MPs spar over carbon price on first day of fall session

The Liberals sharpened their attacks on the Conservatives as the House of Commons returned from its summer break on Monday with the prospect of a snap election looming large.

It's the first sitting since the New Democrats ended an agreement with the Liberals that insulated the minority government from losing a confidence vote.

Liberal House leader Karina Gould said the minority Parliament will now function the way that it did without the agreement, which is on a vote-by-vote basis.

"I have already been in touch with all of the House leaders in the opposition parties and my job now is to make Parliament work for Canadians," she said.

"I know that the end of the supply-and-confidence agreement makes things a bit different, but really all it does is returns us to a normal minority Parliament."

But Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet isn't sure how long that will last, saying the parties are now taunting each other on matters like the federal carbon price.

"We are playing chicken with four cars. Eventually, one will hit another one, and there will be a wreckage. So, I'm not certain that this session will last a very long time," Blanchet told reporters on Monday. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre intends to bring a non-confidence motion against the government as early as this week. For the motion to pass, he would likely need both the Bloc and NDP to support it.

A similar motion he brought last March failed when both those parties voted against it, along with the Liberals. Poilievre has been pushing for a "carbon tax election" for months.

Gould said she has no "crystal ball" to say when or how often Poilievre might try to bring down the government.

The Liberals said at their caucus retreat last week that they would be sharpening their attacks on Poilievre this fall, seeking to reverse his months-long rise in the polls.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday the Liberals must "be really clear" about "the veracity, or not, of the statements of the Conservative leader."

Signs of that began early Monday, with Gould speaking to reporters before the House doors even opened for the day, when she accused Poilievre of being "a fraudster" for comments he made to his caucus a day earlier. 

On Sunday Poilievre said that the carbon price will cause a "nuclear winter," leaving Canadians starving and freezing because they can't afford food or heat due the "existential threat" of the carbon price. 

Gould accused Poilievre of cherry-picking facts about the policy, while not having a plan to reduce carbon emissions.

The Liberals did have an ally on carbon pricing in the NDP, but leader Jagmeet Singh has been distancing himself from the policy, suggesting last week that industry needs to pay more instead of consumers.

Later in the Commons, MPs from all parties exchanged barbs that would more often be heard toward the fever-pitch end of a parliamentary sitting.

Poilievre denounced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a "high-carbon hypocrite," arguing "a carbon-tax fraud has been perpetrated" by the government.

Freeland later shot back that "the only thing the Conservatives know how to do is traffic in cheap insults."

Trudeau said the NDP has "no idea" how to enact good ideas, while saying in French that the Bloc "doesn't care about seniors."

Tory finance critic Jasraj Singh Hallan earned a warning from the Speaker for accusing Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault of lying.

"That orange jumpsuit, handcuff-wearing minister is lying," he said, a reference to how Guilbeault dressed during a 2001 arrest at a Greenpeace protest when he was an environmental activist.

Gould decried the comment as "totally inappropriate" while House Speaker Greg Fergus urged MPs to be respectful.

"I know it's the first day back, but I'd like everybody to remain polite," Fergus said in French.

There are several key bills making their way through the legislative process, including the online harms act and the NDP-endorsed pharmacare bill, which is currently in the Senate.

Gould insisted the government has listened to the concerns of Canadians and received the message when the Liberals were defeated in a Toronto byelection in June, losing a seat the party had held since 1997. 

"We certainly got the message from Toronto—St. Paul's and have spent the summer reflecting on what that means and are coming back to Parliament, I think, very clearly focused on ensuring that Canadians are at the centre of everything that we do moving forward," she said. 

Yet the Liberals were bracing for the possibility of another blow in a tight race to hold a Montreal seat in a byelection there. Voters in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun cast ballots Monday to replace former justice minister David Lametti, who was removed from cabinet in 2023 and resigned as an MP in January.

The Conservatives and NDP were also in a tight race Monday in Elmwood—Transcona, a Winnipeg seat that has mostly been held by the NDP over the last several decades.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.