QP: Lies versus pabulum, part eleventy-seven

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While Justin Trudeau was not present today, just off of a plane from France, Singapore and Papua New Guinea. That said, Andrew Scheer was not present today either, for whatever reason. Alain Rayes led off, worried that the budget would not balance in 2019. Bill Morneau responded with a question of his own — where are we now? He went on to extol the low unemployment rates and the investments to grow the economy. Rayes repeated the question, and Morneau responded that the Conservatives only wanted to make cuts while the Liberal approach was working for growth. Rayes concerned trolled that the budget was “collapsing” under the weight of deficits, but Morneau retorted with the Conservative record of debts and low growth, while they have turned the growth rate around. Candice Bergen took over to ask again in English, railing that the Liberals were irresponsible, to which Morneau repeated his pabulum points in English about low unemployment and high growth. Bergen tried one last time, and Morneau noted the reduction in small business taxes and the lowest level of debt-to-GDP in the G7. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he worried about the pressure to cut corporate taxes to follow the US example. Morneau said that it was necessary to strike a balance to ensure tax fairness and competitiveness, and that was the approach they were taking. Caron worried about corporate “dead money,” and Morneau reiterated his points about striking the right balance. Peter Julian worried about record levels of personal debt and demanded that they end “corporate giveaways,” to which Morneau assured him that they were investing in Canadians by means like the Canada Child Benefit. Julian demanded investments in pharmacare, to which Ginette Petitpas Taylor recited the implementation on the consultations that would produce a report in the spring.

Round two, and Gérard Deltell and Pierre Poilievre returned to the demands for a balanced budget date (Morneau: It’s important to continue with our approach; Let’s consider what we actually inherited, including higher unemployment and low growth). Romeo Saganash and Rachel Blaney asked about the forced sterilisation of Indigenous women (Philpott: This is a clear violation of rights, we abhor the practice and are working with provinces to ensure this does not happen). Peter Kent worried about reports the government may bail out the media, calling it a “buy off” (Rodriguez: Journalism is important and we invested in CBC, and will have more to say in the future), and Shannon Stubbs demanded Bill C-69 be withdrawn (Sohi: We are working with provinces to get oil to tidewater and what we’re seeing today is a failure of the previous decade). François Choquette and Charlie Angus worried about Franco-Ontarien rights (Joly: We will stand up for Franco-Ontariens and the Conservatives should denounce Doug Ford’s actions).

Round three saw questions on Statistics Canada (Bains: The project will only go ahead when privacy concerns have been dealt with), Canada Post (Hajdu: We believe in the collective bargaining process, but this has had an impact on our economy so we encourage both parties to get a deal), Supply Management (MacAulay: We saved Supply Management, and we continue to support the sector), the lack of documents to prove a fighter jet capability gap (Lauzon: We have commitments to meet and those Australian aircraft will help meet our needs until an replacement can be procured), deficits (Morneau: Our plan is working), Davie shipyard (Qualtrough: We don’t need a second interim supply ship), closing night services at a local airport (Garneau: NavCan is taking a second look at this issue), healthcare transfers (Petitpas Taylor: We will work with provinces to ensure the system works well), federal competition rules vis-à-vis an oil production cut (Sohi: We need to ensure we are expanding our pipeline capacity). 

Overall, the impending fiscal update means a return to continuous questions about the deficit and a date for the balanced budget, which would be fair game were in not for the fact that the Conservatives are spinning a fantasy version of the books that they left the Liberals during the election. Pierre Poilievre was particularly egregious in terms of the absolute disingenuous version of events regarding the fiscal situation, but of course, because it’s Bill Morneau answering these questions, we’re left with a lot of pabulum that doesn’t really rebut the false narratives being put on the record. It wasn’t until the third question from Poilievre (and his fourteenth response of the day) that Morneau finally stated that what was being posited was false, which is the way this government continues to roll along. The other big issue of the day was a federal response to the situation in Ontario, where the Ford government cancelled a planned Francophone university and cut the commissioner of the french language’s office. The NDP and Liberals were making big hay over this, while the Conservatives were opting for a more muted response, pushing back against the NDP and backbench questions on the subject, and after QP, offering a motion that expressed concern but also that demanded provincial jurisdiction be respected, which led to much uproar in the Chamber. I would expect a lot of politics to be played over this in the coming days.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Will Amos for a tailored navy three-piece suit with a light blue shirt, medium blue tie and white pocket square, and to Karina Gould for a blue collarless jacket with a black dress. Style citations go out to Judy Sgro for a cream and floral top with a bright orange jacket, and to Colin Carrie for a black jacket with tan slacks, with an eggplant shirt with a mustard-and-burgundy tie and a mustard pocket square.