The Rotary Club Of Festival City

President:  Dianne Yundt

Minutes of the meeting of January 29, 2013

Club email:  festivalcityrotary@gmail.com

Club website: www.festivalcityrotary.ca

Guests: From Stratford Rotary we welcomed Rob Ritz. Randy Pettapiece is our guest speaker

Draw Prize: Sue Thomson donated the prize won by Donna Hinz.

All You Can Eat Spaghetti Dinner: Randy Mathews distributed tickets to sell for this annual event. Tickets are $15 each. Everyone is encouraged to sell tickets to support International and Local Projects. See Randy if you are in need of tickets. The dinner is March 18 at the A.N.A.F. Hall.

Announcements:

  1. Splash Pad Donation: Jack West received a cheque for $5000 on Friday night at the Community Fund Grant Awards presentation. The award is to be deposited into the Splash Pad fund. $60000 was distributed to various organizations.
  2. Rotary Global and Packaged Grants: Online applications for these grants are available at www.rotary.org/grants Global grants support large international activities with sustainable, measurable outcomes in one or more of the six areas of focus. Packaged grants have been predesigned by Rotary and our strategic partners. The activities they fund are similar to those funded by global grants, but the work of designing the activity’s general framework has already been done. Grant applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Foundation staff will begin reviewing applications in April. If you have any questions please email Kelly Fotheringham at kelshel@wightman.ca or email the Rotary Contact Centre at contact.center@rotary.org or call 1-866-9ROTARY.
  3. Bard’s Birthday Committee Meeting: The committee and anyone interested in joining it will meet at the home of Kent Chisholm on Thursday Jan. 31 7:30 PM.
  4. Feb 5 Guest Speaker: February is “World Understanding and Peace Month”. Shoma Otten a student at Central Secondary School will be talking about this topic prior to his upcoming trip to Zambia.
  5. ClubRunner: Rotarians are reminded to check the club roster for weekly assignments.  You can also visit the “District Site” to register for conferences and other events.  Coming February 23 will be a link to “E-club Canada” where you will be able to attend an online meeting. E-club meetings can serve as make-ups.
  6. House of Blessing: President Dianne read a note from the House of Blessing thanking us for our toy and food donations during their Christmas drive.
  7. The “King Tut” Edition of Bingo: Sign up to volunteer for this bingo on Saturday February 16. It was on this date in 1923 that Howard Carter opened the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen to reveal riches never seen before. Volunteers will be able to watch bingo players win riches some have never seen before.

Guest Speaker: Bill Helmuth introduced Randy Pettapiece MPP for Perth-Wellington. Randy is the official opposition’s critic to the Minister of Agriculture. Randy also served two terms as a councillor for the Municipality of North Perth.

Randy was raised in Essex County and moved to the Monkton area in 1967 when his parents bought a dairy farm. In 1968 he graduated from the Ridgetown Agricultural College. Randy has also been a member of the Monkton Lions Club. He recently sold his farm and moved into Listowel.

Randy entered provincial politics because of his concerns over wind farms. He was seeing local communities being torn apart on the issue. Neighbours were no longer on speaking terms and the provincial government appeared not to be listening to local concerns. He noticed an increasingly urban/rural split over the issue.

Last September Randy introduced a private members motion which calls on the government to “re-evaluate policies that negatively affect residents of rural and small-town Ontario and are a source of growing frustration in rural communities, which are a key to a strong, healthy province”.  The motion received all-party support. The motion is in response to feedback Randy received from rural municipalities that the province too often imposes unfair and unrealistic pressures both financial and environmental on rural communities.

Randy is presently working on a number of issues. These include doctor shortages in the riding and the streamlining of provincial regulations. There is with too much red-tape causing a farmer to spend a lot of time doing paper work associated with regulations.

Randy is also concerned with the government’s surprise cancellation of the “Slots at Racetracks” program. It is having a devastating effect upon the horse racing industry and is causing damage to the rural economy. Suppliers to the horse racing industry which are generally rural based are being impacted. About 60 000 full and part time jobs are at risk.

One of the more pleasant parts of Randy’s job is the presentation of Diamond Jubilee medals to various residents of Perth County.

The Ontario PC party has prepared a number of discussion white papers. These are available online and are designed to elicit opinions from people on a variety of topics. Visit www.pettapiece.ca to read papers you are interested in and provide feedback. Topics include: Welfare to Work, Children and Youth, Retirement security, health care, labour, and energy policies etc.

Randy was thanked by Laura Pogson.