Hello Chestermere-Strathmore readers!
First, I would like to say a couple of thank yous! Thank you to the Whitecappers in Chestermere for inviting me to their Christmas celebration, Langdon for their awesome outdoor Carols at Christmas Festival, the Wine, Women, Well-Being Christmas Soiree at Origins in Strathmore, to Eric’ No Frills “Fill a shopping cart” event. Thank you to the sponsors who donated food to the foodbank in Chestermere and to the Strathmore High School for their fantastic performance of Aladdin!
It was an amazing week full of love and joy that spills out into our communities even as we manage our way through yet another version of this virus. I know that you are frustrated, as am I. The Omicron virus has created states of emergency in the UK and is spreading fast.
We offer booster shots for 50 and over if you had your covid shot more than six months ago. I know that I will be getting mine as soon as I can, as I believe that the jab works, and though we can still transmit the virus, and we can still catch covid after we have had a shot, our chances of getting sick are truly minimized, as are the severe outcome for those who have gotten the jab.
We will have to learn to live with this virus, and I am proud to see the immunization levels in our riding are strong. Thank you to all of you for all you have done to keep each other safe. We will monitor hospitalizations closely, and as you can ascertain from previous waves; we will see restrictions increase if the number of ICU admissions goes up.
None of us want that to happen. Albertans will soon be able to get their hands on rapid COVID-19 testing kits for free. We announced Wednesday morning that families would get the kits for free at their local pharmacies. Each kit will include five tests and instructions on how to take the test.
I hope to see many of you out at the pond hockey event in Chestermere from December 27th-29th, and as we head into the New Year, I hope to see many more of you as we build our communities together with strength and resilience.
It has not been an easy couple of years, and it just makes me appreciate the world around me that much more. Alberta is on track to see at least 2,000 tech jobs open up. Training programs are popping up all over the place, and international organizations like Amazon Web Services, Mphasis, and Infosys are all coming to our beautiful province because they see the talent and opportunities available here.
Benevity and mCloud are expanding into Alberta, and our film industry will see the best year they ever have in Alberta, and start-ups and tech companies will be looking for more people to scale up. We will see this diversification in artificial intelligence, and we will also see our fantastic oil and gas sector looking at finding efficiencies for energy-intensive work, promoting our environmental and social governance to the world as the world looks to our province to produce the most ethically produced resources globally. Alberta is forging ahead despite those who have counted us down and out. Giving up is not in our DNA, and we will persevere.
As always, we love to hear from you!
