The Westerner for May 3, 2010
Meeting: chair, Ben Doz; music, Jerome; grace, Dan Graham
Attendance/Guests: Susan Steele, Rotary Club of Placencia, Belise; Jelto Schiebel with Thomas Zurch, Rotary Club of Edmonton Mayfield; Brad Anderson, guest speaker; Trisha Chow with Jaclyn Hutchinson plus Brittany Lissinna and Faith Armstrong, RYLA participants and Centennial Interact Club
Lynette: she advised that she has been absent because of diagnosis of critical anemia plus allergy to iron pills - she will be low profile @ Rotary for a while - good luck on a swift recovery
Centennial Interact fundraiser: Jennifer congratulated that club and said she was proud of them for putting on their fund raising evening, largely on their own, and raising $14,000; Ron advised Rotary Club of Edmonton West was honoured by presentation of a framed certificate for thanks for support in the fund raiser and helping 12 Interactors attend to Belise this spring for project work
Al Hamilton and Friends Golf Classic: John advised date is Thursday, July 29, Cougar Creek Golf Resort; we have retained all hole sponsors from last year plus Edmonton Oilers and Canyon Excavators - several high profile silent auction items to be offered including fine wine via Wayne Gretzsky and BBQ for 12 from Driving Force
50/50: Bill Buckham and Steve won - they split $216, congratulations
Finemaster: Ed tried fining everyone for lack of knowledge on entertainment icons (songs and artists from the past) - ended up fining everyone for knowing to much
RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards): Jaclyn, Trisha, Brittany & Faith gave thanks for our sponsorship of their attendance: comments included "different experiences including no washroom in my room and joining 6 other young ladies in that room that I did not know", "youth want to make a difference to the world", "we learned how to bring forth leadership qualities", "we learned about different leadership personalities and developed a goal of projects to be completed after RYLA"
Guest Speaker: Lynette introduced Brad Anderson, executive director of Alberta Chamber of Resources plus Construction Owners Association. The first tries to instill orderly development of resources; the second is an association of owners of large heavy equipment. Jerome added music at specific presentation highlights.
Environment has been in the news everyday with B P problem in U S Gulf Coast petroleum disaster and tailing pond court cases.
The Chamber, started in 1935, tries to plan to eliminate such problems before they happen. 187 members from oil, gas, coal, minerals, power generation, forestry, pipelne, EPC, and service companies aim for orderly and responsible development of Alberta natural resources. Products include diamonds, uranium, precious metals, base metals, oil sands, potash. 1/2 of the world's energy is deposited in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories and British Columbia. The world's demand will increase for all producrts available from our province.
Resources in Alberta include groundwater and aquifer storage, carbon capture and storage, geothermal energy, oil, gas, coal, forestry. We need to develop responsible recovery and production. Coal is challenged by greenhouse gas emissions - companies are working on reducing said problem. Minerals - still untapped (ironstone, lithium, sand, gravel). Buffalo Head Hills is the third largest known area of kimberlites in Canada (source of diamonds). Geothermal - heat from the earth - Alberta is hotter than most other areas of the Earth. Producers in Alberta do a good job to control potential problems - need to tell the world that we are doing so.
Prudent Risk Balance/environment and development - water occupies a lot of attention in these industries, but, for example - Athabaska River - industry uses no more than 3% of the water available. Land Use Framework - sets priorities for the demands set on each piece of land in our province - Al Sanderson is heavily involved.
Brad was thanked by Mike Ryan