QP: Border concerns at the fore

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All leaders were present, and before QP got underway, Guy Caron, Andrew Scheer, and Marco Mendicino made statements about the van attack in Toronto yesterday. After a moment of silence, Scheer led off, concern trolling that the government of Quebec had to go to the media to get action on irregular border crossers. Justin Trudeau said that they had been rebuilding the relationship with the provinces, and that they were working on the issue with them. Scheer demanded to know why nothing had been done over the past year to stem the flow of migrants, and Trudeau took up a script to list the fact that the previous government made cuts to CBSA and the IRB that they were still investing to clean up. Scheer worried that legitimate refugees or immigrants were not getting processed because of these backlogs, and Trudeau didn’t use a script to call out the Conservatives for having broken the system. Scheer protested that the Conservatives had a “generous” refugee resettlement programme, but Trudeau reiterated the cuts that the previous government instituted. Scheer tried one last time, and Trudeau noted that the backlogs now were as a result of those cuts, while his government was cutting processing times while still respecting the rules around international asylum claimants. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, accusing the government of rigging the Trans Mountain approval process, to which Trudeau deployed a platitude about energy and the environment going together. Caron switched to French to repeat the question, and Trudeau took a script this time to chastise the NDP for their incoherent position before retreating to the platitudes. Hélène Laverdière was up next to demand the suspension of the Safe Third Country agreement, to which Trudeau took up a new script to read about how they were investing in accelerating processing and strengthening the border. Jenny Kwan reiterated the question in English, to which Trudeau worried that the NDP may be trying to stoke fears around asylum seekers as well, before repeating his previous points sans script.

Round two, and Alain Rayes repeated Scheer’s asylum seeker questions in French (Garneau: We will be a welcome in country but we have rules in place and those crossing in an irregular fashion will be detained, and incendiary rhetoric will only fan the flames of fear), followed by more from Michelle Rempel in English, including a demand that the entire border be designated an official point of entry for the purposes of the Safe Third Country Agreement (Hussen: If you want us to violate our international obligations, just say so; your plan has no credibility), and then another round from Pierre Paul-Hus in French (Garneau: It’s irresponsible to make Quebeckers feel threatened by an influx of migrants). Linda Duncan and Alexandre Boulerice raised the latest Environment Commissioner’s report citing a lack of action by the government (McKenna: The budget has $1.3 billion for protecting biodiversity, and we met our marine targets last year). Gérard Deltell raised the PBO report with the same misleading stats about the impact on the economy (McKenna: People chose a government who can protect the economy while growing the economy), and Pierre Poilievre demanded to know how much a carbon tax will cost the economy (Morneau: We are investing in the economy for the long term, and pricing carbon is part of a long-term approach on the environment). Murray Rankin worries that 3500 government employees worked on communications but won’t give proper Access to Information responses (Brison: We are acting to modernize and strengthen the Act, and giving the Commissioner order-making power), and Matthew Dubé asked about the SS7 vulnerability on mobile phones (Sajjan: CSE is working with industry partners to mitigate the risk of SS7).

Round three saw questions on investment in the energy sector (Carr: We want to expand our export markets, but you didn’t get any pipeline to export markets; McKenna: We are in a transition to a cleaner economy, which is a $30 trillion opportunity), reviewing EI health benefits (Duclos: We have made significant investments in service quality and benefits, and will continue working hard to achieve greater compassion), GIS cheques being suspended in Atlantic Canada due to CRA error (Lebouthillier: We are improving CRA’s services), the possibility of drug decriminalisation (Petitpas Taylor: We want to reduce barriers to treatment, and we are making it easier to access opioid substitution therapy), aquaculture exposing wild salmon to disease (LeBlanc: We thank the Commissioner for her report), the Arctic Surf Clam fishery (LeBlanc: We will support the people of Grand Bank, and you guys had a process to bring in a new entrant to the fishery that didn’t care about the people of Grand Bank), and asylum seekers in Quebec (Garneau: We are working with the provinces and made a number of announcements). 

Overall, it was an interesting day in that there was a bit of context in the questions around asylum seekers, which I think bears to be teased out a bit more. This was the subject of the Conservatives’ Supply Day motion today, so I get why they’re hammering on the subject. However, it would also seem to me that the timing of this is also more than a little tone deaf in the wake of the Toronto attack because of the sheer volume of commentary that blamed our “open borders” for the attack, even though it had nothing to do with a refugee or even a radical Islamist terror attack. And more to the point, the replies to tweets about the attack yesterday from their own base were quick to blame refugees and border-crossers, so for them to make such an issue about the border today would seem to me to be rewarding that kind of aggressive behaviour, which is why Marc Garneau called it out. I get that Garneau was also playing politics around it, but that doesn’t mean he still didn’t have a point. I also want to note that Trudeau is the one who continues to fall back to platitudes when his ministers were giving more detailed or reasonable responses (though McKenna was about 50/50 on that today), but they still won’t call out the disingenuous nature of the questions on the PBO’s figures around the carbon tax. Not calling it out allows the fictions to continue on unchallenged, which is a very real problem.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Justin Trudeau for a tailored black suit with a crisp white shirt and black tie, and to Patty Hajdu for a superbly tailored violet jacket and skirt with a black top. Style citations go out to Rachel Blaney for a black dress with a giant red and white floral print, and to Arif Virani for a khaki jacket with a white shirt, black slacks, and a black tie with a crosshatch pattern. Dishonourable mention goes out to Filomena Tassi for a black dress with a bright yellow jacket.