Speech from the Throne | Opposition leaders fight back

(Ottawa) Exercise imposed, the leaders of the opposition parties delivered in the Commons on Tuesday their responses to the Speech from the Throne last week.

The Leader of the Official Opposition, Conservative Erin O’Toole, obviously reveled in a speech lasting over 70 minutes, echoing the arguments he made during the election campaign last summer.

He criticized the minority Liberal government for neglecting inflation in the country, and even being responsible for it. He assured that his party would speak on behalf of Canadians forgotten by the Liberals. He thus denounced the absence of a plan to counter the labor shortage, in the speech delivered by the Governor General.

“This is not a priority for the Liberal government. […] We will address the labor shortages, ”he promised.

Warmly applauded by his people when he praised the need to sell the “most ethical” and “greenest” oil produced in Canada to Americans, he also sparked their laughter when he mocked the Minister of Environment, Steven Guilbeault, who, he said to underline his absence in the House, “must be pedaling on his bike to come to Ottawa”.

The Conservative leader concluded his speech by calling on voters next time to buy “the blue car”.

His speech, Mr. O’Toole offered it surrounded by his family who multiplied the applause. But opposite, the government benches were almost all empty.

Justin Trudeau’s cabinet was met, a floor higher, at that time to discuss, among other things, the measures to be taken to slow the progression of the Omicron variant, a new threat of COVID-19.

It was Bloc member Monique Pauzé who took on Mr. O’Toole, in the House, after his speech. “There is no such thing as ethical and clean oil,” she told him.

When he took the floor in his turn, at the beginning of the afternoon, the Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet resumed his criticisms offered as soon as the Speech from the Throne was delivered, finding there too few necessary commitments in his eyes. .

He thus returned to the threat of an encroachment in the field of provincial jurisdiction, which is health.

“” Sell us your jurisdictions. ” This is the liberal approach. And that means that we have a Speech from the Throne which says absolutely nothing and which quickly tells us “no, to collaborate, that means give and take on both sides”. It left us dangerously hungry, ”he complained.

The NDP leader spoke about the housing crisis, the need for reconciliation with First Nations and the climate crisis.

“We must promote clean energy,” pleaded Jagmeet Singh, criticizing the Liberal government for continuing to subsidize Canadian producers of fossil fuels.

Proposed amendments

As is customary, an amendment was presented by the official opposition and a subamendment by the second opposition, of the motion which will lead to the adoption of the Speech from the Throne.

The Conservative amendment proposes, among other things, to counter the labor shortage by adapting immigration criteria “to the needs of employers” and by simplifying the rules for temporary foreign workers.

The Bloc’s subamendment requires that federal transfers increase to cover 35% “of health costs in Quebec and the provinces”, and that these transfers be indexed annually at 6%. The subamendment also imposes an increase in the old age security pension for people aged 65 to 74, whereas at this time this increase is limited to seniors aged 75 and over.

Even if the Bloc’s subamendment does not pass – and this is most likely the fate that awaits it – the Speech from the Throne will be adopted.

Mr. Blanchet committed to it last week, seeing no reason to vote against a text which, according to him, said little. Support from the Bloc Québécois guarantees the survival of the Liberal minority government, when this vote of confidence will be held after the six days of debate on the Speech from the Throne have been exhausted.