Mr. Speaker, Suzanne Rivard Le Moyne, one of Ottawa's most respected artists, died last month.
The recipient of many awards and prizes, including the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, Ms. Le Moyne exhibited her art in many major cities, such as Montreal and Paris.
In 1972, she founded the Canada Council for the Arts’ Art Bank.
A positive force for change in our country's visual culture, Rivard Le Moyne's determination made the Art Bank the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art, with some 18,000 works in various disciplines by nearly 3,000 artists.
As a passionate and visionary leader, she was articulate, well-informed and always open to new ideas. The memory of Rivard Le Moyne and the impact she had live on.
If my colleagues have not had the opportunity to visit the Art Bank, I suggest they do so. They will be impressed and in turn might want to impress upon their representatives on the Board of Internal Economy the necessity of revisiting the existing restrictions on renting Canadian art from Canadian artists for their offices in the Canadian Parliament.