Alexandrine Latendresse

[Democracy in Ukraine, October 18th, 2011]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his speech.

Essentially, I would like to ask him the question I asked earlier of my colleague from British Columbia Southern Interior regarding younger Ukrainians.

What steps could Canada take to help the younger generations gain a better understanding of democracies abroad including western democracies, such as Canada's? Perhaps we could encourage young Ukrainians to come and study in Canada and see what could be done to improve democracy in their own country when they return.

[Democracy in Ukraine, October 18th, 2011]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the hon. member for his excellent speech. It was very inspiring. I would like to ask him a question about the young generation of Ukrainians. I would like to hear his opinion. Does he think that it would be a good idea to encourage more young Ukrainians to come to university here, to come and see Canada and its democratic institutions? I would like to hear what he has to say about what kind of effect he thinks this might have on Ukraine's population and future.

[Democracy in Ukraine, October 18th, 2011]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my colleague for her excellent speech. It was very interesting. I want to come back to a fairly crucial point in her speech. She spoke about the separation of the executive and the judiciary. Separation of these two branches is truly of the utmost importance to a society.

I would like her to speak more about the many problems this could cause and what historical factors could have caused the line between the two branches to be blurred.

[Democracy in Ukraine, October 18th, 2011]

Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague for his very interesting speech. I would like to know what the government plans to do in order to put these words into action. Basically, we are all very concerned about the current situation. Will any concrete action be taken in order to indicate to the Ukrainian government that we disagree with what it is doing and why? What can we do to send a clear message?

[Democracy in Ukraine, October 18th, 2011]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the hon. member for her enlightening speech. It was very interesting to hear about the young Ukrainians travelling abroad who are learning what democracy, in the west or elsewhere, can do. Programs were recently set up to encourage as many students and other young Ukrainians as possible to come to Canada to study. It would be wonderful to encourage more of these types of programs that allow youth to come to Canada, to study here and to see what can be had in the west. When they return to Ukraine, they might want to take those ideas back home. Could the hon. member comment on that?

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, October 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I was listening closely to my colleague's speech. He provided a very long list of tax credits being proposed in this budget. Unfortunately, for the most part, they are non-refundable. Therefore these tax credits mean nothing to those who do not pay taxes or pay very little in taxes, because they will not be able to use them. The bottom line is that those who need help the most to ensure that their children can take part in certain activities will not have access to these measures.

How will encouraging these measures help those who are most needy right now?

[Service Canada, October 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, government cuts to Service Canada are harming the most vulnerable Canadians. There are places in the country where it is no longer possible to speak to a human being. The telephone system hangs up on people who call before they are even able to speak to an agent. By cutting jobs at Service Canada, the government is choking the system.

Why is the government cutting services for unemployed Canadians?

[Senate Reform Act, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, since a member just asked a question about term limits and the fact that senators can now serve up to the age of 75, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on the fact that, at present, senators must be at least 30 years old. We are talking about better representation of the regions and of the Canadian population. How can an elected Senate represent the people if none of the elected senators is under 30 years of age?

[Senate Reform Act, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I listened closely to the hon. member's speech, which was very interesting. He stated repeatedly that the primary functions of the Senate are to represent the regions and to be a chamber of sober second thought.

Given that that is the Senate's core mandate and that, in fact, since the Senate has existed, it has actually achieved regional representation only a handful of times, how will a partisan election, with the fights between parties, help this regional representation and this chamber of sober second thought, which is supposed to be wise, non-partisan and independent?

How will elections help fulfill this mandate?

[Senate Reform Act, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague, whose speech I very much enjoyed.

I would like to know what he thinks about more substantive and fundamental reform of our parliamentary institutions. The former Bill C-20 on Senate reform very clearly set out a transition towards a means of direct election for the Senate, which would completely change the system. This bill was simply a transition. That was completely cut out of the bill before us today. There is no more talk of a transition or of more substantive changes. This seems to be all that the Conservatives have to offer us by way of reform. I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about that.