Notes from a wonkfest

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Welcome to Ottawa Playbook. We’re your hosts, Maura Forrest and Nick Taylor-Vaisey, with Joseph Gedeon and Zi-Ann Lum. Wellington Street is reopening to cars today, if you feel like going for a celebratory drive. In other news, we bring you all the highlights (and spotteds) from the Public Policy Forum. JUSTIN TRUDEAU visits the Big Apple. And it’s Day 10 of the PSAC strike.

DRIVING THE DAY

BUBBLE BREAK — Imagine a room in which serious Ottawa policy wonks drew up a road map for Canadian prosperity in an unpredictable world, but were in the next breath keen to gossip about The Diplomat and Succession — even Love is Blind.

Welcome to the Public Policy Forum’s Canada Growth Summit 2023, a day-long confab at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre that assembled a roster of business and nonprofit leaders, public servants, academics, think-tankers and even a few lobbyists.

The mission was to fill the stage with frank conversation about decarbonization, resource development, artificial intelligence, splintered trade and the role of workers.

Did a POLITICO moderator sneak in a joke about a certain matchmaking reality TV show? Yes. Did another quiz a pair of ambassadors about Netflix’s The Diplomat? Again, yes.

This was a summit that imported much of the Ottawa bubble but left the polarization at home. Zero-sum politics, this was not.

— Candor-con: The summit offered a safe space for MIKE MCNAIR, a former policy head to JUSTIN TRUDEAU who now toils at TONY BLAIR‘s nonprofit, to compare Canada in 2023 to The Shire — a shelter in an uncertain world, that is, but ever in the shadow of Mordor. (He didn’t say who Sauron was.)

Later, former Conservative Cabmin LISA RAITT framed this year’s federal budget as very nearly progressive conservative. JOHN MANLEY, a proudly centrist Liberal in the audience, noticeably scoffed at the notion. Raitt acknowledged the Liberal fiscal track’s lack of conservatism — but joked that DOUG FORD‘s Progressive Conservatives were no better.

— “Toxic”: That was how Labor Minister SEAMUS O’REGAN described the term “just transition,” which he has regularly derided for months as out of touch.

“We’ve rebranded: Sustainable jobs,” O’Regan told the summiteers in an afternoon fireside chat.

Playbook sat down with O’Regan after his remarks for a candid conversation about Liberal fortunes on the Prairies, what he’s learned from unions since he joined Cabinet, and the awkwardness of a massive public service strike. More on that later in Playbook.

— Trade winds: Veteran negotiator STEVE VERHEUL, now a private consultant, raised questions about friendshoring, a concept championed by U.S. Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN and Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND. “It’s all great when we have something like electric vehicles where we managed to get inside the tent of the U.S. tax credits,” he said. “But what if we’re not their friend on an issue? What recourse do we have then?”

— Spotted: ANNE MCGRATH, RICK ANDERSON, MATT DECOURCEY, JOHN MANLEY, DREW FAGAN, KATIE DAVEY, FATIMA SYED, VASS BEDNAR, JULIE VAUX, MARTIN CANNING.

— And spotted at dinner: MARY NG, SEAN FRASER, ANTHONY ROTA, PAUL CALANDRA, ANDY FILLMORE, RICK PERKINS, DONNA DASKO, Ukrainian Ambassador YULIA KOVALIV, ALICE HANSEN, KEN BOESSENKOOL, SHAKIR CHAMBERS, MARK AGNEW (BMO GR guy and former co-op student to Verheul), JOSH ZANIN, MELISSA BRUNO, MEGAN BUTTLE, MONTE and MIKE SOLBERG, DAVID SKOK, ADAM GOLDENBERG, JONATHAN PERRON-CLOW, CLAIRE SEABORN, LESLIE SWARTMAN.

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TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS


— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in New York City, where he will deliver the keynote address at the Council on Foreign Relations at 8:15 a.m. and participate in a Q&A. He will speak to reporters at 11:20 a.m., before leaving for Ottawa at 2:20 p.m.

— Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND is in Stockholm, Sweden for a meeting of European Union economy and finance ministers and central bank governors. She will participate in the family photo at 8:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. CEST).

— Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS and Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND will be in Ottawa to meet with Justice Minister DAVID LAMETTI and Public Safety Minister MARCO MENDICINO for the 2023 Canada–United States Cross-Border Crime Forum. They will make an announcement about working together to fight gun smuggling at 3:30 p.m.

8:45 a.m. PASCALE FOURNIER, former CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, will appear before the House ethics committee as part of its study of foreign interference.

10 a.m. Innovation Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE will be at Concordia University in Montreal to announce the recipients of the 2022 Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

10:30 a.m. (11:30 a.m. ADT) Defense Minister ANITA ANAND will speak with reporters in Dartmouth, N.S. to give an update on Canada’s efforts to evacuate citizens from Sudan.

12 p.m. NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH will be in Toronto to speak at a ceremony for the National Day of Mourning for Workers Killed.

