Truth and Recconcilliation

By Leela Sharon Aheer Chestermere-Strathmore MLA

Hello Chestermere-Strathmore. What an amazing week around the riding. I am always so blown away by the wonderful, thoughtful and giving folks that live here. I felt so privileged to meet so many candidates in Chestermere and Strathmore and it is fantastic to see so many running in our municipal elections. There have been some great questions and some truly inspired ideas. 

There were so many events this week. Along with learning about “The XPRIZE Foundation, Avatar Innovations and the University of Calgary (UCalgary) announced a partnership to launch a tailor-made accelerator for technologies and companies interested in the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition. Funded by the Musk Foundation, the $100 million Carbon Removal XPRIZE is the largest, most audacious incentive prize in history. 

To win the four-year competition, teams must demonstrate solutions that permanently remove carbon dioxide and reduce the impact of climate change.  The Avatar Carbon Removal Accelerator will offer teams access to industry customers, partners and investors, workspace and facilities in the newly created Energy Transition Centre in downtown Calgary and the opportunity to collaborate with UCalgary researchers in the institution’s labs and testing facilities.” (Release date: Aug. 25).  

I was also honoured to meet the Praeker family. The Praeker family has been farming their land for over 100 years and their commitment to agriculture and the community was rewarded on July 11. Herman and Barb Praeker and their five children were honored during the BMO Farm Family Awards, along with 16 other farming families, at the Calgary Stampede. The Praekers were nominated for the award by Wheatland County. 

I was so happy to be able to attend Farming for Hospice. This is an annual fundraiser to build a six-bed hospice in Wheatland County.  Hospice care is part of the Wheatland & Area Hospice Society’s (WAHS) vision to provide quality rural palliative support to families and friends. Reducing caregiver burnout, improved ability to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients and a desire to stay close to home drive us towards the goal of a local hospice. Thank you to Nutrien, Keith Clayton, Wheatland Hospice and Pioneer Seed. The harvest crew is made up of community neighbors that generously donate their skilled labour, combines and trucks to thresh the crop (pick up the swaths to extract the canola seed). The landscape is beautiful; the work is genuine.  

I also want to thank the Rotary Club in Chestermere and Family and Community Social Services (FCSS) in Strathmore for their beautiful commemorations of the first day of Truth and Reconciliation. It was emotional, beautiful and healing to spend some time with our First Nation and Metis sisters and brothers as we honor those who lost and our first peoples’ amazing resilience. Truth and Reconciliation, what do these words symbolize? For Indigenous communities, it represents understanding and being aware of the cultural genocide that the residential school system had on their livelihoods that still impacts them to this day. Also known as Orange Shirt Day, the significance of the color refers back to the story of Phyllis (Jack) Webstad. When she was six years old, Phyllis recalls when she was stripped away from an orange shirt, which her grandmother gave her, by the staff at St. Joseph Mission Residential School. She never saw that shirt again and it signified how no one cared how she or the other children felt. The impact of this event and subsequent atrocities showed the true nature of these schools. 

As always, we love to hear from you! 

(Leela Sharon Aheer is the MLA Elect for Chestermere-Strathmore)