QP: The Bloc have demands—or else!

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The prime minister was off at the UN in New York, leaving his deputy to attend QP in his stead, and only some of the other leaders were present as a result. Speaker Greg Fergus started off with a warning about behaviour and questions that relate to the administration of government, and said that he would have more to say on it later, but he hoped for better from MPs. Andrew Scheer led off by rattling off a list of slogans, before concern trolling about tent cities and food banks, and claimed that the government’s solution was for people to pay more taxes, which is juvenile in the extreme. Chrystia Freeland praised the fact that inflation is coming down, and interest rates along with it, which makes the Conservatives mad because they can’t use it as a wedge. Scheer insisted that it was cold comfort that prices weren’t coming down (which is generally how inflation works), and took a swipe at the NDP before demanding an election. Freeland noted that the Conservatives have a hidden austerity agenda, and wondered aloud what exactly they planned to cut. Scheer then raised the capital gains tax changes, and claimed this would affect housing (extremely unlikely), and Freeland took the opportunity to praise their mortgage rule changes from last week. Luc Berthold took over in French to decry students using food banks, and demanded the carbon levy be cut. Jean-Yves Duclos called this nonsense, and called out the belief that school food programmes are “bureaucratic.” Berthold took a swipe at the Bloc, and demanded an end to the government. Duclos kept on the points about the depiction of the school food programme.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and demanded an enrichment to OAS, or face an election. Steve MacKinnon pointed out the Bloc’s record  voting against returning the retirement age to 65 and enriching the GIS, as well as dental care. Therrien thundered that the government could afford this instead of funding oil companies, and made his threat again. MacKinnon reiterate that they have never cut help for seniors, only ever increased it even when the Bloc voted against it.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and complained that Loblaws wants to charge people $100 for a doctor’s appointment, which is provincial jurisdiction and he should take that up with Doug Ford. Mark Holland called him out for caving to a bully. Singh repeated the accusation in French, and Holland kept on his tear about the NDP caving not only on the agreement, but also on the carbon levy.

Round two, and Eric Duncan lied about the effect of the carbon levy on inflation before demanding an election (Sudds: What’s up is women’s participation in labour as child care spaces increase), Kyle Seeback read some slogans (Champagne: Investment in this country is up; We have protected the steel industry), and Pierre Paul-Hus spouted some utter nonsense about crime (Virani: We did our part on bail reforms, and the rest is up to the provinces; Go talk to Mr. Legault).

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe gave an “I told you so” about temporary immigration levels (Miller: The last time you called my office it was to ask for more temporary foreign workers; The same Quebec government tripled temporary foreign workers), and the “redistribution” of asylum seekers (Miller: It does take 60 days to get a work permit, and I am meeting with the new provincial immigration minister shortly).

Jamie Schmale read some complete fiction about the opioid crisis (Saks: You cut the drug treatment fund when you were in power, and we need every level of government involved to save lives; you don’t believe in science or data), and Anna Roberts read some slogans and some incredulous figures about carbon levy charges for seniors (MacKinnon: You voted no to every single support for seniors we have brought in).

Lindsay Mathyssen worried about Lebanese Canadians who are caught in the fighting in Lebanon (Damoff: We are following the situation closely, and we have encouraged Canadians in Lebanon to leave), and Matthew Green thundered about “wage theft” of truck drivers, which is largely provincial jurisdiction (MacKinnon: Had they stayed in our agreement, we have worked with workers and businesses to find a solution and have changed the Canada Labour Code).

Round three saw questions on housing needs (Fragiskatos: We have provided wraparound supports to get people off the streets; Duclos: Your leader only built six affordable units), forestry vs protecting caribou (Guilbeault: We are trying to work in good faith with the provincial government; There is no future in forestry if we can’t protect forests), Amira Elghawaby (Duclos:  I come from the university sector, and diversity is a strength; Bibeau: Quebec MPs on the government side have influence, we don’t just rip our shirts publicly), nonsense about the capital gains tax changes (Freeland: Only 0.13 percent of the population have capital gains above the threshold in a single year), the Brookfield proposal (Freeland: We are happy to get advice from Canadians, while you get if Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson), the consul general’s residence in New York (Blair: The PM undertakes very important work on behalf of Canada abroad), crime rates (LeBlanc: You know full well the Parole Board is independent), UNRWA (Hussen: We have taken action when allegations were raised), automating lighthouses (Kelloway: We are committed to safety for coastal communities), and the Disability Benefit (Khera: Some boilerplate pabulum).

Overall, it was a less acrimonious day than we saw last week, but it was certainly not a more intelligent day. The same slogans repeated themselves endlessly, and we saw a lot of frankly dumb talking points about the changes to the capital gains inclusion rate, and this trumped up concern that this was going to devastate housing or food production, but did Chrystia Freeland correct any of this? Of course not. The closest she came was to say that this only affects about 0.13 percent of the population, but didn’t actually say “Does every roofer make capital gains in over a quarter-million dollars every year over the lifetime capital gains exemption of $1.25 million? Does every farmer?” She also could have asked “Is it fair for high-income Canadians to use capital gains to engage in tax arbitrage?” The fact that she couldn’t lay out why these concerns were overblown is part of this government’s problem with their inability to defend their own policies.

Otherwise, the mendacity around some of the questions continues to be beyond the pale, particularly around criminal justice questions. Accusing the government of signing off on Parole Board decisions? Come on! That’s absolute horseshit, and good on Dominic LeBlanc for pushing back. Likewise, it was nice to see Arif Virani continue to point to the provinces for not doing their own work when it comes to bail decisions, which is a point that continues to be under-valued when the provinces are supposed to be doing the bulk of the heavy-lifting here and their continued under-resourcing leads to these very problems. Way too many issues that come up in QP are provincial in nature, and not enough ministers actually point that out, which continues to be a big problem, particularly in terms of what gets reported.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Joanne Thompson for a dark grey suit over a matching top, and to Peter Fragiskatos for a dark grey three-piece suit over a crisp white shirt with a matching pocket square, and a purple paisley tie. Style citations go out to Darren Fisher for his hateful brown corduroy jacket over a white shirt with no tie, and to Mona Fortier for a grey, white and beige striped sweater over grey slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anna Roberts for a mustard yellow jacket over a black top and slacks).