April 20, 2012

A Week Back in the Riding

It was another great week to be in the riding and it’s nice to see Lambton-Kent-Middlesex moving in the same positive direction as the rest of the country. Not a week goes by when I don’t hear of a new business opening or existing businesses expanding. It has some commentators suggesting that Canada is the best-governed-country-in-the-world and I couldn’t agree more. We know we have more to do and that’s exactly why we’ll keep our noses to the grindstone.

Penny Pinching-Helping Hospitals

We’re hoping to collect 100,000 pennies for each of the hospital auxiliaries in Wallaceburg, Newbury and Strathroy to coincide with the phasing out of our penny. Now if you can picture that as a stack, 100,000 pennies would stand 150 meters or almost 500 feet tall and weigh about 650 pounds. Your stack may not be that high or weigh that much but if you could drop off whatever you may have squirreled away in a jar or a sock to one of my offices, we’ll make sure they get to the hospitals. If your business or school would like to help the hospitals, by helping us collect pennies, please call 519-245-6561.

I had a chance this week to get together with members from all three hospital auxiliaries and their enthusiasm is contagious! You’ll start to see blue buckets appearing in many local businesses across Lambton-Kent-Middlesex so please give generously.

Meeting with auxiliary members from Sydenham Hospital in Wallaceburg who, along with the auxiliaries in Strathroy and Newbury, will benefit from our penny fundraiser.

National Volunteer Week

The hospital auxiliary workers are just some of the very valued volunteers we have across our riding. This week marked National Volunteer Week , where we pay tribute to the over 13 million volunteers in Canada and the remarkable contributions they make every day. I heard it put very well this week; “volunteers are individuals who give freely of their time and energy; it doesn’t mean they’re worthless, it actually means they’re priceless.”

Support for Young Farmers

Did you know agriculture is Ontario’s largest industry? A new loan program delivered by Farm Credit Canada will help young or beginning farmers grow their businesses. You can find out more about the Young Farmer Loan at www.fcc.ca/youngfarmerloan

Funds for Seniors Projects

Five local organizations will benefit from funds announced recently through our government’s New Horizons for Seniors Program . The funds will go towards everything from computer training for seniors to transportation services to renovations and repairs at a local lawn bowling club.

Until next time.

Bev Shipley, M.P.

Lambton-Kent-Middlesex