QP: National security and painting a bridge 

Posted on by

Despite it being Wednesday, the Prime Minister was absent from QP, meeting with Bill Gates instead. So when Thomas Mulcair led off asking about how much time the public safety committee would get to study C-51, Stephen Blaney responded by hoping they wouldn’t engage in any dilatory actions at said committee. Mulcair wondered if the PM was trying to hide the bill from scrutiny, to which Blaney accused Mulcair of attacking the credibility of CSIS. Mulcair then listed instances of where the RCMP were in the wrong when he meant to give examples of where CSIS broke the law, before asking about the right of dissent in the bill. Mulcair then moved onto the issue of a Quebec City rail bridge, at which point Lisa Raitt reminded him of CN Rail’s responsibilities. Mulcair then moved onto the topic of a funding cut at Marine Atlantic, to which Raitt pointed out that they were returning to their base level of funding after years of increases for revitalisation. Justin Trudeau was up next, asking what the government intended to do on the doctor-assisted dying issue, to which Robert Goguen moaned about how emotional of an issue it was. Trudeau then moved onto the issue of Keystone XL, and if the PM would put a price on carbon to convince the Americans that we are serious about the climate issue. Greg Rickford gave a couple of non sequiturs to slam Trudeau, and insisted it was not an international issue but a domestic American one. Trudeau called it a diplomatic failure, to which Rickford listed off the size of our energy trade.

Round two, and Françoise Boivin asked for the constitutional analysis of C-51 (Blaney: We ensure that all bills are constitutional), Randall Garrison demanded a thorough review of the bill at committee (Blaney: Security and liberty to hand in hand), and CSE monitoring emails being sent to the government (Bezan: There are malicious emails and CSE acts lawfully), Rosane Doré Lefebvre gave another go-around on C-51 (Blaney: You don’t support being tough on terror) before asking about cuts to the RCMP in the estimates (Blaney: We increased their budget seven times), Megan Leslie asked about SIRC’s capabilities (Blaney: Yay SIRC), and the cuts to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (Aglukkaq: These are just estimates, not the whole budget), Ryan Cleary asked about Marine Atlantic (Raitt: I already answered this, and they have enough money), and Nathan Cullen gave some kitchen sink outrage about the Estimates (Clement: You keep being outraged about our good budgets). Joyce Murray asked about an Armed Forces captain who was misdiagnosed and not reimbursed for treatment (Bezan: We are taking care of her), Scott Brison asked about Keystone XL (Rickford: It’s a domestic American issue), and the personal relationship between Harper and Obama (Moore: The PM was just in BC to get LNG projects off the ground). Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud asked about the universality of service provisions in the Armed Forces (Bezan: Their cases deserve to be handled correctly), and Sylvain Chicoine asked about the loss of the satisfaction survey at Veterans Affairs (O’Toole: We got a study from Statistics Canada), and Peter Stoffer returned to the issue of that Armed Forces captain (Bezan: The minister committed to helping her).

Round three saw questions on the national roundtable on missing and murdered Aboriginal women, participation in a gender equality conference, help for people with doing their taxes, electrifying rail in Toronto, grain shipment data, Marine Atlantic, Nutrition North, HST applied to medical transport in Northern Ontario, job creation in the regions, aquaculture regulation changes, and Montreal airport administration.

Overall, the lack of Harper made it a relatively uneventful day, but there was one particular aggravating talking point, which was that any question about the Estimates — the primary request of parliament for funds to run the government — was met with the response that “the estimates are just that — estimates.” No. It’s the figures for appropriations. It’s the whole reason we have a parliament in the first place. Treating them like vague figures that don’t really mean anything absolutely offends parliament, and MPs need to be reminded of that fact.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Scott Brison for a dark grey three-piece suit with a light pink shirt and a blue tie, and to Lisa Raitt for a fuchsia lapel-less jacket over a black top and trousers. Style citations go out to Diane Ablonczy for a mustard jacket over a black top with a floral scarf, and to Lion Benoit for a black suit with a light custard shirt and a green striped tie.