Speech (House debate)

{
    "time": "2009-04-27 17:15:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Mr. Serge M\u00e9nard",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"1424799\" data-originallang=\"fr\">Mr. Speaker, the member for <a data-HoCid=\"128199\" href=\"/politicians/mark-holland/\" title=\"Mark Holland\">Ajax\u2014Pickering</a> is correct. This is in fact something we were forewarned about. We were warned a long time in advance and the present government has done absolutely nothing to prepare for it. These are the last things in its initiative, when it could certainly have facilitated passport issuance or negotiated a less costly formula with the United States. It is quite unfortunate that it did not.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1424800\" data-originallang=\"fr\"> I am not the oldest member of this House, but I am still older than the average. I can still remember the day when relations between the two countries were so close that we could easily drive over the border in our parents\u2019 car to go on holiday down south. Our parents did not have to have any documents. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1424801\" data-originallang=\"fr\"> Cities were built on the border. I recently travelled to Stanstead. One family, whose name I forget but who had become very wealthy, lived in the area near Stanstead at that time, in Rouses Point, in the United States. It was a community. They decided to build a municipal library on the border. It is still there, so that education can be encouraged equally on both sides. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1424802\" data-originallang=\"fr\"> In any event, I understand that we now have to have a passport to go there, but the government could have facilitated things well before it did take action.</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"1424799\" data-originallang=\"fr\">Monsieur le Pr\u00e9sident, le d\u00e9put\u00e9 d'<a data-HoCid=\"128199\" href=\"/politicians/mark-holland/\" title=\"Mark Holland\">Ajax\u2014Pickering</a> a raison. C'est effectivement une chose pour laquelle nous \u00e9tions avertis. Nous avons \u00e9t\u00e9 avertis bien longtemps \u00e0 l'avance et le gouvernement actuel n'a absolument rien fait pour nous pr\u00e9munir de cela. Ce sont les derni\u00e8res choses sur son initiative alors qu'il aurait pu certainement faciliter l'\u00e9mission de passeports, ou encore n\u00e9gocier avec les \u00c9tats-Unis une formule moins co\u00fbteuse. C'est quelque chose d'assez triste. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1424800\" data-originallang=\"fr\">Je ne suis pas le plus vieux parlementaire de cette Chambre, mais je suis quand m\u00eame plus vieux que la moyenne. Je me souviens encore de cette \u00e9poque o\u00f9 les relations entre les deux pays \u00e9taient si \u00e9troites que l'on passait facilement la fronti\u00e8re, dans l'automobile de nos parents, pour aller en vacances dans le sud. Nos parents n'avaient aucun document n\u00e9cessaire. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1424801\" data-originallang=\"fr\">Des villes se sont construites sur la fronti\u00e8re. Je suis all\u00e9 r\u00e9cemment \u00e0 Stanstead. Une famille, dont j'ai oubli\u00e9 le nom mais qui est devenue tr\u00e8s riche, vivait \u00e0 l'\u00e9poque dans la r\u00e9gion de Stanstead, \u00e0 Rouses Point, aux \u00c9tats-Unis. C'\u00e9tait une communaut\u00e9. Eux, ont d\u00e9cid\u00e9 de construire une biblioth\u00e8que municipale sur la fronti\u00e8re. Elle y est encore pour que l'\u00e9ducation se r\u00e9pande \u00e9galement des deux c\u00f4t\u00e9s. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1424802\" data-originallang=\"fr\">De toute fa\u00e7on, je comprends qu'il faille maintenant un passeport pour y aller, mais le gouvernement aurait pu faciliter les choses bien avant le moment o\u00f9 il est intervenu. </p>"
    },
    "url": "/debates/2009/4/27/serge-menard-3/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/serge-menard/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/1492/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "2720321",
    "h1": {
        "en": "Government Orders",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "h2": {
        "en": "Business of Supply",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "h3": {
        "en": "Opposition Motion--Canada-United States Border",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "document_url": "/debates/2009/4/27/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fdebates%2F2009%2F4%2F27%2F"
    }
}