The Red Deer judicial system is gaining a Court of Queen’s Bench justice but losing a provincial court judge.
Justice Monica Bast has been appointed to the Queen’s Bench position after sitting on the provincial bench since May 2006. She was the first woman appointed to the bench in Central Alberta.
Bast will be sworn in during a ceremony on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the Red Deer Courthouse.
Bast, who was appointed assistant chief judge in the central region in 2007, replaces Justice Doug Sirrs, who died in February.
Bast completed an executive MBA at Queen’s University in 1999 and a bachelor of laws at the University of Calgary in 1986.
She was called to the Alberta bar in 1987. Prior to that, she completed a teaching credential after degree at the University of Calgary in 1983 and received a bachelor of science at California State University in 1980.
She was a partner with Schnell Hardy Jones in Red Deer from 1991 to 2006 and chair of the Canada Pension Plan Review Tribunal from 1992 to 1996.
She was a member of the Legal Education Society of Alberta and the Law Society of Alberta and was a bar admission instructor.
Bast was also heavily involved in the community and was active in various organizations, including the Red Deer College board of governors, Community Foundation and Red Deer Parks, Recreation and Culture Board.
She was born in Red Miles, Mont.