QP: “Intruding” into the competences of the provinces

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Even though Wednesdays are usually the day the prime minister answers all questions in QP, he was absent today, as he was due to begin his testimony at the foreign interference inquiry before QP was likely to end. His deputy was also absent, but not all of the other leaders were present, even though it’s Wednesday. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, listing off a number of falsehoods around things like inflation, and wondered why the federal government was meddling in Quebec’s affairs. Jean-Yves Duclos noted that it was odd for Poilievre to talk about incompetence because when he was housing minister, he built a whole six units, but you called Quebec mayors incompetent. Poilievre then noted that interest rates did not come down today and blamed federal spending, but Duclos kept on with his same points. Poilievre repeated the false point about interest rates, and Anita Anand pointed out that it’s possible to provide supports for Canadians while being fiscally prudent, and listed their measures. Poilievre repeated the false claim that government spending is fuelling inflation, and Anand noted that wages are growing faster than inflation and that the current government has brought down poverty rates across the country. Poilievre gave his Mark Carney lines, and this time François-Philippe Champagne stood up to declare that he would take no lessons from the Conservatives, and listed their plans to help Canadians while the slogans on the other side wouldn’t build homes.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc—even though Yves-François Blanchet was just out in the Foyer answering questions—and accused the federal government of meddling in Quebec’s jurisdiction and demanded they just give them money. Duclos listed investments the government is making to help Canadians. Therrien repeated his same demand, and listed more ways they work with Quebec.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and decried the Indigenous infrastructure funding gap (Hajdu: It was important for the AFN to help us write this report so we can close the gap faster), and then asked about the Canadian Disability Benefit implementation (Kiera: We are on track to deliver the benefit, and we will get it right).

Round two, and Kyle Seeback worried about food bank use and blamed the carbon levy (Wilkinson: There are significant costs to climate change if we don’t address it while our programme helps affordability; Your statements have zero basis in fact), Mark Strahl offered more of the same (MacKinnon: Bill C-234 is up to you to bring forward for a vote; Wilkinson: Use facts when you make statements), and Pierre Paul-Hus accused the federal government of centralising in Quebec (Fraser: We are investing and the province doubled our investment to build housing; Duclos: We’re going to build more housing units than your leader sis when he wow minister, and we built 163 units in your riding).

Mario Simard railed about the dental care rollout (Holland: I will work with the provincial government while you are trying to cause problems).

Rosemarie Falk read a script falsely blaming food prices on the carbon levy (Wilkinson: That is devoid of facts, and your plan will punish people with the lowest incomes), and Philip Lawrence accused the government of overspending (Anand: We have a Aaa credit rating), before blaming food prices on the carbon levy (MacKinnon: You can bring C-234 to a vote at any time).

Alexandre Boulerice railed both rich CEOs (Champagne: The best way to stabilise grocery prices with with more competition, which we have introduced), and Leah Gazan blamed the federal government on provinces not paying child care workers enough (Sudds: Hooray our investments).

Round three saw yet more questions on the “invasion” of provincial jurisdiction (Duclos: You seem to be against helping Canadians; We’re building thousands of housing units in your riding, but your leader was the least competent when it comes to building housing; Champagne: We are making investments in the green economy; Martinez Ferrada: The stakeholders of the report wanted us to build more houses). It also saw questions on CSIS briefings to Liberal officials (O’Connell: We have taken this matter seriously and let’s let the inquiry do its work), supposed “corruption” (O’Connell: We have supported the work of the committee in investigating procurement practices; We all voted to bring this person to the bar of the House of Commons), Indigenous languages funding (Hajdu: We agree with the needs, and we will work with these First Nations), the defence policy update (Blair: It’s quite clear you didn’t read it).

Overall, it was another fairly mediocre day, that wasn’t terrible but also not great. The Conservatives are starting to shift to pre-budget talking points where they are falsely blaming federal government spending on inflation—and directly blamed the government for the Bank of Canada not lowering rates today (even though they have long been saying it’s not going to happen for a while yet). Does the government push back and point out that no, the Governor of the Bank of Canada hasn’t blamed federal spending on inflation, or any of that? Of course not. Just like they have not pointed to they myriad of studies that have shown that the carbon levy is not contributing to food price inflation, because why would they want to use facts when they can instead use sanctimony and have Jonathan Wilkinson shout “shame on them!” at the Conservatives? Honest to Zeus, you guys.

There was also this weird little dynamic happening today where the Conservatives were going on about the federal government “intruding” into provincial jurisdiction, and in particular around Quebec, putting up their Quebec MPs on the topic, and it’s hard to see where this is coming from, other than another desperate attempt to get Papa Legault to notice them and give them his blessing (for all the good it did Erin O’Toole in the 2021 election).

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Ben Carr for a dark blue suit with a white shirt and a pink tie, and to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a pink jacket over a white collared shirt and black slacks. Style citations go out to Rosemarie Falk for a black dress with dark pink and gold florals, and to Clifford Small for a dark grey jacket with a large grid pattern over a light maroon shirt and a pink and purple diamond-patterned tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Kyle Seeback for a black suit with a white shirt and yellow tie.

One thought on “QP: “Intruding” into the competences of the provinces”

  1. You are such an entertaining read.
    Your sartorial reports make me wish they had a red carpet beforehand. I listen more than I watch, but I’m trying to remember to look at what they’re wearing.

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