BC premier Christy Clark was in the Speaker’s gallery, here to watch QP in the federal parliament after signing some agreements with the federal government. Alas, despite being back in the country, Stephen Harper was not present to take questions in the House. Neither Thomas Mulcair nor Justin Trudeau were there to ask said questions either, for what it was worth. That meant that it was up to Libby Davies to lead off for the NDP, decrying the expiration of the 2004 health accords. Rona Ambrose reminded her that they were still providing record levels of funding to the provinces, that the provinces were asking for funding predictability, and they were providing that. Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet asked the same again in French, and got the same response in English. Boutin-Sweet moved onto infrastructure funding, which Denis Lebel assured her of how great the new Building Canada Fund really was. Scott Brison led off for the Liberals, and asked about expanding the CPP, as recommended by the Finance Department’s own reports. Despite Joe Oliver being present, Kevin Sorensen got up to answer to say that the Fragile Economy™ could not afford more payroll taxes. Brison reminded him that they were keeping EI premiums artificially high to balance the books, and that those payroll taxes could be better spent on CPP enrichment, but Sorensen decried all of the things the Liberals voted against. Ralph Goodale got up to ask about the loss of infrastructure funds coming tomorrow (Lebel: We are giving record funding).
Round two, and Nathan Cullen got up to decry the omnibus budget implementation bill, but kept stumbling over his script (Oliver: Our government supports economic growth and job creation), the FATCA provisions in the bill (Oliver: We got numerous exemptions in negotiations and will not impose new taxes), Murray Rankin and Guy Caron returned to the question of CPP expansion (Sorensen: Higher payroll taxes = doom!), Hoang Mai asked about the Champlain Bridge provisions in the budget bill (Lebel: There were consultations going into this), and Chris Charlton and Alexandrine Latendresse asked about Harry Neufeld’s comments on the elections bill (Poilievre: It’s reasonable to ask someone to produce ID to vote). Geoff Regan asked about the Canada Investment Act and the potential sale of medical isotope producer MDS Nordion (Moore: We are reviewing this), and Joyce Murray and John McKay asked about the IPCC report amidst Environment Canada cuts (Aglukkaq: You got a fossil award when you were environment minister of BC; We’re taking action on climate change). Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud asked about the six lost years of the search-and-rescue plane procurement (Nicholson: We have had huge procurement successes), and Megan Leslie asked about the lack of oil and gas regulations (Aglukkaq: Our emissions are going down from what they would have under the Liberals).
Round three saw questions on grain service level agreements, the rise in stamp prices, the “social covenant” with veterans, the healthcare accords, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and First Nations health needs, the CBSA directive not to look for narcotics, the changes to ACOA in the budget bill, homelessness funding agreements, income splitting, armed attacks on Syrian refugees across the Turkish border, and the Experimental Lakes Area.
Overall, it was a fairly quiet day, and MPs were relatively well behaved, so at least they weren’t a total embarrassment for Premier Clark. Substantively, there was yet another reminder that MPs shouldn’t rely on scripts, as Pierre Poilievre ignored the question he was asked and gave unrelated talking points, but Chris Charlton carried on reading her scripts as though Poilievre had given his usual misquote of the Neufeld report. Stop relying on scripts! Engage in some actual debate!
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Michelle Rempel for an fitted off-white dress with a horizontal zig-zag pattern, and to Scott Brison for a grey three-piece suit with a pale blue shirt and brown tie. Style citations go out to Devinder Shory for a slate suit with a grey shirt and custard patterned tie, and to Rathika Sitsabaiesan for a blue and white short-sleeved Laura Ingalls Wilder-meets-Sirens peasant blouse with grey trousers.