While the G7 summit was happening in Kananaskis, things in Ottawa were heating up over a closure motion on the One Canada Economy bill. Andrew Scheer was here but didn’t lead, and left it up to Melissa Lantsman to lead off, and her decried environmental legislation that is supposedly killing energy projects, and demanded that legislation be repealed. Tim Hodgson urged her to pass the One Canadian Economy Bill. Lantsman urged him to repeal all environmental legislation, and Hodgson said that industry and unions supported their bill. Jasraj Hallan took over to also demand that “radical” environmental laws be repealed, and this time Julie Dabrusin took over and said that becoming an energy superpower needs to ensure projects are low cost, low risk and low carbon. Hallan tried again and got much the same answer. Gérard took over in French to also demand that environmental legislation be repealed, and this time Steven MacKinnon noted that their electoral platform was predicated on passing this bill. Deltell tried again, and got much the same answer.
Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she decried the “gag order” in Bill C-5 that gives the prime minister exclusive power to define projects in the national interest, and said this as much like Poilievre got elected. François-Philippe Champagne stood up to praise the bill. Normandin again sniped that this was essentially like getting the Conservatives elected, and MacKinnon got up to insist that everyone was behind this bill. Patrick Bonin repeated the same concern about the bill, and had to be warned about unparliamentary language. MacKinnon got back up to essentially taunt that the Liberals won the election.
Round two, and Michelle Rempel Garner returned to last week’s question about GC Strategies (Lightbound: We have taken legal action and referred cases to the RCMP), Ted Falk read another script of the same (Lightbound: Same answer), Dave Epp tried again (Lightbound: Same again), and Joël Godin gave the French version of the script (Lightbound: Same answer en français).
Why doesn’t a single Liberal minister ask the Conservatives to point to where the Auditor General calls GC Strategies “Liberal insiders”? #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T18:35:19.798Z
Mario Simard decried the invocation of closure on Bill C-5 (Champagne: This is a golden opportunity for the Bloc to vote in favour of Quebec because this is how you build a country; Dabrusin: The environment needs to be protected but we need to support the environment at the same time, and they should support this bill).
Scot Davidson concern trolled about Gregor Robertson’s real estate holding (Robertson: Your facts aren’t accurate but I have complied with ethics rules; MacKinnon: He complies with all rules), Michael Barrett gave the same again (MacKinnon: Same answer), Kyle Seeback gave the same yet again (MacKinnon: Ibid.), and Bernard Génèroux gave the same attack en français (MacKinnon: Ibid. en français).
The start of week three of this session, and we are getting into personal attacks. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T18:40:51.974Z
Round three saw questions on housing starts (Robertson: There are monthly fluctuations but the overall numbers are up; Talk to your mayor and council about the Housing Accelerator programme; There are over 200 agreements across the country, while you insult mayors and city councils), approving energy projects (Hodgson: All of the premiers, CEOs and unions think our bill is a great idea; Dabrusin: You are trying to create division instead of supporting the bill; Low-cost, low-risk, low-carbon), violent crime (Anandasangaree: I met with the mayor of Surrey, and we will act decisively to strengthen the Criminal Code; Fraser; Extortion is already a crime and has serious penalties; Gasparro: We are hiring a thousand new RCMP officers), the Inuit Child First Initiative being made permanent (Chartrand: Nutrition North is undergoing a programme review—which was not the question).
How does the government approve projects that don’t exist? #QP
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T18:54:43.531Z
Overall, it was not a terribly enlightening day as we basically had the same handful of scripts once again, with the new addition of the attacks on Gregor Robertson because he owns *gasp!* three properties. Apparently you can’t be a housing minister if you own property in Vancouver? And to try and tie it to his saying that housing prices shouldn’t come down in order to protect peoples’ assets, while the Conservatives are also complaining that sale prices are too low in Toronto is beyond ironic, and yet the government doesn’t call out the contradiction either, because of course they won’t. Meanwhile, Tim Hodgson remains useless at answering questions in QP, which makes me really wonder about his abilities as a minister, while I have yet to see Joël Lightbound or anyone ask the Conservatives to point to where the Auditor General or anyone can prove that GC Strategies are “Liberal insiders” or “cronies,” or any of those epithets. It’s just so tiresome.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Arielle Kayabaga for a fitted black jacket with a centre zip over a black slacks, and to Randeep Sarai for a dark grey suit over a white shirt with matching turban with a bright purple tie. Style citations go out to Ali Ehsassi for a light blue jacket with a tight windowpane pattern that borders on being a chesterfield covering, over solid dark blue slacks, a white shirt and black tie, and go Christine Normandin for a rare misstep of a peach half-sleeved jacket over a black dress.