Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman will present Mike Currie, Prince Edward Island (PEI) Minister of Development & Technology, and the people of PEI with a key to the city of Toronto in honour of the province's kindness and generosity through the SARS crisis. An announcement is scheduled to take place at City Hall in downtown Toronto on Monday, July 28, 2003, where Minister Currie will join Mayor Lastman to officially declare July 28 "PEI Day" in Toronto.
In May 2003, Minister Currie travelled to Toronto to announce the gift of more than 20,000 pounds of mussels to city restaurants to help win tourism back to Toronto after the SARS outbreak. Mayor Mel Lastman was in attendance at the May event and proposed declaring a "PEI day" in Toronto to honour the Island.
"I was overwhelmed by PEI's generosity of donating 20,000 premium PEI mussels after what we had been through," said Mel Lastman, Mayor of the City of Toronto. "PEI has been the first to offer a helping hand, not once, but twice. PEI is the province with heart, and the people who live there have demonstrated it over and over again. There will always be a special place for PEI in Toronto and, in honour of your province's graciousness, I have declared one day a year as a day to celebrate PEI in Toronto."
"The City of Toronto has always been an important friend and customer to us and we hope this relationship continues to grow even stronger for many years to come," said Minister Currie. "We wanted to assist this City in anyway possible and would rise to the occasion again if need be. It's certainly a great pleasure and honour to have Mayor Lastman and the people of Toronto declare July 28 "PEI Day" in Toronto.
The PEI Mussel promotion began May 12, 2003 and ran until May 16, 2003. The mussels were purchased from PEI processors who already supplied to the existing Toronto market. They were shipped to seafood distributors and supplied to several different seafood restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area.