August 14, 2012 - New Member September Smith

Reported by Peter Lawrie:

President Joan and Tom Lidkea started the meeting with a rousing “O Canada”!

Joan gave the following welcome: Individual Rotary clubs belong to Rotary International. Individual members, or Rotarians, belong to a club. The club is where most of Rotarians' meaningful service work is carried out. Clubs can be engaged not only in their communities, but also internationally. What Rotarians get out of Rotary depends largely on what they put into it.

Pablo offered thanks for our meeting and lunch and thoughts about people less fortunate in the world that we, as Rotarians, can make a difference with.

John Jordan introduced Visitors:

Visiting Rotarians:

-       Jaime Boyle – Kelowna Sunrise Rotary – Lawyer

Visitors and sponsors:

-       Marco Fernandez – Claire Helm + Barry Mutter

-       Phil Backman – John Edgell

-       Maria Leupelt – Ron Cooley

Health of the Club – Mary

-       President Joan has knee surgery scheduled for Friday morning. We all wished her well! A card was circulated.

-       Fie, one of our previous exchange students has had a little one and mother and child are doing well. Photos were circulated.

Report on Hot Dog sales at the Bowker Creek Artist Brush Up:

-       Final report due but we are estimating $400 -$500 net proceeds.

-       President Joan recognized the 20 people who volunteered on the day of and in advance. Special mention goes to Bob Schelle, Batya, John Jordan and Don O’Coffey for double duty.

Joan Firkins was the Celebrations Master (aka Fines Extractor!) and cleverly and cheerfully emptied most pockets in the room of their weekly budgets and then a further dent into their life savings. She delighted in fining a large humble crowd of people (including your intrepid reporter!) for not signing in; David Phillips for crushing her hand in a robust hand shake; John Jordan for a fashion indiscretion of wearing socks with sandals; President Joan for “over-instruction of the group” and many others. The sound of loonies and toonies dropping in the kettles was deafening and lengthy!

September Smith (left) was formally inducted to the club. September will be on the PR committee. Jack Petrie is her sponsor. September will be a wonderful, engaged member. In fact, she jumped into service immediately after her induction to introduce our guest speaker, Bruce Carter, CEO of Victoria Chamber of Commerce.

A very Interesting speaker he was too. Bruce gave his personal views about economic and political trends and issues globally, their impact nationally and then their impact locally, particularly as they impacted the 5 major driving industries.

The 5 major “driving” industries (growth generating) in Victoria were described as:




      1)    Tourism

2)    Education (UVic rivals Tourism with 17,000 students, staff and faculty)

3)    Government

4)    Technology

5)    Marine (Ship building and other related services)

In recent travels, Bruce toured places in the US that had whole shopping centres with only one store open. Victoria was spared this in 2008/2009/2010. Our unemployment did go up to 7% but is back down to 5.6% now. The things/industries that keep us stable in a severe downturn also limit the size of the spike during a boom.

US elections matter to our National and local economies. More than a trillion dollars a day cross the US/Canada border. The key is to get a president that can work with both houses to make something happen. US are considering smaller more diverse banks. Canada has the best banking system in the world and the US should be studying it as a model.

Euro financial uncertainty will have an impact on Canada. The uncertainty can’t last indefinitely. Europe is a bigger factor to Eastern Canada than BC. If Italy, Spain, Greece and others default, it will have a big impact on our banks.

In Asia, Japan, a large trading partner, is mired in no growth. The rise of China has some challenges to maintain. Because it is a source of very cheap labour they have not devoted a lot of time to productivity innovation. As a result some products made in China have several times more hours of labour than an equivalent one in North America. At the first sign of wage inflation in China, the impact on production costs will begin to increase significantly.

Brazil and other South American countries are growing, stable and have rich oil, gas and other materials. These are becoming much more attractive investment opportunities.

Mexico is being largely overlooked because of current drug cartel issues.

There are encouraging signs that the US is coming back.

The education market is growing and UVic is well respected and positioned. Ship building is looking forward to solid growth.

Federal Politics:

Stability and majority is usually more important than the particular party elected. After years of minority government and treading water, the current government is at least operating on a clear agenda, making decisions and taking action

Provincial Politics:

If change in government, it may be bad for provincial taxpayers in general, but Victoria may do well. We would likely have 3to 4 Cabinet ministers and may attract some infrastructure funding for LRT and sewage treatment plant. Wage increases are likely to be larger.

Visit http://www.victoriachamber.ca/ for more information about the Chamber.

Tav thanked Bruce for an interesting and challenging presentation.

Joan and Tom closed the meeting with a hand clapping version of God Save the Queen.