Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question.

First of all, Canada’s support for Ukraine is necessary to fight Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory. The battle is being fought not only for Ukrainians and their territory, but also for democracy and a society founded on the rule of law.

Second, the government needs to save money, and the National Defence budget is not excluded. In the current economy, however, this will be done carefully and responsibly.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. I don’t believe you were implying that consulting Canadians through surveys on an ongoing basis was somehow not a worthwhile exercise or that the voices of individual Canadians should not count.

As I mentioned in this chamber, when passports are redesigned every 10 years or so, the images are changed. The governments of the day make their choices. It is simply not the case that the passport images — with which we have become familiar over the last 10 years and which many of us hold dear — necessarily reflected the full diversity of our history, and certainly not a history or an image of Canada in which increasing numbers of Canadians could see themselves. The decision to change those images was made in the light of the changes in our country and after consultation with Canadians.