QP: Unhappy with the new emissions plan

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With Justin Trudeau off in Vancouver to give a speech on the government’s new emissions plan for 2030, we did have his deputy present, which was something. Most of the other leaders weren’t present either, and some have become rare sights of late. Luc Berthold led off in French and complained that the emissions reductions plan would cripple the oil sector and that this meant we couldn’t help our friends in Europe get off Russian oil and gas. Terry Duguid stood up to recite some bromides about the plan as announced. Berthold then launched into a rant about how the government doesn’t answer simple questions, and demanded to know if inflation was costing Canadians more. Chrystia Freeland responded that they were sensitive to costs which is why they indexed benefits and introduced $10/day child care. Berthold then railed about the increasing price on carbon, demanding it be suspended, to which Freeland recited the good news about economic growth. Kyle Seeback took over in English, and he misleadingly cited the PBO report on carbon pricing in order to complain that the emissions reduction plan wasn’t going to work. Duguid got back up to recite that the PBO indeed stated that most families would be better off with rebates, and he cited the rebate levels in several provinces. Seeback then railed that the government spent $60 billion on fighting emissions and they still went up—again, somewhat misleadingly because the curve of growth has flattened—and Duguid responded that if the Conservatives were still in charge the emissions would be even higher.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he demanded that the government start chartering planes to get more Ukrainian refugees over here. Sean Fraser insisted people were arriving all the time and they were rolling out programmes to support them. Therrien said that Air Transat was just waiting for the government to charter flights and repeated his demand, and Fraser said that they are discussing with airlines.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP in person, and he called the emissions reduction plan “disappointing,” saying it gives a free pass to the fossil fuel sector. Duguid got back up to recite a number of actions they have taken around the energy sector. Singh repeated the question in French, and Duguid recited some more climate action plans.

Round two, and Randy Hoback reported that he returned from Washington DC and that he heard that Canada is an unreliable trading partner (Virani: We are engaging at the highest level, and you were just on a trade mission with the minister in order to take a comprehensive, non-partisan approach), Dominique Vien shout about the rising cost of living (Hussen: We re-established federal leadership in the housing sector and took a number of actions that you voted against), Dave Epp praised the UK for adopting a grocery code of conduct and demanded we do the same (Bibeau: I have been meeting with provincial agriculture ministers), Richard Martel said Canadians lost trust in the economy (Hussen: We invested over $30 million in affordable housing which you opposed), Michelle Ferrari complained about CMHC (Hussen: You keep voting against our measures to help first-time home buyers), and Doug Shipley complained about rising housing prices in his riding (Hussen: Same answer).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe wanted an air-bridge for Ukrainian refugees and to do the biometrics on Canadian soil (Fraser: We have been opening new centres on the ground and low-risk cohorts won’t be required to get them, and we are still having conversations with airlines; Here are what we are doing and why it’s more than what happened with Syria; 12,000 Ukrainians have already arrived).

Glen Motz complained about the rising cost of carbon pricing (Duguid: The carbon price is progressive and most families get back more than they pay in), Dan Mazier demanded that grain drying be exempt from carbon prices (Bibeau: We have tripled the budget of the programme to help farmers afford more efficient technologies including grain driers), Richard Bragdon complained that there was no way to tell if the carbon price worked to reduce emissions (Duguid: Carbon pricing works to reduce emissions and drive innovation), and Laila Goodridge shouted about the carbon price going up (Duguid: Let me repeat the rebate increases).

Jenny Kwan worried there weren’t enough federal supports for Ukrainian refugees (Fraser: We already announced we will be extending these settlement supports), and Leah Gazan demanded timelines on the MMIW actions (Miller: We are working on it).

Round three saw questions on lifting vaccine mandates (Duclos: An American study showed that if they had more vaccine mandates, they would have prevented 163,000 deaths over several months), the PBO report on the CRA’s performance (Lebouthillier: I want to thank the PBO for his work, and the Agency has improved its compliance reporting for large companies), delays for certain Ukrainian refugees (Fraser: We are putting in more people and resources on the ground, and lifted certain requirements), demanding support for a motion on visa-free travel (Fraser: We have to have some semblance of security screening when you are talking about thousands of people coming from a war zone; creating a new visa-free stream would have taken longer to implement than the current system), delays with certain Afghan refugees (Fraser: We are making good on our promise), mobile phone coverage in rural Quebec (Hutchings: There are programmes available through the CRTC), the Federal Court of Appeal decision on not transferring provision of French services to a province (Lametti: The won’t be asking the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal), compensation for Windsor for their blockade (Mendicino: We are working on it).

Overall, it was another fairly unremarkable day, and whereas there should have been a bigger deal made of the big climate plan that was announced earlier in the day, the overwhelming mood of the day was nevertheless to get as many Conservatives as possible to provide clips decrying the increasing carbon price for their social media channels, because they are in the middle of a big push for when the levels go up on Friday. They have to have as many avenues for fundraising as possible! The NDP also continued their particular game of playing tough in QP to show that they’re not really bedfellows of the Liberals, even though the tend to look rather ridiculous when doing so.

As well, we did get a couple of announcements out of QP—there was the usual backbench suck-up vehicles for announcing the budget date, which happens every year and is one of the most annoying ways to make said announcement; but there was also the announcement that the government would not be appealing a Federal Court of Appeal decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. It was nice to hear the government make such announcement in response to a question, but I’m not sure I saw a release announcing that earlier in the day, which would have been nice to see as well.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Laila Goodridge for medium blue jacket and skirt over a light blue top, and to Stephen Ellis for a navy suit with a grey waistcoat, white shirt and grey patterned tie. Style citations go out to Denis Trudel for a dark grey suit with an eggplant shirt and a pink tie, and to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a black wizard-sleeved dress with pink florals.