QP: Ignoring the Auditor General

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While the prime minister was present today, no doubt still jet-lagged from his international summits, Andrew Scheer was off in Vancouver to make a policy announcement for the election that is still nearly a year way. Lisa Raitt led off, demanding to know the the date the budget will be balanced. Justin Trudeau picked up a script to read about how great their policies including the Canada Child Benefit was, while unemployment was at its lowest rate in 40 years. Raitt said that Canadians’ choice was to keep deficits to $10 billion for year, and this time Trudeau eschewed a script to decry the last years of the Harper government, which nickel-and-dimed veterans and made cuts while his government invested in Canadians. Raitt listed tax credits that were cancelled, and Trudeau noted that those non-refundable tax credits weren’t available to low-income Canadians whereas the CCB was better off for those Canadians. Alain Rayes took over, asked the same again, and Trudeau reiterated this points about low unemployment and enhanced growth in French. Rayes reiterated the demand for a date, and Trudeau reminded him how much debt Harper left as a legacy. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, raising the Auditor General’s report on CRA not going after rich corporations. Trudeau took up a script to praise the report and said that CRA would examine their internal processes to ensure fairness and uniformity. Caron asked again in English, and Trudeau read a list of investments made in the CRA to ensure more off-shore audits were completed. Alexandre Boulerice raised a report that said Canada’s climate policies would rise global temperatures (somewhat out of context), and Trudeau read a script to say that things were not fine and listed actions that the government was taking. Boulerice switched to French to demand more action, and Trudeau, sans script, insisted that they were taking action to fight climate change.

Round two, and Luc Berthold and Pierre Poilievre demanded a balanced budget (Lightbound: When we took over, the country was moving into recession, while we now have the strongest growth in the G7; You keep quoting a Fraser Institute study that doesn’t take the CCB into account; We are growing our economy). Sheila Malcolmson demanded universal childcare (Vaughan: We have invested $7.5 million in childcare including an Indigenous childcare policy), and Brigitte Sansoucy demanded more social programmes to solve child poverty (Vaughan: Your platform wasn’t ambitious, nor is it ambitious to only spend provincial and territorial money). Joël Godin and Dan Albas worried the Chief Statistician didn’t notify the minister about the bank data programme (Bains: We take privacy seriously, no data has been shared). Charlie Angus denounced Doug Ford’s “attack” on Franco-Ontariens (Joly: We’re still waiting for the Conservatives to denounce this attack, and we will work with communities to defend their rights), and Linda Duncan wanted funding for Alberta’s francophone university (Joly: We have decided to increase funding for linguistic minority groups and we will continue to support them).

Round three saw questions on Bill C-69 (Sohi: The challenges in the sector are real but we are working with the province, but this is the result of the previous government’s inaction), ending the Mali mission before a replacement is in place (Sajjan: Our support for the UN is for more than this mission), Saudi Arabia bombing the port receiving humanitarian assistance for Yemen (Freeland: We condemn the death of Jamal Khashoggi and have called for a ceasefire in Yemen, and we are actively considering other measures including Magnitsky laws and no new export permits will be granted), the AG’s report on fighter procurement (Sajjan: We didn’t create this problem but we are working to get new jets), conspiracy theories about media working for the government (Rodriguez: This is a conspiracy theory, and journalism is an important part of our democracy), Nicola Di Iorio’s status (Speaker: This isn’t government business), health transfers (Petitpas Taylor: A two-tiered system won’t solve the problems), and a Canadian held in Cuba (Goldsmith-Jones: Consular officials are in contact with local authorities).

Overall, while it was the release of an Auditor General’s report, it was virtually ignored once again, as is becoming routine in this parliament, which is unfortunate because it’s what opposition MPs should be asking questions about. Yes, the NDP did lead with it, but it was essentially reiterating their same questions on CRA that they’ve had for years, but just with an added prefix of the AG report. As for the very relevant questions on the fighter jet procurement debacle, not only did the questions come virtually at the end of QP, but they were also couched in the language that the pilot shortage was a result of the minister’s mismanagement rather than hey, there’s a global pilot shortage and what are you doing to address it? Chrystia Freeland also broke a bit of news in her (prepared) response that didn’t really answer the question being posed, but nevertheless got her points across that they have frozen all future export permits of LAVs to Saudi Arabia, and few people seemed to have picked up on that fact. QP is also now becoming a haven for conspiracy theories, both with the mendacious framing of the StatsCan data collection issue, and with the notion that the government is trying to buy off journalists because the head fo the union that represents many of them has been vocal about opposing the Conservatives. There are legitimate policy points that can be raised without delving into tinfoil hattery, guys.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Linda Lapointe for a light grey suit and skirt with a pink collared shirt, and to James Bezan for a dark grey suit with a lavender shirt and a purple tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Guy Lauzon for a dark taupe suit with a butterscotch shirt and a black and brown tie, and to Cathy McLeod for a black turtleneck and slacks with a beige and black sweater.