QP: Inflation vs child care, ad nauseam

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And we’re back, after some nearly five months away, and to a full Chamber at that. Let’s hope it stays that way. Erin O’Toole led off, mini-lectern in front of him, and he raised the floods in BC, recognising that the minster has been in contact with province, and asked for an update on the situation. Justin Trudeau read a statement about what the Canadian Forces members on the ground have been up to. O’Toole then moved to the Coastal GasLink situation, raising concerns about the “dog whistling” about blowing up pipelines and insisting that this project was somehow about “economic reconciliation.” Trudeau insisted that they are working toward economic reconciliation, but it needs to be done in partnership with the communities. O’Toole shifted to the issue of inflation and noted that it only got a single mention in the Speech from the Throne, and Trudeau said it was being driven by supply chain challenges, before touting how their child care plans will help families. O’Toole repeated the same question in French and got the same answer, with a bit more punch that the Conservatives promised to tear up those agreements. O’Toole raised the labour shortage in Quebec, saying the PM has not acknowledged it, but a Trudeau disputed this, insisting that building back better includes new jobs, raising immigration levels and training, as that shortage existed before the pandemic.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and true to form, demanded more health transfers and a “public summit” on health funding that he has been pushing for. Trudeau read that the government has a plan to eliminate delays, build better long-term care and hire more doctors in partnership with the provinces, and that they would continue to invest while respecting jurisdictions. Blanchet dismissed the idea that the federal government could have done better than provinces during the pandemic, and Trudeau said he wasn’t interested in finger-pointing, and wanted to partner with provinces in the best interests of seniors.

Jagmeet Singh then rose for the NDP, and after declaring a climate crisis, claimed there was no plan for workers in the Speech from the Throne. Trudeau reminded him that all experts gave the Liberal plan top marks in the election. In French, Singh groused about fossil fuel subsidies, and Trudeau, without script, reminded him that they are phasing them out ahead of schedule, along with their emissions cap for the oil and gas sector.

Round two, and Candice Bergen returned to the question of inflation and tried to goad the prime minster in asking when he was last in a grocery store (Trudeau: Around the country, I heard about childcare and housing and your plan was to cut child care and give tax breaks to wealthy landlords), and gave it two more attempts (Trudeau: Same answers), before Gérard Deltell took over in French to decry the labour shortage in Quebec (Trudeau: The Speech focused on solutions rather than problems, and the loosening border restrictions will bring more labour to Canada), before he repeated the very same inflation question — taking a swipe at Mary May Simon’s French (Trudeau: Inflation is affecting all Western nations, and we talked about solutions).

Blanchet was back up to complain about oil production (Trudeau: Natural resources are largely governed under provincial jurisdiction, and while we can legislation around the emissions, we can’t tell them what to do about production).

Pierre Poilievre got up to expound upon inflation and monetary policy (Trudeau: We are focused on solutions for Canadians), and he confused correlation and causation around spending and inflation (Trudeau: When you guys were in power, growth was weak and you were rejected three elections in a row; You’re giving me a lot of credit for creating inflation across the Western world).

Singh was back up to insist that the federal government didn’t invest enough in housing — completely ignoring that in cities like Vancouver, the bottleneck is municipal government permitting and zoning for it while the federal dollars are sitting there waiting to be spent (Trudeau: Reading their election pledges on home), and then repeated it in French (Trudeau: Same response).

Round three saw yet more questions on inflation (Trudeau: The Speech was based on solutions, particularly childcare and housing), a plan on GHG emissions reduction (Trudeau: We must put a limit on emissions and reduce them while creating good jobs for the future), and turning over all healthcare transfers to the provinces with no strings (Trudeau: We want to partner with provinces), Alberta oil (Trudeau: We have worked closely with the province to get their childcare agreement in place), the PEI potato export ban (Trudeau: We are extremely concerned and I brought this up with the President in Washington last week), George Chahal’s alleged campaign mailer theft (Trudeau: He has apologised and is cooperating with the investigation), GIS clawbacks for those who took pandemic benefits (Trudeau: We worked hard to support the most vulnerable, and ministers are actively working on this issue).

Overall, it was so nice to be all present in one place – doubly vaccinated (ostensibly, in any case) and everyone masked, and it was just fine. This is how things should be happening from now on. Given that it was Wednesday, the prime minister responded to all of the questions for the day – not necessarily aways giving answers, but responses nevertheless. And the fact that those responses were pretty much all about childcare was, well, a little one-note, but that’s pretty much what we’ve come to expect from this government. While the object of these proto-PMQs is that all MPs get a chance to ask the prime minister a question, both Yves-François Blanchet and Jagmeet Singh took all of their party’s slots for themselves, which has been pretty standard operating procedure for both for a while now.

Not unexpectedly, inflation dominated the Conservatives’ questions – and some particularly poor questions from Pierre Poilievre, who doesn’t seem to understand the difference between correlation and causation – but there were better answers to be had than just answering about childcare. While I will note that Trudeau did give a few better responses about how this is a problem across all Western economies and teasing that he apparently has the great powers to cause it throughout, there could have been a better takedown of most of the talking points around inflation that were thrown his way to demonstrate that he does understand the problem, rather than just the usual bromides about “offering solutions,” and to press them about what they think needs to be done, and whether they are advocating for price controls. Lazy narratives and talking points won’t do, because the problem with inflation is that it can be come a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Michelle Ferreri for a black collared top with some statement jewellery and black slacks, and to Terry Beech for a tailored navy suit with a light blue shirt, a darker blue pocket square, and a purple tartan pattern tie. Style citations go out to Darren Fisher for a brown corduroy jacket for a taupe shirt and bright blue tie, and to Rosemarie Falk for a brownish floral dress with three-quarter sleeves. Dishonourable mention goes out to Gudie Hutchings for a mustard yellow top under a black jacket.

One thought on “QP: Inflation vs child care, ad nauseam”

  1. The Liberals need to hire one or both of the “fact-checker Dales” (Daniel and/or Smith) as their in-house debunker. They’ve let too much BS slide for the past six years.

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