Attending question period in the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister, Justin Trudeau fielded questions about the Islamic State and the Canadian economy on Monday.
Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose led by questioning Trudeau on his decision to withdraw Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets from the battle against ISIS.
“Why is the prime minister stepping back from the fight when our allies are stepping up?” Ambrose asked.
Trudeau responded by saying his government is committed to playing both a military and humanitarian role in Syria and Iraq.
“I engaged with our allies on these issues, and they’ve assured me that we are continuing to be helpful,” Trudeau said.
When asked about when the fighter jets would be pulled from their mission, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion indicated a timeline of “weeks, not months.” Later on CTV’s Power Play, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said he was looking at “a few different options and different timelines.”
“As the prime minister has stated repeatedly, we want to make sure we do this in a responsible manner, making sure that the capability remains intact for our coalition,” he said.
Sajjan said the government was looking at what other coalition partners were doing in order to determine how Canada best fits into the picture of not only combatting ISIS, but helping in other places like Africa where ISIS “tentacles” might be reaching with other terror groups like Boko Haram and al-Shabaab.
Sajjan also said he wasn’t worried about U.S. President Barack Obama naming France, Germany and the U.K. as some of the U.S.’s “closest allies” without including Canada.
“We’re committed allies not just in the current fight but also in our past we’ve shared conflicts together as well,” Sajjan said. “We should not read too much into this.”
During question period, Finance Minister Bill Morneau was also pressed about the government’s middle class tax cuts, which conservative finance critic Lisa Raitt criticized for not being revenue-neutral, as the Liberals promised they would be during the election campaign.
“How much will these broken promises cost Canadians?” Raitt asked.
Morneau recognized that the economy was “slowing,” but said the government is committed to achieving a balanced budget by the end of its mandate. Morneau also took a jab at the previous Conservative government while explaining the Liberals’ plan for the future.
“We have inherited a situation that is more challenging than was foreseen in the budget,” Morneau said, referring to the Liberals having stepped into power with more debt than was expected.
“We are looking forward to making significant investments in our economy to help the growth of the economy, because we recognize the challenges Canadians are facing across this country,” Morneau said.
