QP: Confusing rapid and PCR tests

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For a Thursday with no ministers in the chamber, we had not one but two Liberals on the government benches — Mark Gerretsen, and Francis Drouin. Erin O’Toole led off, script on mini-lectern, and he complained there wasn’t a national rapid testing regime like Taiwan has, and then complained about the contract with Switch Health at the border. Patty Hajdu reminded him that he was conflating rapid tests – which they sent to provinces – with the PCR tests that Switch was contracted to perform at the border, and that if was worried about rapid tests, he should talk to premiers. O’Toole complained that Switch was missing its timelines in one in six cases, and 5000 cases that failed. Hajdu noted that those tests take longer because they’re PCR tests, and they were bringing on more corporate partners. O’Toole accused the government of changing the law rather than the company when it came to missing certain days, and Hajdu insisted this was incorrect, and that they were doing full due diligence to ensure travellers were protected. O’Toole then switched to French to repeat his first question, and Hajdu reiterate that O’Toole was conflating rapid tests with PCR tests, and that they are used differently. O’Toole then condemned the lack services in French at the border with Switch Health, and Hajdu agreed that this was essential, which is why Switch doubled their French capacity and they added another supplier.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she complained that the motion on Bill 96 didn’t pass, and wanted assurances that the province could use Section 45 of the constitution to make the changes — which is a trap. Mélanie Joly assured her that they were working to protect the French reality in Canada. Normandin assured her that this wasn’t a trap, and wanted those assurances, and Joly again would not give her the assurance she was looking for.

Jagmeet Singh led rose for the NDP in French, and he demanded the federal government stop banks from raising fees, for which Chrystia Freeland went into an assurance about the taxes on luxury goods. Singh repeated in English to add emphasis to the same question, and Freeland repeated the same talking points under the rubric of people paying their fair share.

Round two, and Richard Martel complained that procurement contracts were not being released to the Health committee (Anand: We are working hard to comply with the motion, and have turned over thousands of pages of documentation), and then raised the Auditor General’s report around advances being given to companies (Anand: I’m not sure you actually read the report because there was risk mitigation in there), and insinuated that the government gave contracts to friendly companies (Anand: That categorisation is completely false, and the one contract with defective contract is now the subject of a lawsuit), and Michelle Rempel Garner returned to the questions about Switch Health and their delayed results (Hajdu: The measures at the border are guided by science), and Detroit offering doses to people in Windsor (Hajdu: Let me tell you about how many vaccines we got, and the American government determined vaccination is not an essential purpose for travel).

Alain Therrien wanted the government to fast-track Bill C-10 (Guilbeault: We are trying to get it passes but the Conservatives have led a campaign of fear on false premises; Rodriguez: We are trying to protect the cultural sector and the Conservatives are blocking us), and Martin Champoux repeated the same concerns (Guilbeault: I am disappointed in the tone of the question and I haven’t seen you publicly defending the bill).

Michael Chong accused that the prime minster of playing into Beijing’s hands when he said that the promulgation of conspiracy theories about the Winnipeg lab was fuelling anti-Asian racism (Garneau: As we have stated, the two scientists are no longer employed and we can’t say anything more), Pierre Paul-Hus repeated in French (Garneau: Same answer), and Garnett Genuis tried to go harder on the conspiracy theory (Garneau: Same answer yet again).

Don Davies raised the Auditor General’s report on the emergency stockpile (Hajdu: We have already implemented most of her recommendations, and we bulk purchased more PPE when it became clear no level of government had enough), and Lindsay Mathyssen raised the story of a Black civil servant who was paid to withdraw a complaint (Duclos: We are working to eliminate systemic racism),

Round three saw questions on softwood lumber (Ng: We are disappointed by their tariff move and we continue to seek a negotiated agreement), Mark Carney advising ministers on climate policy (Wilkinson: This government believes in consultation, and he is an eminent Canadian who is also advising the Conservative government in the UK), extending EI sickness benefits to 50 weeks (Qualtrough: The budget will allow us to extend benefits from 15 to 26 weeks), supports for tourism businesses (Freeland: We understand how hard they were hit, and we have $1 billion for tourism and special hiring credits; Joly: The regional development agencies has programmes to assist), a national action plan for violence against women (Monsef: Our government has done more to address this than any government before, and our response to COVID has been with a feminist, intersectional lens), complaining that a motion on the energy sector was voted down (O’Regan: Let’s talk about oil and gas workers building renewables in Alberta), the Indigenous fishery (Jordan: We continue to negotiate with First Nations and communicate with industry, and we have a flexible plan for this year), pregnancy benefits (Qualtrough: We have tried to align the EI system and recovery benefits and we are trying to resolve this particular issue), surge capacity funding for a spike cases in Northern Ontario (Hajdu: I have urged the Public Health Agency work with his community), and a dispute between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan (Garneau: We believe in a negotiated solution and remain hopeful for a peaceful resolution).

Overall, it was a bit of a more sedate day, but another change-up from the day before, and strangely, the Conservatives didn’t raise Bill C-10 at all. Instead, the lead-off on the Switch Health questions should have been important – because there are some real questions to ask about the contract and government’s accountability for it – and yet they wasted it by conflating rapid testing with the PCR tests that Switch delivers, and muddied their own ability to hold government to account. I continue to be boggled at how bad they are at doing their own job. They also spent way too much time today whinging that they are being “insulted” and being called racists when the prime minister, yesterday, raised the valid point that overheated rhetoric in the promulgation of conspiracy theories when it comes to the National Microbiology Lab and work it does with Chinese scientists, and trying to turn themselves into victims over this, which is tiresome and lacking in self-awareness. It was also nice to see some more attention paid to the Auditor General’s report, as there is a ready set of questions of accountability to go with it, but once again, the Conservatives overplayed their own hand by simply reading headlines and trying to wedge them into other faux “scandals” in order to complete their narratives, again, blunting their own effectiveness. It shouldn’t be this way. We should be able to have a competent opposition for the sake of a healthy parliamentary democracy, and yet…

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

2 thoughts on “QP: Confusing rapid and PCR tests”

  1. I think you probably meant to type PCR (not PRC) in the first paragraph (2 instances)

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