Interview with the Honourable Michael Chan

The Honourable Michael Chan
Minister of Tourism and Culture
Province of Ontario

PART THREE

I’ll now switch gears a little and give you more INSIDE SCOOP about Tourism and Culture from Minister Chan. I have written a lot about volunteers and the importance of these dedicated people to our society! Minister Chan added to this issue by saying “can you imagine going to a festival or event (or even our local hospitals) without volunteers!” Michael Chan feels “Ontario is one of the most generous jurisdictions in Canada and (he) is very proud of this”! He states these volunteers greatly help our economy. Minister Chan was emphatic that he was correct on his statistics, as he himself worked on them. They even surprised me! As many of you may know, I have volunteered at Lang Pioneer Village and Museum in Keene, Ontario for the last couple of years. Here, I help the 120+ volunteers during the course of the visitor season. I was surprised, when speaking with Melanie Fernandez the Director of Community and Educational Program’s at the Harbourfront Centre in downtown Toronto, that she is responsible for co-ordinating 4,000+ volunteers for Harbourfront's events and activities. Minister Chan’s, statistics state that approximately 5 million volunteers, in Ontario alone, are helping our economy, by not only increasing revenue into our communities, decreasing personnel costs, but, by adding a work force that Minister Chan goes on to say "this adds 8-10 billion dollars in time costs alone". All this done by the hard work and dedication of these volunteers!
(To Be Continued)