Mr. Speaker, the 17th Annual Aboriginal Achievement Awards will be held on March 26. I was proud to learn that a resident of my riding, Ms. Édith Cloutier, will receive the public service award.
Ms. Cloutier knows very well the duality of a mixed heritage as her mother was Algonquin and her father was a Quebecker.When only 23 years old, she became the executive director of the Val-d'Or Native Friendship Centre, which seeks to improve the lives of urban aboriginal people and relations between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples.
With her exceptional administrative talents, Édith Cloutier has made the Val d'Or Friendship Centre one of the most important and dynamic of the hundred such centres in Canada.
Ms. Cloutier has received many other awards in addition to this one. She became a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec in 2006.
Congratulations Ms. Cloutier.