QP: A committee chair tells on himself

Posted on by

The prime minster and all other leaders were present today, which is nice to see. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he raised that the Parti Québécois “independent budget” and that they claim that Trudeau is leading Canada to financial ruin. Justin Trudeau said that he would get to the questions in a moment but took the opportunity to pay respects to the shooting in Sault Ste Marie. Poilievre insisted that separatism was off the table under the Harper years because of low taxes, which is risible, to which Trudeau shrugged it off and praised his government’s actions to help people. Poilievre switched to English repeated his same claim about separatists before pivoting to the carbon price and blaming it on inflation, shrinks-flatiron, and “skimp-flatiron.” Trudeau suggested that Poilievre was guilty of conflation, and noted the Conservatives only want to cut. Poilievre went on a tear about the RCMP Commissioner being shut down at committee and the ArriveCan investigation, and cried corruption. Trudeau said that if the Conservatives were digging up matters that were settled years ago, they were desperate. Poilievre then pivoted again and demanded to know if the PM believed Israel fired on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Trudeau said that they needed to ensure they had the facts, and the best evidence was that Israel did not do it.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, praised Poilievre for bringing separatism back to the floor of the Commons, before turning to discussing with the US about a truce in Gaza. Trudeau said that he did speak to Biden over the weekend and they were working to a humanitarian solution. Blanchet wanted to know what happened to the idea of party leaders getting together to speak on this with a single voice, and Trudeau said that time will be set aside for such a meeting.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, raised the dubious story about the Calgary senior whose mortgage went from $1000 to $2600 per month (which is impossible), and demanded help for Canadians. Trudeau said that he was just in Singh’s hometown of Brampton to announce more housing plans. Singh switched to French to raise the tent encampment in Gatineau while the prime minister was hosting a fundraiser there, to which Trudeau praised the signature of a housing agreement with Quebec, details to be forthcoming.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman tried to ask Singh a question about an Ontario MPP (Fergus: You can’t ask questions of opposition members), Jasraj Hallan read some angry slogans about housing (Fraser: We have a plan and you don’t), Marilyn Gladu read some slogans (Fraser: That was full of misinformation and your plan would build fewer houses; Gould: This same member also recited misinformation about EVs in this House), and Pierre Paul-Hus recited some slogans en français while simultaneously taking shots at the Bloc (van Koeverden: There is no federal carbon price in Quebec).

Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné demanded the CEBA repayment date be extended by another year with no loss of the non-repayable portion (Valdez: We offered more flexibility; Martinez Ferrada: Quebec’s economy is 99 percent SMEs, which is why we gave them added flexibility), and Yves Perron made the same demand (Bibeau: We were there for people in COVID, and have offered clarity and flexibility).

Jacques Gourde took shots at the Bloc about the carbon price (Bendayan: Quebec has their own price; Lebouthillier: The Conservatives are global experts in doublespeak), Leslyn Lewis cited a poll about worries over mortgage costs (Fraser: You understand the cost of everything but the value of nothing), and Brad Vis worried one-third of restaurants are operating at a loss, apparently because of federal deficits (Valdez: I’m glad you got to meet the beneficiaries of our entrepreneurship funds, so maybe stop voting against those programmes).

Leah Gazan wanted housing available for asylum seekers (Fraser: We work with people who are struggling, and have doubled the funding for homelessness supports), and Lori Idlout said that Nutrition North is not lowering grocery prices (Vandal: We announced $163 million in new funds for the programme in the last budget, much of which is for traditional harvesting).

Round three saw questions to the chair of the Ethics committee on the RCMP Commissioner testimony (Brassard: I took advantage of my position as chair and gave them sufficient notice; Gould: Be careful when you throw stones because a member of your government went to jail for election interference), the ArriveCan app (LeBlanc: We expect public servants to follow the rules and the CBSA’s internal audit found troubling information and alerted the authorities), trying to pitch Bombardier for new military planes (Duclos: Hooray Quebec’s aeronautics sector), SNC-Lavalin (LeBlanc: The RCMP have been clear there is no investigation), carbon prices (MacAulay: If we don’t deal with the environment, we can’t do anything about the costs of food; van Koeverden: You guys ran on a carbon price and your own MPs defended them as provincial ministers in Quebec; Sudds: Let’s press pause on the rhetoric and point out that we are helping families with our programmes; Fraser: You are proposing to take away the rebates; O’Regan: Let me again to refer to the Conservatives’ Consumers Distributing catalogue of green point redemptions they ran on in the last election whereas we ensure people get cash rebates), the strike of the St. Lawrence Seaway workers (O’Regan: We believe in collective bargaining, and we are working with both sides to bring an end to this), and traumatic brain injury patients—which should be provincial jurisdiction (Holland: We are making critical investments across the health system).

Overall, it was a reasonably quiet day today, but there were a few quirks, namely the question to the committee chair, and because it’s an opposition-chaired committee, that meant a question to their own back bench. Mind you, said chair, John Brassard, took the opportunity to tell on himself for abusing his authority as chair to unilaterally invite a witness without consensus, which is not how committees operate, and to be proud of himself for doing so. Yeah, I don’t get it either. There were also two separate attempts to ask questions of Jagmeet Singh today, which is stupid because opposition leaders can’t answer questions, and no, he’s not a coalition partner or part of the government. It’s childish and is pointing out how deeply unserious this place has become.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Michelle Ferreri for a hot pink jacket over a black top and slacks, and to Sean Fraser for a fitted blue-grey suit over a pale lavender shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to Adam van Koeverden for a dark blue jacket over a lighter blue shirt, navy tie and tan slacks with a white pocket square; and to Rachel Bendayan for a orange-brown dress with a subtle windowpane pattern and just slightly puffy sleeves. Dishonourable mention goes out to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a mustard yellow jacket over a black rounded-necked top and slacks, and to Marci Ien for a long-sleeved leopard-print dress.

One thought on “QP: A committee chair tells on himself”

  1. Another day when a Conservative mentions the carbon levy as a tax a that is inflationary but never tells the whole story of the tax breaks and checks that Canadians receive in many cases more than they pay. There is never a statement that they understand that the carbon levy is designed as a deterrent to copious use of hydrocarbons, but then of course the Cons have no policy on climate change and the path to pollution reduction.

Comments are closed.