About Us

There are currently more than 46,000 people living with Parkinson’s Disease in Ontario.

  • The provincial average wait time to meet with a Parkinson’s specialist is 11 months.
  • It is estimated that there is only one Parkinson’s specialist for every 1,379 people living with Parkinson’s in Ontario.
  • 54% of care partners in Ontario feel they do not have sufficient access to information or resources.
  • Over 50% of individuals pay out of pocket for exercise programs and physiotherapy. (Source: Parkinson’s Canada)

Living Better with Parkinson’s provides ongoing educational and physical activity programs to people living with Parkinson’s Disease in South Georgian Bay including Meaford, Town of the Blue Mountains, Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Stayner and Creemore. Little to no program fees are requested for a person to participate.

Daily physical activity, up to date education and an opportunity to connect social are essential ingredients to maintaining and or increasing the well-being of people who live with Parkinson’s Disease.

Mission

Living Better with Parkinson’s promotes physical activity – every day. We do this by providing a safe space, excellent programs, and a supportive community.

Living Better with Parkinson’s activities include program development, implementation and delivery, education, and advocacy.

Objectives

Programs: To develop and deliver to Person’s with Parkinson’s innovative, non-invasive treatment initiatives, based on proven science base lifestyle and fitness programs.

Support: To develop and deliver mentoring capabilities and educational linkages to assist people with Parkinson’s and their families understand and navigate through their journey with PD.

Education: To foster the development of knowledge and capabilities within the medical/caregiving communities within south Georgian Bay assisting with identifying an early and accurate diagnosis of PD.

 

Charitable Registration Number:  78469 4861 RR 0001

Board of Directors

C. Ian Ross, Chair

C. Ian Ross is an experienced executive with more than 40 years of leadership roles in various industries including pulp and paper, banking and finance, computer software, early stage venture investing, crown corporations and not for profits. He has served as a Director and Chair of several corporate organizations and Chair of Committees in those entities. He was Chair of Pet Valu Inc., Menu Foods Income Trust, GrowthWorks Canadian Fund, Cathay Forest Products, and the Independent Review Committee of the Mutual Funds of Tangerine Bank.

Ian served on the Board of Directors of Ontario Power Generation for over 10 years. During that time he served as a member of the Audit and Finance Committee, the Nomination and Governance Committee, the Nuclear Oversight Committee and as Chair of the Risk Oversight Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee.

From 1993 to 1997 he was Chair President and CEO of Provincial Papers Inc. He led the company from an annual operating loss of $30 million to an annual profit of $20 million. The Company was sold in 1997 for $26 million having been sold to the employees for $1 in 1993.

In recognition of his contribution Ian was selected as Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year for Ontario in 1995. He served as a Trustee of the not for profit McMichael Gallery and as Chair of the Governance Committee during a period when the Province of Ontario legislation governing the Gallery was being reviewed and updated.

Ian was Senior Director Administration for four years at the Ivey School of Business at Western University following the sale of Provincial Papers under the leadership of the then Dean Lawrence Tapp.

Ian lives in Collingwood with his wife Judy who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease 12 years ago. He is a Life Member of the Law Society of Ontario.

Marie Rounding

Ms Rounding is a former public and private sector executive and change leader with arecognized background in regulatory and administrative law. She also has significant leadership and board governance experience in health care, the arts and energy sectors.

She is a retired lawyer who was Counsel for 12 years at Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP in the National Energy and Infrastructure Group. Ms Rounding also served as a member of the board of directors for over a decade of both Ontario Power Generation Inc. and Nova Scotia Power Inc. and chaired a number of their board committees. Currently she serves on the board of directors
of EPCOR Electricity Distribution Ontario Inc. Ms Rounding is also designated an Institute-certified director, ICD.D.

Ms Rounding has held a number of leadership roles including Chair of the Ontario Energy Board and President and CEO of the Canadian Gas Association. Before that she served in a number of senior legal positions in the Ontario government, including Director of the Crown Law Office, Civil Law for the Ministry of the Attorney General.

She is currently Chair of the Independent Review Committee for investment fund manager NEI Investments Inc. and is also Chair of the Emerge Canada Inc Independent Review Committee. Previously she served as a member and ultimately Chair of two other Independent Review Committees for terms of eight and ten years.

Ms Rounding has served on a number of Not for Profit boards, including as Board Chair of Canada’s National Ballet School and Board Chair of the Doctors Hospital. She has been active on a number of other health care board and board committees, including nine years on the board of the Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation. Currently she is Board Chair of the Kensington Health Foundation and Vice Chair of the board of Theatre Collingwood.

