Sitting 7 — June 3, 2025

The seventh sitting featured extensive debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, with scores of MPs—many delivering maiden speeches in the new Parliament—addressing the government's agenda. Liberal members emphasized the throne speech's commitments to affordability, including the middle-class tax cut, the GST rebate for first-time homebuyers, and the dental care plan now available to all Canadians earning under $90,000 annually. Conservative and Bloc Québécois members challenged the government on the absence of a budget, with the Bloc's leader Yves-François Blanchet characterizing the previous day's first ministers' meeting in Saskatoon as a "love-in" lacking concrete commitments on Quebec's priorities.

Oral questions focused heavily on the fiscal and trade agenda. Conservatives repeatedly cited the Parliamentary Budget Officer's projections on debt interest costs and questioned the government's decision to seek approval for half a trillion dollars in spending without a budget. The Prime Minister responded that the main estimates included critical transfers for health care, child care, and dental care, and that a budget would follow in the fall. The U.S. tariff dispute dominated trade questions, with the Bloc highlighting that Quebec's aluminum sector had faced tariffs for three months without receiving any support, contrasting this with the $2 billion in assistance extended to Ontario's auto industry. The Prime Minister maintained the government was in intensive real-time negotiations while preparing further reprisals.

The sitting concluded with a 163-speech emergency debate on wildfires in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, moved by NDP MP Leah Gazan. Members heard harrowing accounts of evacuations from Pimicikamak Cree Nation and other communities, with Minister of Emergency Management Eleanor Olszewski and Minister of Indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty detailing the federal response, including Canadian Armed Forces deployments. The debate exposed tensions between the government's push to fast-track resource extraction projects and Indigenous communities' insistence on proper consultation, with NDP MP Lori Idlout warning that the "one project, one review" framework threatened First Nations' rights. Green Party leader Elizabeth May reminded the House of its 2018 vote declaring a climate emergency and questioned the government's commitment to the Paris Agreement.