Hello Chestermere-Strathmore
I apologize for not having written for the past few weeks. It has been an interesting couple of weeks, and as usual, I am so humbled by the incredible things that go on in our beautiful riding. I had the pleasure of meeting with and seeing so many of you in person; as always, it is a privilege to serve you. I was able to attend Chestermere Minor Hockey First Female Hockey Day. The following info that I am sharing was given to me by the association:
This is the first time for the event. We received a grant from the City of Chestermere to support inclusion. The event is entirely free for the participants. We also have the U15 and U18 elite girls’ teams playing their league games. Hopefully, some of these girls will play on those teams someday.
When we started planning, we aimed high, hoping to get 48 girls. We just closed registration, and we have 46 registered. We are so excited to have that many. Mostly from Chestermere, but the surrounding areas are represented as well. Strathmore, Langdon, Indus, Okotoks, and a few from the east side of Calgary. The day includes on-ice development, gym training, and a classroom portion geared toward girls in sport. Each session is age appropriate. We built-in breaks so we can watch the elite teams play. Also, all instructors are female.
Thank you to Chestermere Minor Hockey and the City of Chestermere, Becky McGee from SDR Academy, Kim Deck, Erin Friesen, Edyta Baker, the coaches, parents, volunteers, and participants for making this such a great event.
I also had the pleasure of meeting with our school boards, both Public and Catholic, our Chambers of Commerce, and elected officials in the past couple of weeks. As always, there is so much wisdom and expertise to be shared. I am grateful to have been able to bring some of our concerns around the discussion table, such as EMS, rural policing, school re-entry after Christmas, AISH and PDD, concerns around field trips for kids in schools, seniors housing and palliative care. We have also shared discussions around the new legislation regarding traffic violations, insurance costs, supply chain issues especially given the recent concerns for essential commercial truck drivers going over the borders to the USA, labour shortages here in our province, acknowledging the professions designations of our newest Canadians as fast as possible to get them into their fields of expertise, and many more issues.
People want to come to our province, raise their families and have incredible opportunities. We are seeing massive investment into film, oil and gas, environment, and our local businesses will benefit from this growth. We must support our local businesses as much as possible. I know that the QR codes, vaccination, PCR tests, and rapid tests are a lot to deal with, these businesses are not at fault for those decisions, and we need to support them as much as possible. We are trying to get as many rapid tests as possible and distribute them quickly. Our economy is experiencing growth despite the challenges, and it can make it through this. We are growing our tech sector, mentoring newcomers for new careers, and agriculture. Keep up the great work, folks. This is happening because our greatest resource, our people, are resilient.
As always, we love to hear from you!
Have a wonderful day!
