It was another day without major leaders in the Commons, as they were at the funeral of Corporal Nathan Cirillo in Hamilton, leaving some sparser-than-usual seats in the Chamber as a result. Libby Davies led off, asking about the CSIS bill and the need for more civilian oversight. Stephen Blaney responded instead with a paean to Corporal Cirillo. Davies repeated the need of better oversight, citing the Arar Inquiry, the loss of the Inspector General at CSIS and the vacancies on SIRC. Blaney said that privacy rights were in the bill, and that that there was already strong oversight in SIRC. Davies pointed out the SIRC report citing how uncooperative CSIS, to the point of misleading them. Blaney thanked SIRC for the report, and largely ignored the concerns that were addressed. Nycole Turmel repeated the questions in French, and Blaney praised the bill rather than answer the issue of concerns. Ralph Goodale led off for the Liberals, and wondered about adequate resources for security services, wondering if an analysis of funding levels was being undertaken. Blaney said that the various agencies were reviewing what happened last week, but didn’t answer Goodale’s question. Goodale asked for an estimate of what incremental funding that the RCMP and CSIS would require to increase their operations, to which Blaney repeated his claim that they increased their funding already by one third. Dominic LeBlanc closed out the round, asking again about resources but in French. Blaney repeated his evasion in French in response.

Round two, and Paul Dewar asked about the extension of Canada’s combat role in Iraq was part of his meeting with John Kerry (Baird: This was not part of the discussion), he and Hélène Laverdière asked about the urgent need for more aid and medical workers in west Africa (Paradis: As of Friday, we have contributed $57 million, which is the second highest in the world), Jinny Sims and Sadia Groguhé asked about the need for better labour market information (Bergen: We are addressing that and have launched two new surveys), Robert Aubin asked about the EI tax credit (Oliver: This will create jobs), and Nathan Cullen delivered a kitchen-sink hue-and-cry about the omnibudget bill (Oliver: It will create jobs and growth). Carolyn Bennett and Arnold Chan asked about the cuts to infrastructure, with a focus on the needs in Toronto (Lebel: We tripled infrastructure spending since our government came to office; Oliver: Yay the infrastructure funds in our budget). Robert Chisholm asked about the PBO report on the offshore patrol ship budget (Finley: That report was made with erroneous data), and Peggy Nash and Brian Masse decried the loss of manufacturing jobs (Moore: The answers are in Budget 2014).

Round three saw questions on pay-for-pay billing for banks, social assistance for refugee claimants, the report on the Arctic patrol ships, a trade deal with Ukraine, drilling in the St. Lawrence Gulf, the Liberals’ Ebola motion, Air Canada’s official languages lapses, gasoline prices in Northern Ontario, and oil tankers on the St. Lawrence.

Overall, it wasn’t the best day, with repetitive English/French questions, with yet another egregious example of a question with a clear answer being asked again because MPs rely on scripts rather than asking follow-ups or changing the topic to something more relevant. Blaney continued to be evasive in his responses, and yet nobody kept up the heat on him until he delivered a real answer. In fact, the quality of the questions were largely down from yesterday, which I hope means that the when the leaders return, that the quality will improve.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Emmanuel Dubourg for a tailored dark grey suit with a light blue shirt and blue paisley tie, and to Michelle Rempel for a black short-sleeved dress with a grey houndstooth pattern along the front panel. Style citations go out to Candice Bergen for a wrinkled brown jacket with a mustard top and eggplant skirt, and to Larry Miller for a dark grey suit with a bright red shirt and a red speckled tie.