QP: Those aren’t the transfers we’re looking for

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On a slightly muggy Thursday in Ottawa, in the House of Commons, the Liberal benches were back down to three MPs, including two ministers, because we can’t have nice things. Erin O’Toole led off, script on his mini-lectern, and he decried delays in vaccines that have not materialised — mere rumours thereof — and he demanded a plan to end lockdowns. Rachel Bendayan reminded him that we are actually ahead of schedule on vaccine deliveries, and we had assurances from the European Commission. O’Toole raised the dosing directives — which is not a federal responsibility — for which Patty Hajdu launched into a spiel about science and evidence and how those evolve. O’Toole switched to French to repeat his first question, and Bendayan repeated her answer in French. O’Toole then returned to English to cite the Auditor General saying that this government shut GPHIN down, for which Hajdu countered with the expert panel report that said that problems with GPHIN did not affect when were alerted to the possible pandemic. O’Toole then repeated the question in French, and Hajdu spoke about the expansion of the Public Health Agency, and exhorted him to pass Bill C-14, which has more public health supports in it.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he declared that the announced one-time transfer to the provinces was not good enough, and he repeated their original demand of $28 billion without strings. Patty Hajdu reminded him of the other transfers and federal supports already given. Therrien was not mollified and demanded more, and got much the same response.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in French, raised the loss of seven women in Quebec over the past seven weeks to domestic violence, and demanded an end to this femicide. Maryam Monsef assured him that the government takes this seriously and listed some actions taken. Singh switched to English to decry that the government was not doing enough for climate change, for which Jonathan Wilkinson raised this morning’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling, and stated that the plans laid out are some of the most comprehensive in the world.

Round two, and Gérard Deltell demanded that the defence minister’s former chief of staff be summoned to committee — part of their Supply Day motion (Rodriguez: Ministers are responsible and have appeared at committee, and you are simply trying to intimidate them), Pierre Poilievre demanded an accounting for a discrepancy in Kielburger testimony (Chagger: I have testified at committee and provided this information, and it’s all on the public record, and of you’re so concerned about students, you should pass Bill C-14 so that they can get interest relief), and demanded that a PMO staffer appear at committee (Rodriguez: You know that ministers are responsible to Parliament, not staff), and Michael Barrett repeated the demand that staffers appear at committee (Rodriguez: You are trying to distract from your convention and today’s Supreme Court decision).

Gabriel Ste-Marie was confused that the government only increased health transfers and not the amount they demanded (Rodriguez: We have been there for the provinces), and Andréannr Larouche repeated the demand while raising seniors (Schulte: We have increased supports for seniors).

Luc Berthold raised a labour dispute at a port (Tassi: There is no agreement but they are at the table negotiating, and we have provided mediation services), and Stephanie Kusie repeated the question in English (Tassi: Same answer).

Laurel Collins demanded an end to fossil fuel subsidies (Wilkinson: Yay Supreme Court decision), and Pickering nuclear safety (O’Regan: We are working with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission).

Round three saw questions on the implementation of the Charter of Victims in the armed forces (Lametti: We have funded a number of programmes for victims), Buy American exemptions (Bendayan: We always raise this in all of our dealings), the Auditor General’s report on quarantine measures (Hajdu: We have made millions of verification calls and visits, and we have worked with partners across the country; Rodriguez: You want tougher quarantines but exemptions for snowbirds, so you should pick a lane), temporary foreign worker quarantine requirements (Ellis: We are working to ensure they arrive safely and that employers have supports for their isolation period), EI changes (Qualtrough: We have been making changes for the last five years, and are committed to extending sickness benefits up to 26 weeks), a company in a riding that can’t get the rent support (Fraser: We are monitoring to ensure businesses are supported), home buyer supports (Hussen: Here are supports we have made), a home equity tax (Hussen: We are not considering this and any suggestion otherwise is false), saving Pacific wild salmon (Jordan: There are a lot of factors impacting them, and we have invested $145 million in habitat restoration), and making reparations for Black civil servants (Chagger: We brought in an anti-racism strategy, and we are committed to reviewing the Employment Equity Act).

Overall, it was a fairly meh day, where the questions were all over the map – not that it’s such a bad thing when compared to hearing the same couple of questions over and over again, but there was little coherence to any of it. This is not unexpected, however, given that the whole notion is to gather clips for social media. I was a little surprised that there wasn’t more about the Supreme Court ruling from either of the Bloc or NDP as a way to needle the Conservatives after their convention vote last weekend. Also, it wasn’t the first Liberal backbench suck-up question of the day, which I was certain it would be, so that was as much excitement as we got for the day.

Sartorial snaps and citations remain on hiatus for lack of a sufficient sample size.