2025 CLIA Board Changes

CLIA could not do the work we do without our strong and dedicated Board. Our Board is comprised of seven outstanding professionals with extensive knowledge of insurance and the legal profession. Part of maintaining such a strong board is to refresh the membership with new faces. It also means saying goodbye to our trusted, long-standing members like Tom Schonhoffer, KC and Don Sword.

Both Tom and Don were selected to be on the CLIA Board in May of 2016 and started on the Board in July. This was a critical time for CLIA as the Subscribers were looking for changes in how the program was being administered. In 2016 with the formation of the CLIA Central Office and the hiring of a CEO, the governance of CLIA changed from a membership representative board to a policy governance board.

Tom was immediately identified by the other Board members to have a significant amount of knowledge and expertise about CLIA and was appointed as the Chair of the Board in his first term. He was an instrumental leader in the transition of CLIA and the creation of the Central Office. Tom remained as Board Chair until July of 2020 after which he took on the responsibility as the Chair of the Policy and Underwriting Committee and is currently the Chair of the Voluntary Excess Program. Tom has a real passion for CLIA and has unselfishly shared his knowledge and experience, in any responsibility that he was asked to take on.

Upon being selected to be on the CLIA Board, Don was asked to be on the Audit Committee and has served as Chair of the Audit and Conduct Review Committee since July of 2020. Don has an amazing ability to communicate with people. His cover letter for the CLIA Board was 4 pages long. Coming from Newfoundland there are a number of what we have come to call Don-isms that catch many of us off guard. Don has a real passion for CLIA and has unselfishly shared his knowledge and experience, in any responsibility that he was asked to take on.

Thank you, Tom and Don, for all the years that you have given to CLIA and the friendship that you have offered. Your work on the CLIA Board is greatly appreciated.

We now welcome two new additions to the CLIA Board: Erin Kleisinger, KC and Helga Van Iderstine, KC.

Erin is a partner at McDougall Gauley, LLP in Regina, Saskatchewan. Her areas of practice include civil litigation, privacy law and university law, commercial law, banking and financing, secured transactions, bankruptcy, insolvency and restructuring. She has served in leadership roles with various legal organizations including the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the Law Society of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Legal Education. Erin also served on the Board of Group Medical Services from 2002 to 2023, including two separate two-year terms as Chair.

Helga is a partner at MLT Aikins in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her practice focuses on the area of professional regulation where she has provided advice and direction to boards. She has extensive board experience, particularly with non-profit boards, including having served as President of the Law Society of Manitoba. Prior to the 2016 change from a membership representative board to a policy governance board, Helga was Manitoba’s alternative representative on the CLIA Board. In that capacity, she was actively involved in a number of meetings and issues.