Vocational Visits & Update

Thought I would update you on some of the vocational visits.

I spent yesterday morning at city hall with Karen Charlton she is the Head of Community Development at City Hall. We had a chat for just over an hour about how the place is run and financed. The City Council members are not politicians so they are effectively nine Joe Blogs who campaigned on their particular agendas, I found this a bit strange certainly very different to Local democracy in the UK. After a tour of city hall we went round some of the facilities in the town they have excellent leisure facilities given the size of the population which is 68K. They have a centre a bit like the magnum back home but with a 50M pool, the have another 6 ice rinks.

I also visited one of the senior centres, it was a bit like interlink back home providing a variety of services to the older citizens. I met Diane who was the centre manager and I also met the catering manager.

We visited the college for lunch and met up with the VP Ralph Weeks.

During the afternoon I met up with Debra Best who was responsible for mental health in the community. She took me over to the local hospital and I had a meeting with Blain Bell who is the executive director for HR. The health board is going through a massive restructure basically merging with 4 neighbouring areas.

The labour relations side is pretty similar but the TU density is much higher they still have the closed shop scenario so almost everyone joins.

I got back to the hosts house at 5.25pm and we had a meeting at the rotary club at 6pm so a quick change and back out. We had a meal and they did their rotary business and then we were on. Our presentation was well received and then they gave us lots of gifts (paper weight, t Shirt, Canada flag etc.

By the time the meeting closed and we headed back to our hosts it was 10.30pm. I had a malt with Brian then went to bed about 11pm.

Today (Tuesday I think) we returned to the college and I met Roxanne Plante . She was the HR director for the college and was really nice. We all had pink shirts on, we HR people we are so connected!!!.

Tonight I am going to dine with the family that is hosting Martin. I have been told to bring my trunks I think we are going to have a hot tub party!!!!!

Any that's it for just now.

We leave Medicine Hat tomorrow and are heading to Lethbrige.

Oh I nearly forgat to mension we were in the local paper at least the girls were!! Every one has been really nice to us we are being treated like celebs.

Wallace