Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to rise in the House to celebrate the life of our friend and colleague, the man from Mattawa, the Hon. Mauril Bélanger.
I want to recognize his exceptional work on behalf of cultural communities, especially the Haitian community in the Outaouais and Ottawa.
Following the 2010 earthquake, Mauril Bélanger established two scholarships, one at the University of Ottawa and the other at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, for gifted university students from Ottawa-Gatineau's Haitian community.
The University of Ottawa scholarship reached its goal of $100,000 in 2015. The UQO scholarship, which will now be known as the Maurice Bélanger scholarship, needs $30,000 to reach its goal of $100,000.
These scholarships, like everything Mauril Bélanger was involved in, will continue to improve people's lives.
Well done, Mauril.