Lucheon Aug 4, 2016

A great day in Osoyoos for a Rotary meeting and apparently also for the masses of tourists soaking up the sun and desperately in need of driving lessons!

Jim King presided (good job!) introducing guest Rotarian Bea from Penticton, Richard from the Times and our guest speaker Richard Cannings, NDP MP for S Okanagan-W Kootenay. Richard did an impression job of sharing experiences of his first term in Ottawa and updating us on the issues facing our region from the Federal position. 

As a member of the NDP Caucus, he is Critic for Post-Secondary Education and also Critic for Natural Resources, both of which fit nicely into his background as a well published natural historian, bird expert and UBC instructor. 

We all enjoyed his easy manner in describing his role in Ottawa and it was neat to hear that he is thoroughly enjoying the exposure he has to current information and 'experts' as part of the standing committees and also that he has an opportunity to influence direction and decisions. He did sound a tad frustrated at the lack of real progress by the government with only 2 bills passed in the last 6 month session....very slow pace! He is hoping for more process on the climate change and electoral reform issues coming up the the next session starting mid September. 

He touched on the 3 issues that the Feds are working on that affect us and was well versed on all 3; the Softwood Lumber Agreement dispute with the US, the Columbia River Treaty renegotiation again with the US and the National Park controversy. 

There was a good question and answer session and overall a very positive reception by the members...he agreed to come back with updates on a future break.

Lynda reminded us to mark the August 15th Moonlight Movie Madness night on calendars. This is the Interior Savings sponsored outdoor movie presentation of Zootopia. Rotary will receive the proceeds so bring chairs/blankets and kids to the upper field behind the elementary school starting at 7pm with movie at dusk. 

Next weeks meeting will feature our YE outbound student Sylvia Mott who will give us her presentation that she will be giving to her host Rotary Club in Germany. Fun! Our outbound student Nina just back from her year in France may also attend. Our inbound this year Carlo Geat from Italy arrives in just 3 weeks so lots going on to finalize host families both here and in Oliver. 

LOTB updates were worked as the dinner is coming up fast. It is a sold out event! Harold will head up the lobster cooking crew and nailed down the volunteers for that. Please hand in the ticket stubs/money soon as there is a waiting list.

Somehow Althea won the 50/50 draw....so many others were not expecting that!

Have a safe and fun week!