It’s wonderful to rise here today to recognize the outstanding work of the general manager of the Stratford and District Chamber of Commerce, Eddie Matthews. He recently announced that he will be retiring from the chamber. I’ve had the privilege of working with Eddie in his capacity as general manager during my time as a member in this assembly for Perth–Wellington, and even before I arrived in this place.

Eddie is a diligent and hard-working individual who always has the best interests of our business community at heart.

Eddie has been with the chamber for the past five years, and during his time as general manager, he endured tough challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, completely reworking the chamber, how they ran their key events, and he was there for our small businesses as they dealt with those challenges. He was there to support our local businesses in good times and bad. He has played a key role in expanding the chamber of commerce membership beyond Stratford and into the area of West Perth and St. Marys.

Speaker, before Eddie was even general manager of the chamber, he had a long and successful career in radio. And I know in whatever he does next, he will succeed again.

I would like to sincerely extend my gratitude to Eddie for all of his service and leadership to our community.

I wish you all the best in your next chapter with Lori.

I just want to rise to introduce Bruce Whitaker from Stratford, a newly elected trustee in the Avon Maitland District School Board, who is here, obviously, as well, for the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association. I look forward to meeting with you after question period, Bruce.

Earlier this fall, I had the opportunity to attend the Stratford Optimism Place women’s shelter 40th anniversary celebrations. Optimism Place provides an integral service to our community. They offer shelter, counselling and protection for women and children in abusive or precarious situations.

At their anniversary celebrations, they also marked the official ground-breaking ceremony of their 7,000-square-foot, 18-bed expansion project. This expansion project will add 10 new bedrooms, seven new washrooms, three laundry rooms, a new playground, two counselling offices, a multi-purpose meeting space and a kitchenette. Through private donors, government and in-kind support, they’ve already raised 80% of their $5-million capital budget.

I’m pleased to announce they also received over $100,000 through the Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund. They plan to use this funding to support additional staff, programming and the development of an Optimism social enterprise initiative. This physical expansion and the new social enterprise initiative will allow Optimism Place to help more women and children in our communities.

Congratulations, again, to Jasmine and the entire team. Thank you for everything you do in our community.