Monday/Lundi

Well we are back in the swing of things this week! A team just arrived from Calgary and they will be with us till Thursday morning, so this week will be a full one. The weekend went really well but I did not attend the conference, which turned out to be a total intervention. Yuanita got pneumonia while she was here and wasn't able to speak on Friday or Saturday, so the organizers were rushed in trying to come up with a back-up plan; so had I attended I think I would have been disappointed in not having the opportunity to hear her speak. We went to Parliament Hill for the first time in 2 weeks, and boy was it good to be back! I made sure I greeted all the guards that I knew (Claude is always there, he's my favorite) and we settled in to hear the debates. Today questions really targeted Gordon O'Connor (the defense minister) because he had presented information in the House of Commons that was not accurate and he apologized to the House for those comments, but they did not let up on drilling him about the mistake. As most of you know, the budget was released today and we were not able to get in unless we had special invitations. By the sounds of things, it was a good budget. There was funding available for minority groups, childcare, and newly weds. (married couples have to pay the same amount of taxes as a single person, because the government would like to honor the marriage commitment Canadians take) There was only 10 minutes for debate and it sounds like the opposition is not happy with the lack of aboriginal funding, but it won't be until Wednesday that we really get to see what has the different parties upset, so I will keep you all posted. As far as tonight was concerned, we had the opportunity to meet the team, tell them a little about ourselves and then head off to bed early for our busy day tomorrow. I hope that you all had an amazing week, and I can't wait to see you all at home again.
Erica