Why won't the Trudeau Liberals answer Poilievre's questions?

Politicians often refuse to answer questions in the House of Commons. Either for the purpose of damage limitation or plain and simple ignorance, it has become a tradition that is as historic as parliament itself.

Over the past 24 hours, however, the Liberal Party seems to have discovered a new form of the evasive response—made clear through the conduct of the Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau and the Liberal President of the Treasury Board.

Both of these incidents came after questions from the Shadow Finance Minister Pierre Poilievre—a Conservative politician who is celebrated for being a "skin-shredding opposition critic" who strikes the fear of god into his Liberal opponents.

This time around, however, Poilievre did not ask the Liberals anything that required a particularly grueling or revealing answer. Here is the exchange between Bill Morneau and Poilievre:

What is noteworthy about Morneau's handling of these questions is that it is indicative of incompetence rather than Machiavellianism. If Morneau had given Poilievre these figures—which he must surely have as the finance minister—then the subsequent Twitter storm would have been wholly avoided.  

As a finance minister who is leading Canada through an unprecedented economic collapse, it is startling that Morneau is unable to divulge these figures. Was the Finance Minister merely too apathetic to pay attention in his briefing?

The exchange between Poilievre and the President of the Treasury Board was equally depressing:

This time, the Liberal politician could not tell Canadians how many taxpayer funded CERB cheques had been distributed to fraudsters and prisoners.

What could be said of Morneau can be identically applied to the President of the Treasury Board. He is a politician who is either unwilling or unable to provide the public with crucial information during the most important moment in Canada's post war history.