Sharleen Gatcha
Founder, Women+Power

June 1, 2020

We waste time. We kill time. We save time. Time can be on our side or we can have bad timing. We rob and get robbed of time, and we lose time. Time can be our enemy or our friend. We are told to manage our time wisely. Time flies. Sometimes, it may seem as though time stands still and yet other times, we have all the time in the world. But no one of us is powerful enough to stop the march of time or slow it down: time waits for no (wo)man.

And so, it seems this is where we stand; in week ten of the COVID-19 pandemic and still uncertainty remains over how much longer we will have to maintain continued restrictions on social distancing and remote working conditions. We are encouraged to wait and see what time will tell. Does time heal everything? I am sure many of you have experienced days when time seemed to pass so slowly and yet it is hard to believe that we have been in this situation for more than 2 months.

It was the result of unfortunate circumstances that the networking event planned for Women+Power at the IPPSA Conference in Banff on March 16 had to be cancelled just days before it was scheduled to take place when the Government of Alberta announced restrictions on the number of individuals allowed in gatherings and soon after COVID-19 was deemed a global pandemic. One could say time was not on our side and, in our case, time changes everything!

Given how quickly the pandemic escalated, Women+Power decided to put our plans to launch our website on hold and determine when it would be appropriate to proceed. We wanted to recognize and respect that the environment for many of us had fundamentally changed and that it would take time for everyone to adjust and adapt to a ‘new normal’ (as we have heard so many times over the past several weeks). We hope that everyone has had the opportunity to do just that and you are staying safe and healthy.

We are very excited to share our vision for Women+Power and start communicating our plans, and we feel that now is the time. To this end, we are launching our new brand and website. For now, you can find us on LinkedIn and at www.womenpower.ca. Soon we hope to add other social media channels.

At this time would like to invite women and men working in and with the power industry in Alberta to join our community and become a member by visiting the ‘Join Us!’ page on our website and completing the registration form. In addition, we would appreciate your help spreading the word by sharing our news about Women+Power with your network.

Me and the dedicated Board at Women+Power are hopeful this will kickstart the beginning of transformational change in the electricity industry, and for that we say ‘It’s about time!’