Hélène Scherrer

[Outstanding Community Leadership, May 8th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, every year the TD Bank financial group awards a series of scholarships to recognize outstanding community leadership.

This year, 20 young Canadians will receive scholarships of up to $50,000. Valérie Côté of the Sainte-Foy CEGEP will be one of them.

Valérie set up a program to collect and distribute school supplies to less fortunate children. In addition, she set up a committee to promote student's self-esteem, including raising awareness of anorexia.

This does not include the hours she spends tutoring or her participation in a mission of humanitarian aid to Mexico. Yesterday, she also received the Governor General's gold medal for academic excellence among the 6,000 students in her CEGEP.

These students are the next generation of young people. To all the winners go our most sincere congratulations.

[Summit Of The Americas, May 3rd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, at the summit of the Americas, held recently in Quebec City, a number of people and businesses both inside and outside the security perimeter suffered damage and problems.

The Government of Canada has agreed to compensate the businesses within the security perimeter. Does it intend to help all those who suffered damages?

[Canadian Cancer Society, March 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, one year ago today, Marc Lanthier of south shore Montreal lost his long fight against cancer.

On behalf of his family, I would like to remind my colleagues and all Canadians that the month of April is when the Canadian Cancer Society's campaign for funds takes place.

During that period volunteers will be knocking at your doors collecting contributions for the fight against cancer. I encourage you all to be generous with your donations. Help us to win the battle against this killer disease, which last year alone took more than 65,000 members of our big Canadian family.

I would also invite all colleagues to place a donation in the boxes in the two lobbies. All the funds collected will be added up and sent directly to the Cancer Society at the end of the month.

I thank members in advance for their generosity.

[World Poetry Day, March 21st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, UNESCO has designated today as World Poetry Day.

I wish to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the great poets who have left their mark on our literary history. I am thinking of Émile Nelligan, Alain Grandbois, Saint-Denys Garneau, Anne Hébert and Marie-Claire Blais, to name just a few.

This is the perfect opportunity for us to rediscover this art, this creative use of words. I urge everyone to renew their acquaintance with our poets. Their poetry has marked our history and continues to mark the era in which we live. I urge people to discover or rediscover their poems, and laugh, cry, reminisce and reflect.

I would also like to take this opportunity to encourage Canadians to express their feelings through the medium of words.

I and my colleagues hope that this day will also highlight Canadian art generally. The works of our artists help to strengthen our feeling of belonging to Canada, and our pride in who we are.

[Economic Development, March 12th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Minister of National Revenue and Secretary of State responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec announced the renewal for five years of the partnership agreement between the Government of Canada and the community futures development corporations of Quebec, the CFDCs.

Could the minister provide us with a little more detail on the consequences for the regions of Quebec of the renewal of this agreement?

[The Francophonie, March 12th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, many activities relating to the Francophonie are taking place this week.

First, there is the Semaine nationale de la Francophonie and the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie. The major event will be the Journée internationale de la Francophonie, on March 20.

This great celebration will be an opportunity to express our appreciation for a wonderful language that reflects such a rich culture.

Over 9 million Canadians speak French, including 6.6 million for whom French is their mother tongue. The Rendez-vous de la Francophonie are an opportunity for all of us francophones to show our cultural diversity and our contribution to the Canadian society.

The activities relating to the Francophonie will undoubtedly strengthen the ties between Canada's francophones and anglophones.

[Government On Line, February 9th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, on February 2, the Prime Minister launched the Government of Canada's redesigned website.

The purpose of this site is to help Canadians surf the Net and thus inform and empower themselves.

The site was designed to provide Canadians with easier access to the services and information they need.

Members of the business community, in Canada and elsewhere, will also find the site useful because of the information it contains on Canada's political, economic, social and cultural climate.

As the Prime Minister said, the government on line initiative provides Canadians with electronic access to government services, as reaffirmed in the Speech from the Throne.

The purpose of this project is nothing less than making Canada the most connected nation in the world.

[Alexandre Lafleur, February 8th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, allow me first to sincerely thank the people of my riding of Louis-Hébert for according me the honour of representing them in Ottawa.

In addition, I would like to congratulate a young student in Sainte-Foy, Alexandre Lafleur, who is studying natural science at the CEGEP there. He is going on the team Canada trip to China today, sponsored by the pharmaceutical and telecommunications sectors.

This will be a unique experience for this young man and an honour for us to be represented by Mr. Lafleur, nicknamed the “whiz kid” by Quebec City's paper Le Soleil .

I wish Alexandre, an excellent trip.

In closing, I invite my colleagues in the House of Commons to visit the Quebec City region during the carnival, which ends this weekend. There will be the sculptures, the ice palace, hooch filled walking sticks and, of course, Bonhomme Carnaval.

[Carol Anne Letheren, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I know that you will join with me in extending our most heartfelt condolences to Michael Murnagham, the husband of Carol Anne, and to her entire family.

It is with terrible sadness that I inform the House today that, with the death last week of Carol Anne Letheren, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Association and member of the International Olympic Committee, Canada has lost a great friend and a great representative of sport.

Mrs. Letheren lived out her passion for sport by devoting her entire life to sports at the community, national and international levels, as an athlete, official trainer and administrator. In addition to her work with the Olympic movement, Carol Anne was directly involved, as a volunteer, in gymnastics, archery and volleyball.

Mrs. Letheren was a member of many volunteer boards of directors in the fields of education, culture and sport. She taught at the University of Toronto and York University and worked as a strategic management and marketing consultant.

She defended the cause of amateur athletes and devoted herself to promoting Olympic values and helping the Olympic movement to spread in Canada and internationally—