Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand in the House today to acknowledge the tremendous work of Meredith Brown, of Ottawa Riverkeeper, who will be stepping down from her position as riverkeeper after 15 years of stellar advocacy.
Ottawa Riverkeeper is a non-profit charity whose special responsibility is to be the full-time public advocate for the Ottawa River watershed. It is the riverkeeper's job to educate, identify citizen complaints and figure out solutions to problems that affect our watershed.
Meredith Brown has served the public interest, working tirelessly to protect and restore our watershed. Under her leadership, the organization has grown from one to 10 employees and now includes hundreds of volunteers. Fundraising efforts are more solid than ever, and relations with the Algonquin nation have improved dramatically.
I would like to thank this Pontiac constituent for her hard work, her dedication and her commitment to protecting our right to swim, drink and fish in the Ottawa River. We need leaders like Meredith Brown to continue to ensure the ecological integrity of our habitats across Canada.
On behalf of the entire national capital community, I thank Meredith. Meegwetch. Merci.