Kent Hehr is the MP for Calgary Centre. He now proudly serves as the Minister for Veterans Affairs and as the Associate Minister of National Defence – and as the first Liberal from Calgary to sit in Cabinet since 1972. Madeleine King introduced our speaker for the meeting, Kent Hehr.
President Bill lead the group with “Rolling Stone” … very very entertaining!
Kent’s speech highlights:
- Kent has been a member of our Downtown Rotary Club for 9 years. He is son of two teachers, lives in Calgary, plays baseball and hockey. He shared his father anecdotes and his family heritage in Medicine Hat.
- Kent paid tribute to our amazing military force who protect Canadians from border to border.
- Kent compared Calgary to Pittsburgh, who was a city suffered greatly in the 1930s when steel industry was hugely affected. How that city bounced back and became a major city in 1993 and now has a very diverse economy, with 1600 green technology companies.
- He stressed the importance of creating middle class jobs to continue to support the Canadian economy. New tax reform will tax the upper class more but he thinks that is the right thing to do.
- The money invested in homeless and a national housing strategy has great implication for economic savings. For every $10 dollar invested the government saved $22 on other programs.
- The Canadian employment rate dropped from 7.7% to 6.5% since last year and additional jobs were added since 2017. He further mentioned that now is the time of transition and acknowledged that many are suffering in this economy. But it can be also a time of great opportunity.
- Kent highlighted that advanced technology and agri-food industries are the road to future and Alberta should pay more attention to these opportunities.
- Kent showcased the Liberal government's commitment to Alberta on funding on green line LRT.
Andrea Serink thanked Kent for an outstanding speech.