President’s Message Karen Huestis CSA President By the time most of you read this, you will have arrived at your winter homes. Although most of us headed south last snowbird travel season, there are many who will be travelling for the first time this winter. After two years of travel restrictions, it is nice to be back. Hurricane Ian had a devastating impact on many of our Florida members. Thankfully, most were in Canada during the hurricane and were not physically hurt, but we know that many of you are dealing with extensive property damage. There is obviously a great deal to process and navigate, but we have some information available that will hopefully prove to be useful, if you find yourself in this situation. You can read more about this in Ron Steeves’ Government Relations Report in this issue of the magazine. It seems as if we are in the midst of the latest round of negative media stories telling us that the sky is falling for snowbirds. Between significant inflation and a diminished Canadian dollar, there are certainly legitimate concerns – but we have faced similar circumstances before. In January of 2002, the Canadian dollar was trading at 62 cents U.S. – snowbirds were supposed to stay home in droves, they did not. We were told that snowbirds were certainly going to stay home during the winter of 2008/2009 due to the world financial crisis, they did not. Snowbirds are the most experienced and resilient travellers out there. Sure, we may not go out to dinner as often, or play that extra round of golf this winter, but we make adjustments. Again, after two years of travel restrictions and lockdowns, the early indications are that our members are headed south in large numbers. CSA members may once again book a member of your board of directors to make an information presentation directly to their winter community or club. These presentations provide updates about all of the latest initiatives on which the association has been working to further the interests of our members. We attempt to answer any questions that you may have about a wide variety of snowbird-related topics. It seems that the rules and regulations – particularly regarding cross-border travel – are constantly changing so, in my view, these presentations are more valuable than ever before. We need a minimum attendance of 25 people, a suitable presentation room and a projection screen or blank wall – relatively simple, right? To book a presentation for your local winter community or club, simply contact the CSA office in Toronto by emailing them at csastaff@snowbirds.org. These presentations are free of charge and open to members and non-members alike. The ninth edition of the Canadian Travellers’ Report Card is almost complete and will be available on our website in January 2023. We publish and update it every two years so, as you can see, we have been at this for quite a while. For those of you who are new members, it is one of our most popular publications. It examines five key areas of importance to snowbird travellers. These areas include preservation of health coverage, access to emergency health care outside of Canada, prescriptionmedication supply policies, absentee voting information and availability of government information. We research the practices and policies of the federal, provincial and territorial governments, give them an opportunity to address our findings, and then have each jurisdiction graded by an independent third party. You can check out the current version now at www.snowbirds.org and again, the updated version will be available in January. With the 2022 U.S. midterm elections now (almost) complete, it looks like the Democratic Party has maintained control of the U.S. Senate and the Republicans have regained a slim majority in the House of Representatives. These kinds of numbers pose challenges and complicate either party’s ability to govern. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a key sponsor of our Canadian Snowbirds Act, was elected to a new six-year term in the United States Senate. The initial sponsor of our companion bill, the Canadian Snowbird Visa Act, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21), retained her seat in the United States House of Representatives. Thanks again to everyone who has renewed their membership during our annual renewal drive. Our membership numbers have actually increased during the course of the pandemic and we are extremely grateful for that. Bill and I wish you a safe and relaxing snowbird season in your winter homes. 10 | www.snowbirds.org
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