Ms Rounding has been a resident of Collingwood for over 35 years, gradually shifting from part-time to full-time residency. Two of her three first cousins have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Sue Alexander Ash

Sue recently retired after a 34-year career in marketing and advertising. She is an experienced media professional with an expertise in strategic planning, media buying, and account management. Sue spent most of her career working for the leading global media agencies, WPP
and IPG.

Over the course of her career, she cultivated strong leadership skills, strategic planning and negotiation skills. She led numerous planning teams, built strong relationships with clients and media vendors. built and mentored numerous planning teams and was a strong member of the executive teams for the agencies she worked for. In the last 15+ years of her career, Sue was an important part of the leadership executive at WPP and IPG in Canada.

In the past 2 years, Sue has become more involved with various groups centred around Parkinson’s. Her  father, an ophthalmologist, died 6 years ago of PD. Since then, Sue has joined a business advisory board at UHN with a focus on movement disorders and PD, she is also on the organizing committee for The Growling Beaver Brevet. GBB raised $2.4 million in 6-7 years for PD research. She has very recently joined the board of Living Better with Parkinson’s.

Sue retired in January 2019, and now spends most of her time in Collingwood. She is an avid skier, cyclist, and hopeful golfer.

Jim Karn

Mr. Karn was a member of the SC Infrastructure (“SCI”) team. SCI has expertise in and is focused on the complete turnkey development, financing and implementation of infrastructure projects on a global basis with an emphasis on transportation related facilities

Mr. Karn was also President of Compcon Limited and co-founder and former senior partner at Project Control Group Inc. (“PCGI”), an Ontario based technical specialty company providing project planning and delivery services. Since the establishment of Compcon in 1986, Mr. Karn has been providing specialized services to assist owners in planning, developing, scheduling and controlling integrated project delivery strategies.

The foundation of this work was based on solutions which were developed in joint venture with a professor at UBC Engineering in the area of creating project management planning and scheduling software systems for the development and construction industry.

With this foundation he led his companies in the successful delivery of specialized project planning and control services on landmark commercial projects such as; Toronto’s $300 million CBC Broadcast Centre, the $400+ million Nortel Head Office, Toronto’s $150 million CIBC Commerce Court Renewal, Calgary’s $150 million Chinook Plaza (for Teachers’ Pension Fund), and major projects for Bank of Montreal, including their Institute For Learning and new BMO Nesbitt Burns Trading Floor and support offices at First Canadian Place, and a similar Trading Floor and facilities for BNS at Scotia Plaza. His “in kind” service to Toronto’s Olympic Bid Committee also helped convert the 2008 Bid Business Plan into a total integrated delivery strategy.

He also helped PCGI successfully focus on institutional infrastructure projects in the hospital sector, to set up phased delivery strategies related to public and private fund-raising initiatives and partnerships for hospital expansion projects at South Lake hospital (Newmarket), Credit Valley Hospital (Mississauga), and other Ontario hospitals, as well as an Ontario Science Centre initiative. These strategies, which also integrated the planning and execution of a risk management process, were reported to clients via customized summary charts and graphs, in order to facilitate a clear “big-picture” understanding of the integrated relationship of the delivery strategy’s component parts, status, and all stakeholder responsibilities. This information was included in all RFP’s to ensure that the owner’s delivery strategy was properly understood and implemented.

In the past, Mr. Karn’s companies have supported SCI in the development and implementation of total project delivery strategies for numerous successful transportation infrastructure projects including:

  • Confederation Bridge Project, Atlantic Canada
  • Cassiar Connector, Vancouver, B.C.
  • Calgary Transportation Project Office
  • LRT transit systems in Calgary and Vancouver

Mr. Karn was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2012.

Andrew Hill

Andrew has recently retired from a 40-year career in project management. Andrew was a project management and development professional with extensive experience in project management, business development, client services and account management, team motivation and coordination. Considered a sound general manager, with full abilities in all aspects of project and team management, design and engineering team coordination, project finance and contracts management, construction management, project delivery and contract close out.

Andrew has lived in the South Georgian Bay area for 23 years. During this period Andrew was a senior team member of Intrawest Resort Development having successfully developed the resort village located at Blue Mountain. Andrew was also a board director, board chairman and president of the Georgian Triangle Development Institute, a real estate advocacy and advisory organization established in the 1970’s. In the 10-year period before Andrew’s retirement he was a senior project manager for Starwood Hotels managing new hotel development and comprehensive renovations of existing hotels across North America.

Andrew was diagnosed to have Parkinson’s in the spring of 2020. While his symptoms are relatively mild, the disease continues to progress inspiring Andrew to be involved with treatment research and best practices to living well with Parkinson’s.

Founding Members
Larry and Barb Hall
C. Ian Ross
Jim Karn
Penny Preston
Heather Birchall