OTTAWA, ON – The Trudeau government muzzled public servants and prevented them from responding to questions from Members of Parliament, newly-released emails show.

Despite announcing its carbon tax more than seven months ago, the government has yet to release figures on how it will impact low-income Canadians and affect the prices of household items like food, gas, and home heating. Carleton Member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre is leading the charge through his use of Order Paper Questions, in which Members of Parliament are allowed to obtain specific, detailed answers from the government.

Although public servants spent over a month preparing answers to Poilievre’s questions, they were blocked from doing so. Officials from the federal Finance, Environment, and Employment and Social Development departments spent from October 25 to November 28 preparing answers to Poilievre’s questions. However, a November 28 email stated that Environment Minister Catherine McKenna’s office wanted to “review the responses [from the other departments]… to ensure the response tabled is consistent.” The following day, an official from Prime Minister Trudeau’s department (the Privy Council Office) says he “just received new direction that this Q[uestion] should only be assigned to Environment,” preventing the other departments from responding.

“The response that was tabled in Parliament was nothing more than vague talking points, and did not even attempt to answer my questions,” said Poilievre. “Obviously, the government did not like the answers it received from Finance and Employment and Social Development, so they muzzled them from even responding.”

“When I first asked these questions, the government implied it did not have the answer. Then, they admitted they have the answers, but they were blacked out. Now, we see that someone directed public servants from Finance and Employment and Social Development to not respond – despite having specific expertise in responding to the questions asked. Who ordered this cover-up? Was it someone acting on behalf of Prime Minister Trudeau or Environment Minister McKenna? Was it the ministers themselves? How many other responses to Parliamentary questions are tainted due to political interference? I will be raising these questions in the House of Commons,” Poilievre concluded.

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Read the documents here.