QP: Demanding a Line 5 tantrum

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It was another day of the Liberals showing contempt for Parliament by only putting Mark Gerretsen in the Chamber. Erin O’Toole led off in person, demanding that the prime minister stand up for Enbridge Line 5, to which Justin Trudeau, by video, reminded him of everything his government had done in order to push back against American encroachment. O’Toole said that this wasn’t raised in any call for the past several weeks, to which Trudeau dismissed Conservative armchair quarterbacking, asserting that they got the job done. O’Toole then pivoted to praise Northern Ireland for getting written assurances that they would be exempt from EU export controls on vaccines, and demanded assurances in writing, and Trudeau stated that they got “strong assurances” that Canada would not be affected by these transparency measures. O’Toole switched to French to call out the contradiction between the prime minister and industry minister as to when the Montreal vaccine facility would be able to produce the Novavax candidate — by summer, or the end of the year. Trudeau said that he had stated that the facility should be finished by the summer, and can start production before the end of the year. O’Toole then demanded a plan on vaccine delivery, to which Trudeau accused him of fear-no getting, and reiterated the talking points on the quarterly delivery commitments.

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and moaned about health care transfers and that the federal government wants national standards — taking a swipe at the NDP while he was at it. Trudeau stated that they would increase health transfers, that they already had increased investments, and there would be more discussions going forward. Blanchet then railed about national standards over Quebec standards, to which Trudeau reminded him that the Canadian Forces stepped in to help those Quebec long-term care facilities.

Jagmeet Singh then got up for the NDP, and demanded paid sick leave, and fixing the existing federal benefit. Trudeau reminded him that they created a federal programme to help people immediately but it was great to see some provinces step up (because this is 94 percent provincial jurisdiction). Singh switched to French to raise his meeting with François Legault to demand an increase in federal health transfers, and Trudeau stated that they would continue to increase them, and reminded him of the tens of billions sent to province through the pandemic.

Round two, and Richard Martel complained that the President of the Treasury Board made a point on TV that Quebec police had not diligently enough enforced quarantine orders (Blair: We did not move too slowly, and we are working with local police forces to enforce orders), and he demanded an apology (Rodriguez: His accusations are baseless), Tracy Gray demanded written assurances from the EU on exemptions from their export controls (Ng: We have been in contact with our counterparts, and we will continue to work with our partners to ensure our supply chains remain open), and Michelle Rempel Garner demanded to know how many people needed to be vaccinated before restrictions can be lifted (Hajdu: We have been guided by science and evidence, and we need to be careful about the importation of variants).

Julie Vignola raised the Novavax announcement for Montreal and demanded to know what is being done today to secure vaccine doses (Amos: We have invested strategically to rebuild Canada’s capacity to produce vaccines; Rodriguez: We are vaccinating people, and you are continuing to try to scare people).

Stephanie Kusie complained that American carriers could still go to sun destinations while out airlines were not being supported (Alghabra: We are working with our international partners about these flights), and demanded a plan for airlines (Alghabra: The Biden Administration has imposed new measures on travellers, so join me in calling on Canadians to avoid non-essential travel), and Alain Rayes repeated the same questions again in French (Alghabra: Same response, still in English).

Jack Harris demanded access to dental care — which is provincial jurisdiction (Hajdu: If the health committee wants to study this, I’ll be interested in what they have to say), and Lindsay Mathyssen complained about someone on a CERB repayment (Qualtrough: No one is required to make repayments at this time, and will work with people who made good-faith mistakes).

Round three saw questions on Buy America rules (Ng: We are working with Biden Administration to avoid unintended consequences for the benefit of people in both countries), gun seizures at the border (Blair: We are trying to protect Canadians while Conservatives are trying to weaken gun laws), authorisations for off-shore exploratory drilling in a protected marine area (Wilkinson: We have taken action to protect these areas, and those permits were issued in the 1990s by the Quebec government and are under provincial jurisdiction), closing air traffic control towers while NavCanada executives got bonuses (Alghabra: NavCanada is arm’s length), carbon price increases (Wilkinson: Climate change is an existential threat to humanity, and most families under the federal backstop get more back than they pay in), lives lost from the delays in vaccine shipments (Hajdu: The federal government has provided the provinces everything they’ve needed through the pandemic), domestic vaccine production (Amos: Increasing our biomanufacturing capacity has been part of our recovery plan from the beginning), more vaccines (Anand: We procured the largest portfolio and the timeline has not changed, nor will we play politics with vaccine procurement), Julie Payette’s pension (LeBlanc: No Canadian should work in an unsafe workplace, and we took action), and vaccine nationalism and global vaccination (Anand: While we have the most diverse portfolio, we are also very committed to multilateralism alliances including GAVI and Covax, and once we have vaccines in this country, we will share doses with the world).

Overall, it wasn’t a terribly illuminating day, but I found myself particularly annoyed by the crocodile tears that Michelle Rempel Garner was shedding in saying that she wished she could ask her questions in the House rather than by video, as she tried to get some kind of answer on how many Canadians need to be vaccinated for restrictions to lift. The thing is, she was here and in person last week, and she could still be here asking them this week (as I suspect she is still in town). There are plenty of MPs who are in town but just not sitting in the Chamber, while the parties – and Liberals most especially – artificially keep the attendance below quorum in order to put on this dog and pony show about “setting a good example,” when that is the wrong example they should be setting. (And yes, I am going to die on this hill). We also still got some ghoulish questions that equated vaccine delays with additional deaths, which lets the premiers off the hook for their poor performance in controlling the outbreaks, and puts unwarranted blame on the federal government for production delays from manufacturers, which is, of course, bullshit.

Style snaps and style citations remain on hold for lack of a representative sample, and there were no egregious offenders today.