Member of Parliament for Laurentides–Labelle  Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, elected on October 21, 2019, spoke to us of her major goals and of the challenges that await her in this four-year term with the Bloc Québécois.

With a bachelor’s degree in communication and international certification in management coaching, Marie-Hélène Gaudreau started her career in the forest industry, “at a time when it was considered quite wrong to touch wood substances”, she emphasizes.

She continued her career in the field of culture and communication before becoming political attaché to MP Johanne Deschamps, who at the time also represented the Laurentides–Labelle riding for the Bloc Québécois.

Prior to her leap into federal politics, Madame Gaudreau was director of the Corporation de développement communautaire des Hautes-Laurentides (CDCHL) – the community development corporation for the Upper Laurentians.

Now the Member must make her mark on a huge 19,000-square-kilometre area in which there are three MRCs (regional county municipalities) and 43 municipalities. “It takes three and a half hours by car to drive between the two most distant cities,” says Mme Gaudreau in her interview with Tremblant Express.

Tremblant Express: “How do you see your entry into Ottawa?”

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau: “My first battle horse is to ensure that Laurentides-Labelle receives the largest possible amount of money from the federal coffers. We are currently questioning ourselves about the larger economic models, climate change and the power of the provinces. The issues in Québec are not the same as those in Ontario or Alberta. That’s what will guide our entry into Ottawa.”

T.E.: “Is four years enough to carry out your projects?”

M.-H.G.: “In every ministry there are standard programs that allow several projects to be carried out in less than a year. However, if you want to undertake a non-standard program, it takes longer. To build, we have to work for four years. Sometimes excellent projects are not finished because of expected elections and government reshuffling. That’s why an electoral campaign is a societal issue.”

T.E.: “What are some possible solutions to improve the labour shortage?”

M.-H.G.: “One of the solutions is to ensure that some fiscal hindrances are eliminated. Life expectancy is rising and healthy people are active. A 65-year-old with a tonne of experience might like to train young people or take on new challenges. But at what cost? It could go so far as a tax holiday to avoid the fact that 10 or 15 hours of work a week barely pays or doesn’t pay at all after taxes.”

FOUR MAJOR ROLES

In addition to their work as representatives of the electors in their riding, some Members play additional roles in the parliamentary system. Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc Québécois leader, has also made Marie-Hélène Gaudreau responsible for the portfolios Living Together; Secularism; Information Access; and the Protection of Personal Information and Ethics.

T.E.: “Living Together: does secularism risk suffocating the Québec culture?”

M.-H.G.: “I believe that the opposite is more likely. In our public roles we are all secular and in addition, we have our private lives at home. We expect a person in authority to wear a uniform, and we have no interest in knowing what this person does in their private life. The harmonious cohabitation of the citizens of Québec and Canada as a whole is through the secularism of the State; it’s just a matter of removing the image, judgement and labels.”

T.E.: “Is the concept of Protection of Personal Information utopian?”

M.-H.G.: “Those who use personal information have a duty and a responsibility. Currently, this is not adequately maintained; all you have to think of is the recent tribulations of the 4.4 million members of Desjardins. The other issue is the distress that vulnerable individuals in this situation can experience. Is it possible to reconstruct the famous SIN? What’s being done elsewhere? To come up with ideas, we must be sure we’ve done our homework. In the meantime, it’s worth knowing that a word more than 16 characters in length – which could be a sentence – would take information pirates, with today’s technology, one hundred years to decrypt. At the other end of the scale, a six- to eight-character password can be cracked in just five minutes.”

T.E.: “In what way is access to information important?”

M.-H.G.: “It’s of concern to people who have to do the research and analysis, particularly journalists who have to validate their sources. The goal is to avoid corruption or collusion at all levels. We need more transparency.”

You can reach your MP at: MH.Gaudreau@parl.gc.ca.