QP: Who cares about the woodland caribou?

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For the final Tuesday of the spring sitting, the prime minister and his deputy were both present, as were nearly all of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and said that the environment minister is threatening jobs in Quebec’s forestry sector with an Order-in-Council, not mentioning that it’s because Quebec has not lived up to their obligations to protect woodland caribou. Poilievre vowed to undo such an order as government, and worried that there would be an increase in lumber costs and lost jobs until then. Justin Trudeau said that for decades, the federal government has had a responsibility to protect species at risk, and in this case, it’s the woodland caribou, and they are working with the province to protect the environment and jobs. Poilievre blamed the Bloc for keeping the government in power, and that they were letting the federal government kill jobs in the forestry sector, and Trudeau reiterated that you can’t build a strong economy without protecting the environment. Poilievre switched to English, and quoted Scott Brison’s comments about the capital gains changes, and Trudeau shrugged this off as a “partisan” attack and explained this was about $250,000 in profits, and asking them to pay a little more. Poilievre cited a Food Banks Canada report that claimed 25 percent of Canadians were now in poverty, and called the government’s programmes “whackononics,” and Trudeau pointed out that the Conservatives keep voting against help for people. Poilievre tried to tie in the nonsense conspiracy about the so-called secret carbon price report to discredit the government’s points on the capital gains, and Trudeau taunted that Poilievre hid for eight weeks in order to come up with an answer on the capital gains changes.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and wondered why Trudeau was not sharing foreign interference warnings with provincial premiers, citing comments by David Eby. Trudeau insisted that they were working to get more information to provinces in a timely manner. Normandin demanded that the step up and give provinces the information they need. Trudeau said that Bill C-70 would do that, once it passes the Senate.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he playacted tough in trying to call out the PM for not doing anything about suspected MPs in his caucus, and the Conservatives for being incurious on the NSICOP report. Trudeau gave some platitudes about taking more actions than any other government. Singh repeated the question in French, and got much the same response.

Round two, and Poilievre accused Trudeau of stoking hate crimes and antisemitism and demanded that he join the call to close down the “hate camps” on campuses (Virani: We have a problem with hatred that we need to address, and that’s why we need to pass the Online Harms bill), Melissa Lantsman accused the government of allowing 700 Iranian agents in the country (LeBlanc: We have taken a serious of measures to hold the Iranian regime to account), Richard Lehoux accused the environment minister of attacking Quebec’s forestry sector (Guilbeault: I grew up outside of Montreal, and Quebec committed to publishing their caribou recovery plan and they have not; Champagne: We have and always will invest in the forestry sector), and Bernard Généroux read another script on the same subject (Champagne: We want the sector to be prosperous; We’ve been there for the sector for nine years).

Andréanne Larouche railed that the the federal government hasn’t transferred money for seniors to the province (Martinez Ferrada: This is a national programme, and local groups apply for funding), and Louise Chabot accused the government of cutting transfers for labour force training (Boissonnault: We have invested significantly in training, and this programme was not renewed because it was a temporary programme).

John Barlow gave a false and ridiculous reading of the economic impact of the carbon levy (Freeland: You showed your true colours in voting against plumber and nurses), Dan Mazier read his own ridiculous script of the same (Guilbeault: Climate change has already cost the economy $25 billion and will cost another $35 billion if we do nothing), and Clifford Small read an even more torque script (O’Regan: Here are the rebate levels).

Alistair MacGregor called out the gutting of Singh’s bill at committee—which were largely already covered in previous bills (Champagne: We summoned the grocery CEOs to give them a stern talking to), and Taylor Bachrach complained about how airlines have been raising prices (Rodriguez: WestJet makes its own decision and we are working with the CTA to increase transparency of fees).

Round three saw questions on the “secret report” that was neither secret nor a report (Freeland: The average person in your riding can only dream of the capital gains necessary to trigger the changes but you vote against it), the capital gains changes (Freeland: As the proud daughter of a farmer, and there are increased exemptions for farmers; You’re not only fake populists, but you’re fake populists who can’t do math; You should be careful talking about “gold-plated” pensions when your leader is getting a sweet one for being a career politician; You need to get your facts straight—the new capital tax rate is lower than California or New York; In opposing this, you are also opposing dental care and school food), Canada Post hiring unilingual English letter carriers (Duclos: We must defend French in Quebec and all over Canada), caribou protections and the forestry sector (Champagne: Forestry workers know we have to protect the environment and the economy), some convoluted corruption allegations (Champagne: Look at all the investment we’ve attracted), the Canadian Forces’ ombudsman’s report on the grievous process (Blair: It’s our job to support them, and I have accepted all of his recommendations to modernise the grievance system), suicides among veterans (Petitpas Taylor: We have been streamlining services for mental health).

Overall, it was a rowdy day, as MPs are increasingly in need of a nap/to be sent home because this is week five in a row, and they’re hot and tired and cranky, and pretty much at the point of going feral. It was a little curious that Pierre Poilievre led off on a very Quebec-specific issue, which he spun in a very misleading way, and then had his Quebec MPs return to that issue and not the other issues of the day, which is a very curious application of running two completely separate message tracks between Quebec and the rest of the country, and the belief that can’t possibly backfire. (Remember Erin O’Toole saying different things based on whoever was in the room with him at the time, and having to reconcile his contradictory positions in the media afterward? Yeah…) It was also a tacit admission on Poilievre’s part that he’s not going to care about federal obligations around things like species at risk, if he thinks there is going to be an economic cost to it.

The rest of the Conservatives’ points were largely repeating the same nonsense and misleading points from the past few days about both the so-called “secret report” which wasn’t really a secret report, or the concern trolling over the capital gains changes where they are implying scenarios where people must be pretty wealthy to start with if they are affected by these changes without triggering exemptions, but the government is still stumbling in explaining that point. There were a few points where they were better about it today, but they will have a long way to go before this is actually clear beyond the class/generation warfare notion that the Liberals think is going to be a winner for them.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Chrystia Freeland for a white lapel-less jacket over a black dress, and to Maninder Sidhu for a tailored dark blue suit over a crisp white shirt and a black tie. Style citations go out to Martin Shields for a tan jacket over a grey-blue shirt, black slacks, and a black “I ❤️ Oil & Gas” tie, and to Marilyn Gladu for a black sleeveless dress with bright blue and white florals. Dishonourable mention goes out to Paul Chiang for a black suit with a pale yellow shirt and a black and grey patterned tie, and to Annie Koutrakis for a dark yellow jacket over a black dress.