Parliament fiddles while Canada burns

The first crisis of Justin Trudeau's time as prime minister was the wildfire near Fort McMurray, Alta. in May 2016. At the time, he felt it necessary to attach caveats when answering a question about whether climate change had caused the disaster. He cautioned against trying to make "a political argument out of one particular disaster."

Seven years later, with wildfires burning out of control in several provinces, Trudeau apparently feels less inclined to hedge.

"There are some politicians that still think you can have a plan for great jobs and growing the economy without having a plan to fight climate change," Trudeau told reporters at the end of a news conference on Monday. "But Canadians know that fighting climate change is necessary both to create those great jobs and opportunities but also to prevent the catastrophic and expensive losses that Canadians are facing increasingly over the years."

The presentation Trudeau led Monday recalled the pandemic-era news conferences of the recent past.

Federal officials prepared a line graph for the presentation showing the rapid and unprecedented spread of fires across the country. The area burned this year already dwarfs the amount of land consumed by the Fort McMurray fire.

Trudeau praised first responders, asked people to listen to their local authorities and assured the public that different levels of government are coordinating their efforts to fight the fires. He was flanked by half a dozen ministers and he came with an itemized list of federal actions taken in response.

In the vicinity of Parliament Hill, wildfires have not been an abstract concern this week. By the time the prime minister spoke, the nation's capital itself was already shrouded in smoke from wildfires in Quebec. On Tuesday, some residents of Ottawa wore masks outside — recycling the COVID-19 accessory to protect against a different kind of emergency. Schoolchildren were kept indoors during recess.

But debate inside House of Commons was focused on other matters.

The controversy over David Johnston's credibility continues, of course. But the remaining political oxygen in the House on Monday and Tuesday was largely consumed by metaphorical fires.

"Mr. Speaker, the finance minister pretended to have an inflationary epiphany back in November. She admitted that deficits lead to inflation finally. She said that she did not want to pour fuel on the fire of inflation," Jasraj Singh Hallan, the Conservative finance critic, told the House on Monday.

"It only took her six months after that to do a massive flip-flop and admit in her failed budget that she would never end her deficit spending and pour a $60-billion jerry can of fuel on the inflationary fire she started."

As a general rule, one should probably avoid such figures of speech when actual things are literally ablaze. But Conservatives insist they are focused on an economic situation — defined by inflation, rising interest rates and the high cost of housing— that also should be described as a "crisis." Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he is particularly concerned that many new homeowners won't be able to afford their mortgages.

With that as a pretext, the Conservatives have decided to go all-in on a fight against the Liberal government's latest budget bill. In the waning days of the spring parliamentary sitting, the Conservatives are demanding significant cuts in federal spending and the cancelation of planned carbon tax increases.

Unless or until the Liberals agree, the Conservatives say they'll do everything they can to tie up the business of the House — interrupting debate with points of order, forcing unnecessary votes and moving hundreds of amendments to the budget.