Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Chair, and thanks to colleagues on the committee.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll take advice from you on how best to do that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for that question. Let me deal with the second part first. It was Lord Howell, the British minister responsible for Commonwealth affairs, who said, at a meeting of the Commonwealth foreign ministers at the UN three weeks ago, that one of the reasons countries want to b

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. The first goal is to take the very constructive premise of the Commonwealth scholarship...which has gone on for many years, and has facilitated young people from across the Commonwealth doing their graduate work in other Commonwealth countries and coming back with all tho

Foreign Affairs committee  No question about it; those are the vital linkages between networks that make such a huge difference. It was Her Majesty the Queen who said a few years ago that the Commonwealth was the ultimate Internet network. It was the ultimate World Wide Web network that connected differe

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a very important question. Our recommendation, very simply, is as follows. We would probably like to see a budgetary amount somewhere in the vicinity of 500,000 British pounds associated with the creation of this position, and some technical support. Also, we would like to

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam. First, as you will know, the Prime Minister of Canada has been very clear on this issue. He signalled some weeks ago that he was not prepared to agree to attend the next meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government, which is scheduled for Sri Lanka in two y

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a little bit after 10:15 in the evening here on Tuesday, so we're about 12 hours ahead of you.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair and members of the committee, for your interest. When the heads of government of the Commonwealth met in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in October of 2009, there was a concern expressed about the Commonwealth perhaps losing a little bit of its relevance, not being as

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I can hear you loud and clear.

Human Resources committee  I think you are totally right. The tightening up of eligibility requirements in the 1990s led to this situation, where a large number of unemployed workers were not eligible. That represents a challenge to making the EI system more inclusive than it is now. I am thinking about t

Human Resources committee  It is a matter of understanding the problem of those who do not qualify under the program's current rules. It would be nice if we could change the program. But if we are not willing to do that, we cannot leave those who are not covered without any financial aid. That is the disti

Human Resources committee  My colleague may disagree, and he's my chairman so I will defer, but I would say to move it on the disability front first. That has two benefits. First of all, I don't think there's one Canadian in fifty who would differ with the notion that we can do a better job for the disab

Human Resources committee  Madam Chair, we're in the Senate. We have nowhere more exciting to be than here. This is as good as it gets for us.

Human Resources committee  I think you are talking about the core problem of a social safety net that was designed with the following assumption: people retired at 65 and they died between 65 and 72. That meant, by the way, that a lot of the people who run into disease between the ages of 65 and 82 were no