LILLEY: The time for speeches in Ottawa is over, we need action now

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King Charles came to Canada and read the speech from the throne, making it as exciting as such a speech can be. There was the pomp and pageantry of the monarch being there in person, and there were soothing words.

Now, though, Canada needs action.

Building Canada Strong was the title of the speech and the words build or building were mentioned at least two dozen times. There was a section on building new relationships, building a more affordable Canada, and of course building a stronger Canada.

If you paid attention to the election, you know the main promises from that were reiterated in the speech, the only difference between the speech and the campaign is that this time it was read out in a distinguished, upper-class English accent.

That’s fine, that’s what throne speeches are, a rundown of the government’s priorities and it’s not meant to go into detail. We’ve had enough talking, though, enough promises, enough soothing words — the country needs to see a government in action.

The House of Commons has not sat in more than five months, but it is important to remember that from the end of September until December, there was no government business conducted in the House. That’s all because the Trudeau government chose to allow the Commons to be paralyzed rather than release documents demanded by MPs in the Green Slush Fund scandal.

That means that Parliament hasn’t been functioning for nine months; now it’s going to sit for four weeks at most, but could rise earlier, and then not come back until Sept. 15. This isn’t good for democracy, it’s not good for the country — we have been rudderless for a long time.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney is promising plenty and now he will have to deliver whether the Commons is sitting or not.

He’s got a meeting with the premiers coming up on Monday in Saskatoon where he will need to show progress on his plans for the Canadian economy. It may sound good, remove all trade barriers between provinces, but not all provinces want that.

Carney has promised to deliver on that front by Canada Day; it came up in the speech again — we shall see.

Premiers, especially Alberta’s Daneille Smith and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, will want to hear details, not vague promises of Carney’s promise to engage in nation building infrastructure projects, including pipelines. He has been vague on what he really means, he’s refused to be pinned down on what kind of oil pipeline projects he would support, and two senior ministers have said no to pipelines, especially in Quebec.

The speech called for Canada “to become the world’s leading energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy” without defining that.

Carney consistently avoids uttering the words oil or gas and neither appeared in the speech. Instead, he uses the euphemistic term, “conventional energy.”

Smith and Moe, as well as Newfoundland and Labrador Premier John Hogan, will want to hear directly from Carney on what he means about backing projects while keeping Bill C-69 — the energy emissions cap and the tanker ban — in place.

We’ve had months of campaigning, months of posturing and promising, we’ve had months of talking about what Canada needs to do to respond to the changing economic landscape.

Now we need the government to get down to work, to pass the legislation needed, adjust the regulations, and establish the environment for business leaders to be able to act with conviction.

If you think the last nine months of Parliament being dysfunctional, and the last five months of Donald Trump’s tariff threats were just politics, think again. Businesses have been putting off making decisions, unsure which way the government was going, unsure if there would be a suitable response.

Now that the formalities of opening Parliament are out of the way, now that King Charles has departed, it’s time for Carney and his team to roll up their sleeves and get to work.