Future of Health and Wellness Speaker Series

The prepared remarks of President Claude Brulé.

January 24, 2020

Good morning everyone, bonjour, kwe.

Before we continue, I’d like to pause for a moment and acknowledge that today’s event is taking place on the traditional and unceded land of the Algonquin people

 

My name is Claude Brulé and I am the President and CEO of Algonquin College and your host, for today’s breakfast. I am very pleased to announce and welcome our new Future of Health and Wellness Speaker Series partner, Bruyère.

I would also like to welcome all of you and thank you for joining us this morning for our “Future of Health and Wellness” speaker series event where we share ideas, spark conversations, and discuss matters of relevance to the future of health and wellness across our community.

At this time, I would like to acknowledge the presence of a number of community stakeholders in the room, specifically including:

Government:

  • Keith Egli, City Councillor Ward 9, City of Ottawa
  • Stephane Giguére, Chief Executive Officer, Ottawa Community Housing Corporation

Bruyére Members:

  • Peggy Taillon, President, Bruyére Foundation
  • Amy Porteous, VP, Public Affairs, Planning and Family Medicine
  • Mitchell Kutney, Director, Innovation and Development, Bruyère
  • Jesse Creesman-Dickinson, Director of Communications
  • Alan Wainwright, Board Member, Bruyére Foundation

Algonquin College Board of Governors

  • Gail Beck
  • James Robblee
  • Jay McLaren
  • Jeff Darwin
  • Stephen Tudor

 

We welcome you to the College and to our Healthy Living Education initiative. We are always happy to meet our community neighbours and welcome you to our events.

I would also like to take a moment to welcome our online viewers joining us via web streaming. Whether you are watching online or are onsite, help us keep the conversation going and share this speaker series information on your social platforms by using our event hashtags #ACHLE and #ONHealth

It is hard to believe that this is our twenty–second installment of this series. As I look around the room, I can tell that some of you are returning guests, but there are also some new faces in the crowd today. For the newcomers in the room, you are probably unaware that you are actually sitting in a classroom right now for our Algonquin College culinary and hospitality students.

And now that you have literally tasted their work, I think you will agree that our learners are leaving this institution with an outstanding education.

Those of you who are returning know the calibre of our speakers and the subject matter that we have explored. We have talked about health, wellness, innovation, public policy, and government policy. And, as always, we have a meaningful morning planned for you today and two speakers we are honoured to host. I am really looking forward to hearing from our guests and I know all of you are as well, so without further ado, I would like to invite our event partner Peggy Taillon to provide some insight on key initiatives of Bruyère, and to introduce our keynote speakers.