QP: Misquoting a bad report on fuel standards

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The prime minister was in Japan for the G7, and his deputy was off in Brampton. Most of the other leaders were also absent, save the leader of the opposition, and Elizabeth May. Pierre Poilievre led off, and in French, he tried spin the upcoming fuel standard as a second carbon “tax” that will punish Quebeckers. Steven Guilbeault said that Quebeckers believe in climate change while the Conservatives don’t. Poilievre said that the federal government was preventing Quebec from building more green hydro, and demanded they scrap this “tax.” Guilbeault said that this wasn’t true, and that refineries who made record profits need to do their fair share. Poilievre switched to English to insist this was all according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer (it’s not), to which Guilbeault quoted from a separate section of the PBO report where he said that he was not looking at the environmental costs, which were real. Poilievre insisted that those costs would not be reduced with a tax, and repeated his overwrought math. Guilbeault said that emissions went down beyond the pandemic lockdowns. Poilievre then switched to his bullshit concern trolling on safe supply and demanded it be ended in favour of treatment. Carolyn Bennett said that the deaths are from poisoned supply, and the BC coroner has said there is no evidence that safe supply had led to any deaths.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and insisted that the government was hiding Chinese interference and demanded a public inquiry. Dominic LeBlanc said said that it was hard to consider a public CSIS report to be “hiding something,” and that they have taken measures to counter it. Therrien demanded an inquiry immediately, to which LeBlanc said that Johnston would make his recommendations around an inquiry next week.

Gord Johns rose for the NDP, and he railed about McKinsey and Company and tried to tie it to the opioid epidemic. Helena Jaczek said there are open fair and transparent procurement processes, and there is an integrity regime. Jenny Kwan railed about corporate landlords and demanded the federal government do something that as clearly in provincial jurisdiction, to which Ahmed Hussen recited his usual talking points on rental assistance.

Round two, and Jasraj Hallan breathlessly railed about carbon price “scams” (Guilbeault: You have no plan around climate change), Tim Uppal repeated Poilievre’s talking points about the fuel standard (Guilbeault: Something about the price of canola, which I couldn’t quite grasp; a Bendayan: The climate change took a $20 billion bite out of the economy), and Luc Berthold repeated the same talking points in French (Guilbeault: Quebec has a cap and trade system).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe railed that there was a 72 percent rejection rate of African study permits to Quebec (Lalonde: The acceptance rate has been increasing, and we have new programmes in Senegal and Morocco).

John Barlow concern-trolled about the clean fuel standard on farmers (Bibeau: Farmers are the first people impacted by the climate crisis), Richard Martel tried again in French (Guilbeault: Quebec has its own cap and trade system).

Bonita Zarrillo worried about rents in her riding (Hussen: Rent control is a provincial jurisdiction but we have offered rental supports), and Laurel Collins appeared by video to complain about rents in her riding (Hussen: Same answer).

Round three saw questions on the clean fuel standard (Guilbeault: You campaigned on a carbon price and clean fuel standards, so were you also trying to fool Canadians; Emissions have been falling; Here are some quotes in praise of our actions), the illegal landfill in Kanasetake contaminating drinking water (Guilbeault: I have had conversations about this, and it is a complex problem with no simple solution, and we are all working on it), safe supply (Bennett: The failed Conservatives policy surface, and politicising harm reduction harms people), Huawei being banned from researchers (Fillmore: We have introduced new measures for researchers), advocating for Taiwan’s inclusion in the World Health Assembly (Sidhu: We support their participation), and nuclear dialogue between the G7 and Russia (Sidhu: We call on Russia to live up to their obligations), protecting the Greenbelt (Guilbeault: I disagree with Ford’s characterisation, we will use all tools to protect the lands in the Greenbelt and jewels like Rouge National Park), and teenagers vaping (Duclos: We have put in strong regulations).

Overall, it was quieter than I had expected to be, possibly because the benches were only half-full, but maybe a sense of exhaustion had set in. This was the final QP of a five sitting-week stretch and normally MPs are absolutely feral by this point, but while that was much more prevalent in the past couple of weeks, today was the air going out of it. As a result, it was a much more restrained atmosphere than we’ve seen of late. The topic was almost entirely dominated by the PBO’s report on the clean fuel standard, which was slanted (by his own admission!) to only look at certain costs without others or adaptations, which is the whole point of the standard. As a result, the Conservatives take this slanted figure and present it as gospel alongside previously misstated figures, and it’s one gong show of unreliable information on carbon pricing and regulation, which Guilbeault seemed to have difficulty properly countering. Of course, a big part of the problem here is the PBO himself, but this is where we are.

Otherwise, the NDP continue to pretend that rent is within federal jurisdiction (and at least Hussen spelled out today that it’s not rather than just launching into his talking points), and we got a few more questions on opioids because it’s the subject of the Conservatives’ Supply Day motion today, but it has also been speculated that the Conservatives are trying to go after Bennett as a weak minister on this file. For the record, I don’t think Bennett is weak, but she has trouble talking about the issues within the 30-second space, and what she’s trying to say gets lost, which only benefits the Conservatives’ narrative.

Sartorially speaking, it was Vyshyvanka Day, so snaps go out to Blake Desjarlais and to Andréanne Larouche for their vyshyvankas. Style citations go out to Karen Vecchio for an off-white jacket with a combination of bright and muted colour splashes (which might have been a print that I couldn’t determine from the distance) over a coral pink top and khaki slacks, and to Denis Trudel for a medium-grey suit over coral-orange shirt with a black tie.