invaluable, especially considering the challenges we have faced over the past 15 months. We will be publishing the new Board and Council member’s names after our AGM on June 16.

We always encourage our members to get involved in our various committees and councils. If you are interested in learning more about volunteering at CANASA, please contact me at pstraw@canasa.org.

Membership

CANASA is embarking on an ambitious membership drive to bring a more varied mix of security professionals into our association: security directors, IT security personnel, cyber-security companies, guard companies, lock companies and government security professionals. We encourage our members to invite colleagues across various security businesses to contact us for more information on the benefits of membership.

Education

Some great volunteer work by our education committee is getting us closer to the completion of the upgrade of the Alarm Technician Course offered by Centennial College. We are working on the final modules and much of the work has been passed on to the college for input into their software for final implementation.

Conestoga College in Waterloo, Ont., is also completing the development of the Security Technician Course which will be endorsed and fully supported by CANASA. We are very excited about this initiative to help feed the need for skilled technicians in this booming industry. Several companies have stepped up to assist in the procurement of both intellectual property and supplies for the course. As soon as we have a detailed timeline on the college taking registrations, we will publish that information.

COVID Response

On behalf of all CANASA members, we want to pay special tribute to all the first responders who have done an incredible job across Canada in the past year of COVID-19. This includes many in the security industry who have had to make significant changes to the way they get the job done to continue to protect Canadian families and businesses. We are all forever in your debt and want to acknowledge your efforts.

Patrick Straw is the executive director of CANASA (www.canasa.org)