Parliament in Review: November 21, 2011

Monday, November 21 featured the final day of debate on the Harper Cons' omnibus budget bill.

The Big Issue

Not surprisingly, the final day of debate on budget legislation gave rise to plenty of clash, with Peter Julian offering up the best summary of the contrasting positions:

What the Conservatives are saying is that the tens of thousands of seniors living in poverty in the country need to continue living in poverty because it wants to bring in more corporate tax cuts. It is saying to the one million Canadians who rely on food banks just to get through the month that they will need to keep going to food banks because it wants to bring in more corporate tax cuts. It is saying to the 72,000 Canadians who lost full-time jobs in the month of October, almost half of whom will not have access to employment insurance, that it needs to cut their benefits so that it can bring in this further corporate tax cut.
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It is the middle-class and poor Canadian families who are paying the price for the government's irresponsible attitude when it comes to fiscal policy in the country.

Julian likewise contrasted continued tax giveaways to the corporate sector against the Cons' imposition of austerity on actual citizens, while Wayne Marston added up the cumulative effect of Lib and Con corporate tax cuts over the course of over a decade. Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet and Alain Giguere noted that the Cons' gratuitous cuts are turning Canada toward the Greek Syndrome that the government is supposedly trying to avoid. Scott Brison criticized the Cons' tax credits for being targeted to avoid anybody who actually needs help, while Alain Giguere added that needlessly complex application processes will keep hundreds of thousands of seniors from receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Kirsty Duncan proposed children's nutrition funding as a far better investment than the Cons' trinkets and baubles. Alexandre Boulerice pointed out that even the IMF has recognized inequality as a serious issue that demands action, while lamenting the Cons' focus on short-term political interests rather than long-term planning. Marston and Francois Choquette pointed out that a job creation tax credit would do far more for Canadian workers than the Cons' unfocused tax hacking. Marston also called for a boost to the Canada Pension Plan, while noting that the Cons chose not to bother when there was plenty of provincial demand for action. Raymond Cote rightly criticized the Cons' now-defunct transit tax credit as having been utterly useless when it came to actually providing transit, and suggested that we shouldn't turning our economy over to the Gordon Gekkos of the world. Nycole Turmel suggested that the Cons pair their new regulatory requirements with desperately-needed investment in infrastructure. And Jean Crowder pointed out that the Cons' "jobs! jobs! jobs!" spin is far from a full answer to economic issues when the jobs actually created aren't enough to keep a worker or family out of grinding poverty.

For the Cons, Colin Mayes honestly seemed to think Julian would be able to do nothing but proclaim the Cons' brilliance in mentioning their softwood lumber sellout - only to be met with the reality of 50,000 lost forestry jobs as a result. Royal Galipeau made it clear that as far as he's concerned, Canadians should expect to fend for themselves. And Cheryl Gallant delivered a remarkable paean to the hundreds of millions of dollars the Cons have thrown into AECL even while selling it off.

Finally, Elizabeth May attempted one last time to challenge the Cons' choice to attack per-vote funding rather than exceedingly generous donation tax credits that disproprotionately help the Cons, only to be told by Randy Hoback that it had been decreed thus from on high - and in keeping with that theme, the bill passed at third reading.

Tomorrow's News Today

Once again, the NDP identified a significant story months before the media seems to have caught on, as Jasbir Sandhu and Sylvain Chicoine both questioned the politicization of RCMP communications months before the story found its way into the press. But in fairness, I'm sure plenty of media observers were once again too busy writing about how little they've seen from the NDP opposition to notice what was actually happening.

In Brief

Helene Laverdiere wondered whether the Cons' call for strong action against Syria would include any limitations on the business done there by Suncor - and Bob Dechert's answer strongly suggested otherwise. Peter MacKay answered a question from John McKay by stating that there's no expectation of reaching initial operating capability with F-35s anytime before 2020 - calling into question why there wouldn't be time to properly consider Canada's options before then. Don Davies introduced a bill to remove federal sales taxes on energy-efficient products. Dan Harris provided a few current cabinet ministers' greatest hits decrying closure and time allocation under past governments before they became Canada's leading offenders in that department. Ruth Ellen Brosseau highlighted the increase in food bank use under the Cons. Andrew Scheer issued his ruling on the Cons' refusal to respect judicial independence, choosing to punt the issue back to committee rather than addressing the problem. Tyrone Benskin called for the Cons to recognize the value of crime prevention rather than focusing stubbornly on punishment, while Francis Scarpaleggia questioned whether officials from municipalities who can't afford new wastewater requirements might be joining the new crowd in Canadian prisons. Peter Stoffer spoke to his private member's bill to stop pension clawbacks for Canadian veterans. Tarik Brahmi tried again to get some answers about the Cons' failure to do anything to rein in credit-card gauging, only to be told by Eve Adams that tax slashing for the wealthy is basically the same thing as consumer protection. Charlie Angus and Alexandre Boulerice questioned some of the new revelations about Tony Clement's G8 porkfest. Anne Minh-Thu Quach wondered why the Cons chose to have health funding studied by unelected non-representatives in the Senate rather than a Commons committee. Justin Trudeau tested whether Peter Kent would go off message long enough to demonstrate basic knowledge about ozone issues; needless to say, Kent failed miserably. Julian suggested the Cons stop asking Canadians to play retirement roulette. And Turmel called out the Cons for forcing the provinces to pay the price for so many of their policies.