QP: Of Birdwatchers and Bees

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Stephen Harper was present for a Monday — a rarity, signalling that he is probably travelling later in the week. Justin Trudeau was absent, in Toronto on the publicity tour for his memoirs, being released this week. Thomas Mulcair led off by asking when birdwatchers were enemies of the Canadian government, bringing up a hyped story from the previous week where a birdwatching charity was threatened with an audit after writing to a minister about insecticides killing bees, and made a “birds and bees” crack to top it off. Harper responded by insisting there was no political interference in the CRA’s action. Mulcair moved onto the Ebola vaccine and wondered if the government would cancel the intellectual property licensing to a small company given that an expert declared them too small to develop it in a timely manner. Harper insisted that Mulcair had his facts wrong, and that the government owned the IP on the doses donated to the WHO. Mulcair asked the same in French, got the same answer, and then asked about a story in the Globe and Mail that the government auctioned off protective equipment that could have been used in west Africa. Harper listed off what equipment had been donated, and that more would continue to be. For his last question, Mulcair pivoted again and asked about “handouts for big businesses.” Harper touted the country’s job creation record. Marc Garneau led off for the Liberals, returning to the question of the auction of protective equipment. Harper reiterated the number of items donated to date, before Garneau pressed on the details with the dates with the sale as being after the WHO requests, not that Harper changed his answer. Kirsty Duncan closed the round, and noted that only two shipments have reached health workers in the region. Rona Ambrose insisted that Canada has been “at the forefront” of responding to the epidemic, and said that the delay was because there was no commercial operator willing to step up to deliver the until DND stepped up with a Hercules.

Round two, and Nathan Cullen asked about that Russian cargo ship that lost power off the coast with a 20-hour delay response (Shea: It happened in international waters and things worked out), bringing up the cuts to the Coast Guard and the size of supertankers (Shea: same answer), Charlie Angus declared that the government was advertising the 150th Anniversary as being a sign the government was on the way out (Glover: They’re about the anniversaries of the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences, which are this year), Matthieu Ravignat wanted that ad money to go to other services (Glover: same answer), Anne Quach returned to the issue of the birdwatchers (Findlay: CRA audits are free of political interference), Murray Rankin wanted those auditors to focus on real tax cheats (Findlay: The CRA has had unprecedented success with our voluntary disclosure programme), Glenn Thibeault asked about credit card processing fees (Sorenson: We have taken action to protect Canadians using credit cards), and Andrew Cash and Mylène Freeman asked about pay-to-pay fees (Ed Holder: We will have legislation shortly). Lawrence Macaulay and Joyce Murray repeated the same question about the Russian cargo ship (Shea: The private sector provides towing on the west coast), and Scott Andrews asked about new shipping regulations off the coast of Newfoundland (Watson: I will take the specifics of this to the minister). Alexandre Boulerice and Irene Mathyssen asked about the loss of home mail delivery in several communities (Watson: Canadians are using the mail service less than before), and Jack Harris and Elaine Michaud asked about soldiers with mental health issues (Nicholson: We have some of the most military mental health workers in all of NATO).

Round three saw questions on the Quebec City Port Authority, the exploratory drilling off the coast of Quebec, affordable housing units in Toronto, the tax credit on capital for credit unions, urban search and rescue, community mailboxes, and a francophone Fisheries and Oceans library closing.

Overall, it was a fairly decent day overall, in that there were few eruptions and most MPs were reasonably well behaved. That said, Mulcair’s questions were all over the map, his first one intended to be funny, his Ebola questions a bit too broad, and the tax cut question completely out of place. As well, the backbench question about an unconfirmed terror attack on Canadian soldiers in Quebec apparently came from nowhere, as nobody could find mention of it on any of the news wires (the incident in question has terrorism mentioned nowhere), which makes one suspicious that it’s about stoking fears.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Marie-Claude Morin for her black, white and red word printed dress, and to Brian Masse for a tan suit with a blue shirt and faded orange paisley tie. Style citations go out to Bal Gosal for a black suit with a pink shirt and tie, and to Laurin Liu for a patterned taupe dress with a black sweater.