QP: Digging up a dead horse

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As spring snow fell over Ottawa, Justin Trudeau was in Paris on an official visit, while Andrew Scheer was in Calgary rather than be in Question Period. That left Lisa Raitt to lead off, dredging up the long dead and buried horse of Justin Trudeau once saying that the oilsands needed to be phased out (never mind that he clarified it was a long-term goal in moving toward a decarbonized future). Jim Carr responded that they approved Trans Mountain and have reiterated their support for it continually. Raitt worried about industry uncertainty and the “flight” of capital from the country, to which Carr reiterate that the uncertainty wasn’t coming from them but one province, and that they are having discussions with Kinder Morgan to ensure there was investor certainty. Raitt worried that this lack of confidence was coming from the federal government’s inaction, but Carr reminded her that her government didn’t get a single kilometre of pipeline built to tidewater. Gérard Deltell took over to re-ask the “phased out” question in French, and Marc Garneau reiterated Carr’s points in French, and then they went for a second round of the same. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, railing that the federal government was imposing its will on BC, and Garneau reminded him that the pipeline was federal jurisdiction per the Supreme Court and the constitution, and they were talking with the two provinces involved. Caron switched to English to rail that BC’s government was elected on a promise to stop it and governments are supposed to keep their promises. Carr reminded him that Alberta’s government was elected on a promise to build it, but it was federal jurisdiction. Romeo Saganash got up next to decry that the government wasn’t respecting their obligations to Indigenous communities around the pipeline, and Carr reminded him that they did more consultations than the previous government did, who got smacked down by the Supreme Court of Canada over their lack of proper consultations. Saganash insisted that there were no actual agreements with Indigenous communities, but Carr said that there was no agreement between Indigenous communities, and indeed between NDP premiers, but a decision needed to be taken.

Round two, and Candice Bergen, Jamie Schmale, Pat Kelly, and Chris Warkentin wailed plaintively about the loss of investment in the energy sector (Carr: There was a recession in the industry and about half of that has come back so far, and look at how much we’ve approved). Hélène Laverdière and Alexandre Boulerice demanded resources for Quebec to deal with irregular asylum seekers (Hussen: We invested $130 million in the budget, and are making changes to help speed things up). Erin O’Toole and Pierre Paul-Hus returned to the Atwal Affair and concerns over vetting (Goodale: It’s great that your leader is finally booking his classified briefing). Murray Rankin demanded more funds for sexual assault centres (Monsef: The budget built on previous investments and doubled previous funding), and Niki Ashton demanded more funding for women (Monsef: We’ve invested, we have an intersectional gender lens with the budget, and are leading the G7).

Round three saw questions on the PM sending greetings to an event featuring an Assad apologist (DeCourcey: We condemn the action of the Assad regime), gender equality (Monsef: Look at our investments, and pay equity legislation is coming), irregular asylum seekers at the border (Hussen: We have made investments and continue to work with Quebec), ministers allegedly buying Facebook likes (Bains: We’ve been focused on the economy!), rail grain (Garneau: We have been making progress on this file), Rohingya refugees, judicial appointments (Wilson-Raybould: I have made appointments and will continue to make them), Raif Badawi’s imprisonment in Saudi Arabia (Alghabra: I have raised this at the highest levels and we continue to fight for his release).

Overall, it was a bit of an odd day full of dead horses being dug up for the sake of flogging them further, as they hope to try and build and reinforce a narrative that facts don’t necessarily support. I will say that Jim Carr was delivering actual answers and not just a mound of pabulum, which is always welcome to see, and it was also nice to see how frank he could be with some of his responses, particularly on the fraught issue around consultations with First Nations on the pipeline. It was also interesting to see Maryam Monsef call out the NDP for cherry-picking the data they used in their “gender report card” PR campaign and ignoring a number of the investments and changes made – again, great that we see ministers pushing back than just shovelling pabulum. I’d like to see more of this going forward, because maybe it means that they’re getting the message about the need that they need to communicate effectively.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to René Arsenault for a chocolate brown suit with a blueberry shirt and dark blue bow tie, and to Anju Dhillon for a well tailored black blouse with grey slacks. Style citations go out to Rachael Harder for a somewhat seventies cranberry dress with irregular draping and cap sleeves, and to Wayne Long for a pink and grey checked shirt with a navy jacket.