QP: Blaming federal dollars for permit delays

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Both the prime minister and his deputy were present today, as were all of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and worried that the time to get a permit in a Montreal has doubled, blaming the prime minister for it. Justin Trudeau read an attack script about how terrible Poilievre’s housing “plan” terrible was. Poilievre insisted that the built all kinds of housing when he was “minister,” taking credit for all builds that happened during that period, and for rent being cheaper then. Trudeau pointed to how the Conservatives withdrew from affordable housing and co-op funding. Poilievre switched to English to worry about rents rising in Toronto and how the city there raised development charges, and wondered why he was spending money on bureaucracy. Trudeau repeated his attack script on Poilievre’s bill in English. Poilievre repeated his false claim about how many units he ostensibly built, and Trudeau repeated the line about the Conservatives withdrawing from affordable housing and co-ops. Poilievre worried about the rise in homeless encampments, and Trudeau listed the measures they are taking to help combat homelessness. 

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and worried about the NSIRA report on foreign interference and the worry therein that certain briefings may not have been read. Trudeau read a line about the challenges of foreign interference. Blanchet called this unacceptable, before demanding more cooperation with the Hogue Commission in turning over documents, and Trudeau insisted that they have shared more documents than ever before, and that they were transparent. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and demanded the federal government build a hospital in Moose Factory near James Bay, to which Trudeau insisted that they were working with the province and First Nations in order to make it happen. Singh switched to French to accuse the Liberals of abandoning Montreal, and Trudeau dismissed this as rubbish, and listing all of the things they have done for the city.

Round two, and Tracy Grey worried that the government’s home building plans were not realistic (Fraser: We have set out to build enough houses to solve the housing crisis where your party won’t even set a goal; If housing starts are down, why do you want to cut funding?), Richard Bragdon read the same script with Atlantic communities plugged in the mentions (Freeland: Even conservatives premiers realise the damage your cuts would do; Your leader is only interested in vilifying leaders, not working with them), and Luc Berthold returned to the building permits in Montreal (Fraser: Your cuts will only hurt municipalities; Duclos: Your leader built an whole six affordable units when he was “minister”).

 Mario Beaulieu complained about the federal civil service’s use of French in Quebec (Anand: It’s not true, and we have a bilingual civil service that provides service in both languages), and René Villemure gave more of the same (Anand: I’m Anglophone and I can speak French in this House and with the civil service).

John Barlow demanded a gas tax “holiday” over the summer (Sudds: You voted against providing food to hungry kids at schools; Freeland: You guys only want to cut, and that includes the carbon rebates that leave most families better off), and Lianne Rood gave her own script of the same (Wilkinson: It would be great if you guys could actually use facts; Even conservative premiers understand the absolute carnage you’ll cause).

Bonita Zarrillo worried about the unpaid work that flight attendances are forced to do (O’Regan: We don’t regulate wages for federally regulated sectors, but we are monitoring the situation), and Taylor Bachrach wanted more action on protecting people with disabilities on airlines (Zuberi: We are taking action).

Round three saw yet questions misleadingly blaming the carbon levy from food insecurity (Sudds: We set concrete poverty reduction targets, and there are 1.3 million fewer people in poverty since we’ve been in power; Freeland: It is the height of hypocrisy for you to claim to care about the vulnerable when you want to cut programmes to help them; Holland: You focused no attention on people in poverty when you were in power). There were also questions on the distribution of asylum seekers (Miller: We have a positive relationship with the province; $5.2 billion transferred to Quebec is action), opioids (Saks: Diversion of any narcotics is illegal, and prescribed alternatives are one tool among many to save lives; decriminalisation is about personal possession), bail (Virani: We are working with law enforcement to combat organised crime; Here is a list of things we’ve done on auto theft in the past three months; We are dealing with those affected by extortion), giving status to undocumented migrant workers (Miller: We are looking at a number of options but there is no clear consensus as to the path forward), oil CEOs (Guilbeault: There will be no special pathway for any Pathways project). Overall, it was a low-energy day where the repetition of the very same exchanges in English and French (swapping Montreal for Toronto, because regional markets) was indicative that each side had a scripted message they wanted to get out and that was it, rather than there being some kind of extemporaneous exchange—which they are capable of doing and which they do on a not-infrequent basis! That made today’s exchanges all the  more disappointing.

Otherwise, we were very much back to some of the same old canards about the carbon levy and affordability, and the Conservatives’ demands on the gas tax “holiday,” which is subject to an upcoming vote. I did find it interesting that only the Bloc raised the NSIRA report, considering that it’s a pretty big deal. The only other notable thing was that the Liberals found a new applause line in saying that even conservative premiers are afraid of what Poilievre would bring, meaning the rumour that Doug Ford may be planning an early election in order to head off a Poilievre government that would cut the kinds of programmes he wants to rely on. I’m not sure it’s a winning line, but it’s at least something new.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Joanne Thompson for a dark pink suit with a white v-necked top, and to Arif Virani for a navy suit with a pink shirt and pocket square and a purple tie. Style citations go out to Randall Garrison for a grey-green suit over a shirt of a lighter shade of the same colour, and a yellow tie, and to Bonita Zarrillo for a black and white checked jacket over a clashing dark grey top with tight dot pattern.