QP: Waiting on income splitting

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Despite it being only Thursday, most leaders were absent from the Chamber today, Harper off in Vaughan to deliver his income splitting announcement, and Justin Trudeau campaigning for the by-election in Whitby. Thomas Mulcair did show up, and started off bringing up the request from three esteemed former Justices who warned against knee-jerk legislation after last week’s attacks. Stephen Blaney assured him that the new CSIS was balanced. Mulcair didn’t want this to be a partisan issue and wanted a multi-party committee to study the issue (never mind that all Commons committees are multi-party), to which Blaney said that all parties were being offered technical briefings. Mulcair brought up Stockwell Day’s endorsement of the creation of a parliamentary oversight committee for national security, but Blaney said that SIRC was robust enough. Mulcair sniped about Deborah Grey’s interim leadership of SIRC, before turning to the issue of income splitting. Kevin Sorenson told him to stay tuned for the announcement, and proclaimed that income splitting was good policy. Mulcair and Sorensen took another round at it, before Scott Brison led for the Liberals, recalling Jim Flaherty’s opposition to income splitting. Sorenson quoted an old Brison line about how income splitting was a good thing. Brison quipped that he said a lot of stupid things when he was a Conservative, and the House roared. Sorenson repeated the praise for the plan, before Emmanuel Dubourg asked about the plan in French, Sorenson not varying the substance of his response.

Round two, and Randall Garrison recalled the Arar Inquiry when it comes to the recommendations on civilian oversight for CSIS (Blaney: SIRC is doing a good job), Rosane Doré Lefebvre asked about Peter MacKay’s musings about criminalising the glorification of terrorism on the web (Blaney: The bill tabled this week is balanced), Matthew Kellway and Hoang Mai asked about the new revelations of the GM recall (Raitt: I found out about the notice of defect in February 2014, and my officials told me they found out then as well), Mai asked about the appeals of the mayor of Lac-Mégantic on rail safety oversight (Raitt: We spoke to her prior to our announcement, and she said our new measures will make rail transport safer), Chris Charlton and Nycole Turmel decried cuts to rail safety (Raitt: the figure is lower because there were fewer projects and some came in under budget, but operational spending is up), Hélène Laverdière asked about job cuts at CBC (Glover: There are demographic and ad revenue changes and they have enough money), and Murray Rankin asked about the one percent collection rate on tax cheats (Findlay: Those amounts are in active collection, and more cases are before the courts). Joyce Murray asked about parliamentary intelligence oversight — which she happens to have a bill on up for debate today (Blaney: Yay SIRC!), and Sean Casey asked about the current anti-terrorism laws and if they are being used (MacKay: Yes; Blaney: Yay Bill C-44!). Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud asked about mental health services in the military (Nicholson: We have one of the highest ratios of mental health professionals in NATO), and Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe and Andrew Cash asked about the cuts to refugee healthcare (Alexander: We continue to respect the interest of refugees and Canadian taxpayers).

Round three saw questions on the failing grade for our climate change plans, the failure to implement recommendations from the Cohen Commission on sockeye salmon, that GM recall, the call for an extension to the residential school compensation deadline (Valcourt: We are going to work with partners to get an extension), the problem of the committee composition report not being concurred, child poverty, developing the Ring of Fire in Ontario, and the spread of the spruce budworm.

Overall, it was a pretty sleepy day with the exception of Scott Brison’s quip, which was one of the best exchanges in the Commons of late. As well, I should commend actual decent answers from Lisa Raitt and Bernard Valcourt rather than the obfuscation of some of their colleagues like Stephen Blaney or Leona Aglukkaq. If more ministers answered as Raitt and Valcourt do, QP would be a better use of time.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa Raitt for a black leather jacket over a black top with a blue scarf, and to James Bezan for a taupe suit with a crisp white shirt with a pale green tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Mike Sullivan for a black suit and shirt with a bright orange bow tie and suspenders, and to Sadia Groguhé for her black jacket with a loud red floral pattern over an otherwise lovely black dress.