We are now officially into summer, although it doesn’t feel like summer with all the downpour of rain we’ve been having lately.
My poor flowers are literally drowning, but looking on the bright side it’s so nice to have the countryside so green again.
Last week four delegates from our Branch 93 attended the B.C. Old Age Pensioners Convention celebrating their 80th year. It was held in Agassiz with 10 board members, 39 delegates, 29, guests and two proxies in attendance.
The B.C. OAPO was established in 1932 and incorporated in 1937. This was the first organized group of senior citizens in North America.
They are non-political and non-sectarian. The aims and objectives were to protest the rights and interests of old age pensioners and prospective pensioners and to endeavor to secure and maintain fair and just legislation to enable them to maintain their dignity and self-respect as pioneer citizens of Canada.
We continue this practice on behalf of all senior citizens about concerns expressed by our members in the form of resolutions submitted to annual conventions.
Retiring president Fred Coates gave a report on many current concerns of our members and all seniors. He mentioned some of the controversial changes to the proposed Bill C-38: increasing the qualifying age of pensioners and GIS to 67; capping the federal contribution to universal health care service, weakening food safety inspection by the Canada Food Inspection Agency, reducing environmental assessments of major projects including the proposed pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to Kitimat, the free trade deal that the federal and B.C. governments are putting together called CETA with unbelievable issues included to reduce our Canadian rights and sovereignty, to name a few concerns.
B.C. ombudsman Kim Carter, author of Best of Care: Getting it Right for Seniors in B.C., gave a detailed talk on her report which was very interesting and concerns all seniors.
Two workshops were put on by the Council of Senior Citizens Organizations. Sheila Pither spoke on advance care planning and advance directives, explaining the importance of having representative agreement, drawn up.
Sylvia McLeary spoke on aging and memory covering the causes and the risk factors to be aware of. Guest speaker on the second day was Art Kube, president of Council of Senior Citizens Organizations (COSCO). He gave an interesting talk on recruiting new members to our branches. COSCO will be having their convention the first week in October for seniors interested in attending.
Our Branch 93 delegates felt that this B.C. OAPO convention was one of the best conventions held in recent years. The OAPO Branch 93 Williams Lake will host the 2014 B.C. OAPO convention.
Our branch will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014.
The OAPO Br. 93 will not have a meeting in July or August.
The next monthly meeting will be on Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. at the Seniors Activity Centre. Until next time, remember, today is the oldest you’ve ever been, yet the youngest you’ll ever be, so enjoy this day while it lasts.