QP: Concern trolling about homelessness and food insecurity

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The prime minister was off in Toronto, having taken part in the WNBA expansion announcement, and his deputy was at a finance ministers’ conference, while most of the other leaders were also absent. Pierre Poilievre led off, and blamed government spending on homelessness and food insecurity, with Bloc complicity. Soraya Martinez Ferrada considered the question hypocritical because the Conservatives voted against housing programmes. Poilievre insisted that government programmes to eliminate homelessness have doubled the problem, and again blamed the Bloc, and trotted out his “feeding obese government” line because apparently he thinks that plays well on the socials. Martinez Ferrada repeated that the question was hypocritical because they voted against the school food programme. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question, minus the swipes at the Bloc, and this time called it a “morbidly obese government.” Anita Anand said that they would take no lessons from the Conservatives because they voted against all of their programmes to help people. Poilievre insisted that those government programmes were what doubled housing or homelessness, and Anand insisted that they have focused on keeping inflation lower while helping people, but did nothing to call out the absolute lack of coherence in the question. Poilievre gave a slow, incredulous recitation of how many homeless encampments had cropped up. Mark a Holland pointed out that when Poilievre was minster responsible for housing (sort of), there were more people living in poverty and without housing, and shamed them for promising to cut things like dental care.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and claimed that the Hogue Commission complained about withheld documents (she didn’t really), and railed about government secrecy. Dominic LeBlanc said that they had committed to share Cabinet information, and were available to work with the Commission to have access to all “appropriate” documents. Therrien railed that if the Commission doesn’t have all information, that Quebeckers would lose confidence in the process. LeBlanc repeated that they are committed to sharing all necessary information. 

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and he railed about the serious problem about the St. Lawrence river and that it needed its own rights to protect its biodiversity. Steven Guilbeault pointed out that when they took power, there were no protections for any waterways, and now they were at fifteen percent, with twenty percent reached by next year. Laurel Collins took over in English to complain about a BC watershed fund. Jonathan Wilkinson did acknowledge the wildfires, and pointed out the measures they are taking, and took a shot at the Conservatives’ climate plan being to let the planet burn.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman raised the reports released yesterday about homelessness and food insecurity, ignoring provincial culpability (Turnbull: We have passed measures to increase competition that will help power food prices; Fragiskatos: You should have actually read the PBO report and the number of Canadians that those programmes support), Eric Duncan falsely claimed that the carbon levy was driving people to food banks (Turnbull: You are voting against the school food programme; Sudds: Here is some praise for the school food programme), and Luc Berthold raised those three reports, but tried to implicate the Bloc in their culpability for those failures (Martinez Ferrada: You should vote in favour of programmes to help people).

https://twitter.com/journo_dale/status/1793712412660511186

René Villemure tried to spin out a conspiracy theory about Francis Drouin and the Francophonie (Joly: Canada is one of the co-founders of the international association of the Francophonie, and we will always support it; We are re-investing in the protection of French), and worried about declining French participation in the civil service in Gatineau (MacKinnon: We are a bilingual government that takes care of official languages in both sides of the river).

Richard Bragdon returned to the food banks report and blamed the carbon levy (Turnbull: I’m glad you’re finally worrying about food insecurity when you did nothing when you were in government; Blair: You voted against a pay raise for members of the armed forces), and Warren Steinley gave another script of the same (Fragiskatos: Your housing plan doesn’t mention homelessness because you don’t care about it).

Bonita Zarrillo worried about tanker traffic as a result of the Trans Mountain expansion opening and demanded a safety plan (Wilkinson: Transport by pipeline is safer than by rail, and we have been putting in safeguards), and Charlie Angus raised the latest report on mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows (Atwin: We have been investing in ongoing mercury care in the region, and all levels of government need to work together).

Round three saw yet questions on the homelessness/food insecurity reports (Sudds: You profess concern but vote against helping Canadians; Fragiskatos: You claim we’re funding gatekeepers when we are working with not-for-profits to help acquire more affordable housing units). There were also questions on the diversity criteria for post-secondary funding (Champagne: We invested $3.5 million in science in this year’s budget), farm bankruptcies (MacKinnon: The carbon levy doesn’t apply to Quebec, and if you want to pass Bill C-234, tell your leader to bring it forward for a vote; Champagne: You keep voting against help for people), some likely slanderous accusations around an official at the Infrastructure Bank (Champagne: You are going after any company that wants to fight climate change; MacKinnon: What about all those nomination problems in your party?), supposed obstruction of the Hogue Commission (LeBlanc: You know there is no obstruction), the closure of rural post offices (Sousa: We are working closely with Canada Post), and national debt (Anand: We are focused on keeping inflation low so that rates can come down).

Overall, it was another fairly mediocre day, with more of the same over-the-top accusations about the government causing the homelessness crisis and food insecurity, which not only doesn’t bear up to the slightest bit of scrutiny or logic, but also once again lets the premiers off the hook for their culpability in dropping the ball on these files, which are actually in their own jurisdiction. The government, naturally, didn’t push back on any of the utter illogic of any of this, but mostly just denounced Conservative austerity. Only once did Peter Fragiskatos did suggest they actually read the PBO report about how many people the rental subsidies and other housing supports, keeping them from becoming homeless. I would also note that Poilievre thinks he’s found a good laugh line with his “why are people being forced to feed this morbidly obese government” taking point, but it’s one that’s meaningless and crass, and that’s probably why he thinks it’s a winner for him.

There was one other particularly curious accusation being floated, which was that the school food programme hasn’t fed a single child “in nine years.” Erm, the national programme, such as it is, hasn’t been passed yet. They’re still debating the legislation. Trying to insist that a non-existent programme hasn’t worked yet, or more to the point, that a non-existent program hasn’t gone back in time to work is next-level goalpost-shifting, and naturally the government won’t even call them out on that either.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Peter Fragiskatos for a tailored dark grey suit with a offender shirt and pocket square and a dark purple tie, and to Mélanie Joly for a white suit with a paler white top underneath. Style citations go out to Marci Ien for a collared top (or possibly a shirt-dress) with tie-dye-esque psychedelic florals, and to Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe for his awful tan brown jacket over a white shirt, grey striped tie, and faded blue jeans. Dishonourable mentions go out to Soraya Martinez Ferrada for a pale mustard jacket over a white collared shirt and black slacks, and to Filomena Tassi for a bright yellow bolero jacket over a black dress with a floral scarf, and to Ron Liepert for a black suit with a pale yellow shirt with no tie.