Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House and recognize the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, the world's largest maple syrup festival.
The festival is a local tradition, dating back to 1965. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of guests from all around the world have visited Elmira to celebrate.
This past weekend, we celebrated the 56th annual and first virtual festival, featuring an online sugarbush tour, virtual taffy demonstrations, contests and sales of pancake boxes featuring local syrup Producer of the Year, Hoover's Maple Syrup.
The food, the entertainment and the sense of community that the festival builds is due to the tremendous dedication of the many volunteers who make this annual event possible. Since the inception, over $1.7 million in proceeds have been returned to our community to charitable and not-for-profit organizations.
I congratulate the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival volunteers for their milestone anniversary, their resilience and their success.