The days are shorter, weather cooler, and leaves have mostly fallen. Winter is approaching and with it, the anticipation of Christmas markets, concerts, and other events throughout our communities. We also want to pause and take the time to recognize those serving or have served our country by giving their life for the protection of our nation during Remembrance Day. As the world around us becomes more unstable, the importance of their service has been brought to the forefront of our minds. Most of us may not be required to protect Canada with our lives, but we do need to guard the social and economic fabric of our country in such a way that maintains the freedoms we appreciate and enjoy.

We all have a responsibility to strengthen the communities we live in. I firmly believe that by investing our time, energy and resource within the local context, we will create a healthy social economic framework.

As our world has become more complex, a policy or process that once served us well may no longer serve us into the future. Sometimes we try to create simple solutions (if we would just do…) and forget that we create a secondary problem with our simplistic answer. Fear of change can often dominate our decision-making framework, stifling the creative solutions we need to make. Fear can also restrict us to accept the inevitable changes that come as a society matures. Sometimes we hold our ideals too tightly.

Are you willing to engage with your community on the areas of development, healthcare, education, immigration (including local and inter provincial)? Will you engage thoughtfully allowing concerns to be vocalized and respected? Are you willing to release the fear of change and accept that a past way of doing things may need to be adjusted? For our communities to remain healthy, I hope that we can navigate these issues with respect and commit to finding solutions that we can work on together.

We want to thank the many people who write and contribute the various community updates and articles on a regular basis. As we don’t rely on any government funding, your financial support is and has been appreciated in order to provide the not-for-profit organizations an effective means of reaching their community.