Parliament Hill Office Constituency Office Cente Bloek, Room 44)-5 2249 Catling Avene, Suite 418, ‘Ore, Onto out orcont ‘KIB 759 ‘Ta: (613 950-7720 Fax: (513) 995.9880 small: bidi@pal pce ‘The Honourable John Baird Member of Parliament Ottawa. West-Nepean February 3, 2010 Dear Msi, ‘Thank you for your recent letter with respect to the prorogaticn of parliament. One of my responsibilities as your Member of Parliament is to listen to and reflect on your concerns. I.certainly commit to do that. In addition, I will keep them in mind in ongoing discussions with my caucus and cabinet colleagues. 7 ‘Many in the media and others are under the impression that Members of Parliament do not work when Parlidment is not in session. I want to assure you that I have been hard at work on your behalf and on behalf of Canadians since Parliament recessed last month. In fact, with the terrorist attempt on North American civil aviation on December 25", I worked for six hours on ‘Christmas Day and signed new security measures at 4:30am the morning of December 26. In addition, I worked for part of every day through the holiday period and have been at work full time since January 5" Constituency meetings, public events and announcements, meetings with groups and individuals and meetings with my federal, provincial and municipal colleagues have kept me busy. Cabinet Committees continue to meet as well. I serve as Chair of the Cabinet Committee on Environment and Energy Security, am a member of the Cabinet Committee on Priorities and Planning and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Growth in addition to also being a member on one ad hoc committee, All committees have been meeting regularly this month. Ihave also talken issues to both the cabinet committee on Operations and the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Affairs and National Security in the past week. The Prime Minister announced that the next phase of our Economic Action Plan will be launched at the beginsiing of March. A Throne Speech will be delivered on March 3", 2010 followed by the Budget on March 4", ‘The call for anew Throne Speech to launch the third session of the current Parliament is routine practice. The average Parliament typicelly comprises of three or four sessions (and three or four oe‘Throne Speéches). In fact, some Parliaments have heard as many as six or seven Throne Speeches. You may be interested to learn that this is the 105" time in Canada’s history that a new Throne Speech will launch a new session of an existing Parliement. ‘The government's priority was and remains to be economic action to protect existing jobs, to stimulate new job creation and help families, workers and businesses cope during this global economic recession. The three economic themes of the new session will be: 1) Completing implementation of the Economic Action Plan 2) Returning the federal budget to balance once the economy has recovered 3) Building the economy of the future Iwill continue to work hard on behalf of constituents such as yourself and I encourage you to follow my schedule daily in the Ottawa Citizen. My schedule regularly includes events and meetings in Ottawa, transport and infrastructure briefings through my department, meetings and briefings with municipal, provincial and'federal colleagues. Once again, thank you once again for taking the time to write. Please be assured that I have noted ‘your comments and will keep them in mind during ongoing discussions with my cabinet and caucus colleagues. Should you have further questions, please feel free to contact my constituency office directly at 613-990-7720. Sincerely beeom John Baird, P. 22