Taber hosts province-wide kick off event for Seniors’ Week

TIMES PHOTO BY IAN CROFT

By Ian Croft
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
news@tabertimes.com

Taber had the honour of hosting the opening event for Seniors’ Week this year. With the week celebrating seniors within the community, Josephine Pon, Minister of Seniors and Housing, came to Taber along with Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter to speak at the kick-off event, and to present Burns Wood, a local senior in town, with a delegation to commemorate the week. After the presentation, Pon spoke to why the provincial government chose to hold this kick-off event in Taber.

“Because it is a beautiful town and also because MLA Hunter too,” said Pon. “MLA Hunter is a very good friend of mine and we talked about somewhere we’ve never been before. At Taber, I want to get some corn because it is famous. Besides that, it is very important and what the process is, usually we open bid, open to any city or town that they would like to help us co-host this launch event for Seniors’ Week. We got a number of applications that wanted to co-host it with us and Taber was one of those applications that would co-host with us. We pulled our funding of over $5,000 to hostess this event with us.”

Hunter chimed in afterwards saying.

“Why not in Taber? This is God’s country down here,” said Hunter. “This is a great place to be able to show what rural Alberta looks like. Senior needs in rural Alberta versus urban is very different. The minister has been gracious enough to be able to come down, to be able to see and listen too — I think she’s actually was shaking hands at the beginning here with every person that’s been here. She wants to hear directly from our seniors in smaller communities to know where are those funding gaps are and what are some things that we can do. I really do appreciate her coming down here to be with all of you.”

To read the full story, pick up a Taber Times issue or subscribe to an ePaper digital subscription! You can sign up for digital or traditional subscriptions on tabertimes.com by clicking subscribe under ePaper on the home page.