Hot Tubbin' For...GGCLC: Lancaster, Hawkesbury, Vankleek Hill, Ottawa
Another early morning (I sound like a broken record) takes us to Glengarry Fine Cheese on Lancaster. It's kind of a nice drive because this is the little town where very good friends of mine got married a few years ago. We get to the cheese shop and we're early. At the end of this conference we are to make a presentation and we've decided as a group to inject some humour into ours and create an 80s training montage - why am I telling you this? Well because we used all of our extra time on this day to film scenes. We all lined up on the grass and did sit ups and push ups while our MLO yelled at us military styles. Anyway, back to cheese. We meet with the proprietor and learn that this business has been in the family for a while and she has brought her experience in import/export to her business and has created a successful, sustainable product. We pick up some curds and are on our way to Hawkesbury.
Hawkesbury is the third most bilingual town in Ontario with about 70% of residents fluent in both English and French. We have lunch courtesy of the United Steel Workers and meet with Community Futures and the Convex Group - both organizations that specialize in local economic development, business development and the employability for people with disabilities. After talking about economic gardening it was time to go and meet with a local success story. The Green Beaver Company .
Another great example of people succeeding in business - these guys source canadian materials for their products and are the only certified organic personal care product company in Canada. We get a history lesson of the company and then a tour of the facility. We walk through a warehouse where everything says "made in canada" or "product of Canada" - the complete opposite of the Walmart warehouse in Cornwall. We see and smell things like lemongrass, cranberry seed extract and fresh lavender. Then we head into the actual lab and see what looks like massive kitchen aid mixers. He's generous to give us a lip balm as a parting gift and all of us are really excited to test it out. Perfection and as usual we're tight on time and it's off to meet with the mayor of Hawkesbury to discuss their strategic planning process.
Having gone through the strat plan process at the UBC Library a few years ago (and when I say gone through, I mean observe as support staff weren't really involved). It sounded like they did do a lot of consultation with various people in the community and we left impressed by the pride in their Franco-Ontarian culture as well as the lengths they went to to involve the residents in the strategic plan. At this point we're getting tired and need a pick-me-up - and so glad that Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. was next on the list.
It's hot out and boy are we happy to be on the receiving end of Beau's delicious cold brew. Inside the owners tell us that after their leather business folded after 27 years, they decided to open a brewery. They said that their success is a symptom of their growth, not the end goal. They source and get ingredients from the community, employ locals, ship only within Ontario, have award winning art on their labels and have a beautiful patio to boot. It was great to meet another local success story and can't wait until they ship to BC because the beer is fantastic.
Now that we're happy and refreshed it's an hour long bus ride to Ottawa where we will check into our accommodations at Carleton University before heading to Dow's Lake to have dinner at Lago with the ladies from the City for All Women Initiative.
The CAWI women were amazing - 3 very different ladies with very different lenses on things. CAWI is a network for women of all walks of life, ethnicities, religions, professions where they can learn about getting involved in municipal politics (whether as eventual candidates, lobbyists, activists). They work with CUPE and PSAC on facilitation skills and this really makes me proud of my union. Labour is involved in our communities in so many different ways...I am impressed and feel like I've found 3 kindred spirits in these amazing women. All hail the sisterhood! Dinner was delicious and I'm happy to eat chicken (need a break from steak).
After dinner we head back to Carleton to debrief for a couple of hours before it's bed time.
Another great example of people succeeding in business - these guys source canadian materials for their products and are the only certified organic personal care product company in Canada. We get a history lesson of the company and then a tour of the facility. We walk through a warehouse where everything says "made in canada" or "product of Canada" - the complete opposite of the Walmart warehouse in Cornwall. We see and smell things like lemongrass, cranberry seed extract and fresh lavender. Then we head into the actual lab and see what looks like massive kitchen aid mixers. He's generous to give us a lip balm as a parting gift and all of us are really excited to test it out. Perfection and as usual we're tight on time and it's off to meet with the mayor of Hawkesbury to discuss their strategic planning process.
Having gone through the strat plan process at the UBC Library a few years ago (and when I say gone through, I mean observe as support staff weren't really involved). It sounded like they did do a lot of consultation with various people in the community and we left impressed by the pride in their Franco-Ontarian culture as well as the lengths they went to to involve the residents in the strategic plan. At this point we're getting tired and need a pick-me-up - and so glad that Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. was next on the list.
Now that we're happy and refreshed it's an hour long bus ride to Ottawa where we will check into our accommodations at Carleton University before heading to Dow's Lake to have dinner at Lago with the ladies from the City for All Women Initiative.
The CAWI women were amazing - 3 very different ladies with very different lenses on things. CAWI is a network for women of all walks of life, ethnicities, religions, professions where they can learn about getting involved in municipal politics (whether as eventual candidates, lobbyists, activists). They work with CUPE and PSAC on facilitation skills and this really makes me proud of my union. Labour is involved in our communities in so many different ways...I am impressed and feel like I've found 3 kindred spirits in these amazing women. All hail the sisterhood! Dinner was delicious and I'm happy to eat chicken (need a break from steak).
After dinner we head back to Carleton to debrief for a couple of hours before it's bed time.
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