QP: What about the Target liquidation sale?

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A freezing Thursday in the Nation’s Capital, and the only major leader in the Chamber was Thomas Mulcair, as the Prime Minister apparently had better things to do, while Justin Trudeau was off in Calgary. Mulcair led things off by asking about the Target liquidation sale, and wondered what the government would do for those workers. Jason Kenney responded by saying that they were working on an accelerated EI process for those employees and touted their new and improved job bank. Mulcair then trolled for support for the opposition day motion on “creating jobs,” which James Moore outright rejected. Mulcair gave some meandering outrage about the government’s treatment of the premiers and wondered if it would be applied to the mayors meeting in town. Peter Braid responded by praising their “largest ever” infrastructure programme. Rosane Doré Lefebvre was up next, and asked what CSIS would be allowed to do to “disrupt” terrorists under the new bill. Peter MacKay skirted the question and called it “comprehensive.” When she pressed, MacKay continued to give bland assurances. Stéphane Dion led for the Liberals, decrying the backloading of the Building Canada Fund. Braid insisted that they have spent three times the amount on infrastructure than the Liberals did when they were in government. Scott Brison called that false and gave more facts and figures about when those funds would be available. Braid continued to insist that the Fund was the best thing ever. Brison went harder in his final supplemental, to which Braid skirted an answer by praising the doubling of the gas tax.

Round two, and Peggy Nash returned to the issue of the Target liquidation sale and Canadian jobs (Kenney: You have no credibility; James Moore: Our plan delivers solutions), Fin Donnelly and Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet asked about urban infrastructure (Braid: Yay the Building Canada Fund!), Robert Chisholm asked about the failure of ACOA in Cape Breton (Rob Moore: Our government is committed to supporting economic development in the region), Brian Masse and Annick Papillon wanted support for their plan on cutting small business taxes (James Moore: We already have lower taxes for small business and you voted against it), Guy Caron decried that the Conservatives promoted oil in the US but not forestry products (Block: Yay Economic Action Plan 2014™!), and Nathan Cullen gave some blanket outrage (James Moore: Your policies would threaten investment). Emmanuel DuBourg and Kevin Lamoureux decried infrastructure cuts (Braid: Yay the Building Canada Plan!). Andrew Cash and Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe were concerned about federal skilled worker applications (Alexander: It has never been easier to get into Canada as an economic immigrant and yay our new system), and Sadia Groguhé and Linda Duncan asked about the inspections of temporary foreign workers’ employers (Kenney: You were against giving inspectors more powers).

Round three saw questions on a Aboriginal shelter being closed (Valcourt: It’s a municipal decision), First Nations healthcare, charities being audited, the Aboriginal Duty to Consult, small craft sewage dumping in harbours, gas price cartels, a Canadian in Ethiopia, Air Canada not respecting its official language obligations, economic development in a Quebec region, and tourism spending.

Overall, the NDP continued to focus on Target and trying to tie it to their plans for small business tax cuts and innovation tax credits — things that would not apply to Target, and makes it all the more mystifying why they would tie the two together. Yes, it’s terrible that those jobs are being lost, and the government has promised to accelerate EI claims as a result, but there’s not a lot else that can happen because Target made a series of really bad business decisions. Trying to make a government issue out of the Target failure is off-base and smacks of trying to capitalise on a bad situation than actually holding the government to account for things that they actually did.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rona Ambrose for a light grey dress with a notched neckline along with a black jacket, and to Scott Brison for a dark grey three-piece suit with a white shirt and the palest of green ties. Style citations go out to François Choquette for a black suit with a bright teal shirt and striped tie, and to Françoise Boivin for a textured blue boxy jacket with a blue striped white collared shirt and black trousers.