Rotateller for Wednesday September 7, 2022
Chair: President Courtney Fisher
Toast to the Queen, Canada and Rotary: Led by President Courtney
Anthem: Frank Allison
Attendance: 8 members were in attendance plus Basil’s guest Dorothy Evans.
No other guests other than the speaker and no members on Zoom.
President Courtney opened the meeting with a toast to The Queen, Canada and Rotary.
Speaker:
Our speaker this week was introduced by Barry - John Stapleton was assisted by his colleague Yvonne Yuen a Policy Analyst – they were both attending via Zoom. John Stapleton is a writer, instructor and a former Innovation Fellow with the Metcalf Foundation. John worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years in the areas of social assistance policy and operations and was Research Director for the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults in Toronto. John teaches on public policy for community advocates and is extensively published in local and national media.
John showed us several graphics showing income inequality in different areas of the City of Toronto. In 1980 Scarborough was very much a middle-income area. In 2015 which is the last ‘full’ census prior to Covid the illustration shows poverty in the north of Scarborough and southern Markham. In the 2020 census (which isn’t fully complete yet) it shows a reduction in the poverty areas of northern Scarborough moved from ‘very low’ to ‘low’. This was taken in May 2020 when some of the Government’s Covid benefits were paid out, these stopped at the end of 2021.
Link to recording: audio1042031839.m4a
Link to John’s website: https://openpolicyontario.com/
Courtney thanked John for his presentation.
Announcements:
Barry reminded us about the Foundation Walk and to make pledges if they hadn’t already done so and to send the funds to Dhanni.
Rocco announced there will be a Club Service Group meeting next Monday 12th probably at Southsides.
Barry announced there will be a Community Services Group meeting next Tuesday 13th at Remezzo’s.
Sergeant at Arms
Frank Allison was SAA this week and said he was not going to fine anyone so just asked for Happy Bucks.
Barry was happy that when he and Glennys went Remezzo’s a lot of people were so nice to Glennys as she was ‘hobbling around on a broken ankle’. Barry tried to gain our sympathy (unsuccessfully) as while Glennys was incapacitated he had to do cleaning cooking etc!
Arthur enjoyed his drive up north to Temiskaming.
Basil reminded us that the ‘Presidential Pardon’ cards are available. (These are cards that can be purchased for $100 for a year, so that if you get fined by the SAA you can show the card and don’t have to pay the fine.)
President Courtney then closed the meeting.
