The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the potential for a similar calamity off the coasts of this country were on the minds of both Liberals and New Democrats at the outset of Tuesday’s Question Period.
Liberal environment critic David McGuinty wanted to know why there is no protection plan for drilling in the Beaufort Sea.
And NDP Leader Jack Layton asked what action had been taken by the Conservative government since the explosion in the Gulf three weeks ago. He accused the National Energy Board, which is responsible for both regulation and environmental protection in the Beaufort Sea, of being an “industry friendly body” that recently considered requests from big oil companies to relax regulations on Arctic drilling.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper took Mr. Layton’s question as a slight against Canada.
“I am fascinated that a series of disgraceful events in the United States are used as a platform to attack a Canadian regulator,” Mr. Harper said. “Of course the National Energy Board as a consequence of this action, as a consequence of its ongoing work, will continually examine the regulatory environment to see if improvements have to be made. ... To try and turn this into an attack on Canada and into an attack in a Canadian regulator is without any foundation in fact.”
One strange turn in the debate came when Mr. Harper said he was “shocked to hear some of the opposition members suggesting we would copy American regulation.”
In fact, with some aspects of environmental policy – emissions standards, for instance – that is exactly what the Conservative government has said it would do to create continental “harmonization.”
Moving on to other matters, the Liberals tried to turn the tables on the Conservative government’s “tough-on-crime” agenda, saying the RCMP has been so underfunded it does not have the manpower to sift through tens of thousands of documents related to the massive mortgage scandal in which Calgary Tory MP Devinder Shory has been implicated.
“Why doesn’t the government give RCMP investigators the resources they need to get to the bottom of this affair?” Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia asked. “When will the Conservatives give the police what they really need to fight white collar crime and spare us the incessant public relations?”
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson responded by saying he did not understand why Mr. Scarpaleggia “is now attacking the RCMP.”
But the strangest moment of up-is-down and black-is-white came when both Liberals and New Democrats stood in defence of Helena Geurgis, the banished former women’s minister. Ms. Guergis, the MP for the riding of Simcoe Grey, told the CBC on Monday she has never been informed why the Prime Minister kicked her out of cabinet and the Conservative caucus. News reports have suggested the allegations against her came from a Toronto private investigator.
“It’s a fundamental principle of natural justice that a person has the right to know what they’re accused of,” NDP MP Pat Martin said. “Did [the Prime Minister] decide to ruin her life based on the unsubstantiated allegations of one discredited and dubious gumshoe?”
Transport Minister John Baird, who answers many of the random question in the House, was perplexed. He recalled the weeks of furious attack that had been thrown at Ms. Guergis in the House for a variety of indiscretions. “This is certainly not the attitude from the members of the New Democratic Party when we were last in session and this minister was on her feet answering questions.”