For your radar


GLOBAL CITIZEN — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU took center stage Thursday at a star-studded summit in New York City to tout his track record on gender and reproductive rights, but faced tough questions about his government’s foreign aid spending.

Trudeau used the forum to throw some shade on the United States, on its own turf, pointing to the ongoing legal battle over the abortion drug mifepristone.

“The most recent Supreme Court judgment is for me and for many of us a reflection,” Trudeau said at Global Citizen NOW. “Oh my God, when do we get to stop having to relitigate this every time?”

The PM talked up an announcement earlier in the day from International Development Minister HARJIT SAJJAN, who pledged C$195 million over the next five years in support of women’s advocacy globally.

But it wasn’t an easy ride in the Big Apple, with veteran journalist LISA LAFLAMME challenging the Trudeau government’s 15-percent reduction in international development spending in the most recent budget. “That is $1.3 billion dollars that is just gone from the organizations that rely so heavily on it,” she said. “And I just wonder how, first of all, do you justify that?”

Trudeau insisted his government is continuing to increase foreign aid spending.

— Related reading: Today, the PM will address an American think tank, the Council of Foreign Relations, to discuss Canada’s potential as a reliable supplier of critical minerals. For TVO, MATT GURNEY voices a little skepticism.

DAY 10 — The federal public service strike is rolling into its second weekend with no end in sight. There’s been some indication of movement in the negotiations — Public Service Alliance of Canada president CHRIS AYLWARD says the union has backed off its demand for a 13.5 percent wage increase over three years, though he hasn’t said what the new ask is. The government has offered nine percent over three years.

Whatever pay raise the workers get will end up being a “benchmark settlement” for other bargaining groups in the public service, former parliamentary budget officer KEVIN PAGE told the CBC’s FALICE CHIN and GUY QUENNEVILLE this week. And the pressure on the Liberals to curb spending could mean that layoffs are next.

But it’s the second major sticking point — the right to work from home — that other employers may be watching more closely. The union wants the right to remote work to be enshrined in its collective agreement. Treasury Board President MONA FORTIER says it’s the employer’s prerogative to decide where employees work.

One labor lawyer told Bloomberg’s RANDY THANTHONG-KNIGHT this week that he has a dozen clients negotiating collective agreements who’ve asked to delay the process pending the result of the PSAC strike.

“This is going to set the standard for collective-bargaining negotiations and employee expectations, even in non-union environments across the country,” PATRICK GROOM told Bloomberg. “If the federal government agrees to working from home arrangements, that’s going to be a serious and difficult challenge to overcome for employers who want to have their workforces return.”

— Meanwhile: Government officials told the National Post’s RYAN TUMILTY they’re concerned about the number of grievances they would face from employees demanding to return to their home offices if they cave to the union’s demand. They also fear a decline in service if workers are never in the office. Currently, employees are required to work from the office two or three days a week.

— Poll tracker: Redditors are feeling increasingly pessimistic about when the strike will end. On Thursday, a full two thirds of voters on the public servants’ subreddit bet that the work stoppage will last until Tuesday or later. Just five percent said it will be over before the weekend.

A plurality of redditors — 48 percent — are still banking on a negotiated settlement to end the strike. Just 14 percent are betting on back-to-work legislation.

— Also, because it’s Ottawa: PSAC set up a hot dog stand outside the Prime Minister’s Office to feed the picketers. Ottawa By-Law promptly issued tickets (h/t MACKENZIE GRAY).

— And, in a dose of irony: Downtown restaurants and coffee shops are being flooded with public servants on the picket lines to demand the right not to go downtown, CATRIONA KOENIG and REANNA JULIEN report for the Globe and Mail.

AT LONG LAST — The Liberals’ online streaming bill became law last night, after nearly 18 months of heated debate that included the longest study ever conducted by a Senate committee. In the end, the Red Chamber opted not to insist on amendments it had made to the controversial bill that were rejected by Heritage Minister PABLO RODRIGUEZ.

The bill will require online streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube to fund and promote Canadian content, as traditional broadcasters are required to do. Now that the bill has passed, it will fall to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to figure out how to regulate the platforms.

— The details: The Conservatives opposed C-11, dubbing it the Liberal “censorship law,” and have promised to repeal it if they form government. The last battle in the Senate focused on one particular amendment senators had made to the bill, which explicitly exempted people who post their own videos on platforms like YouTube and TikTok from CRTC regulation. The Liberals rejected the change, but insist the bill doesn’t target user content.

Conservative senators wanted the upper house to insist on the change. But in the end, a majority voted not to push back, instead taking note of the government’s “public assurance that Bill C-11 will not apply to user‑generated digital content.” Critics of the bill will now take that fight to the CRTC.

— The final tally: Fifty-two senators voted to pass the bill. Sixteen voted against. Sen. PATRICK BRAZEAU abstained. And that was that.

— For more: Here’s the Globe and Mail’s MARIE WOOLF with all the reaction.

WHO'S UP, WHO'S DOWN


Who’s up: House Speaker ANTHONY ROTA, who mercifully put a stop to PIERRE POILIEVRE’s rendition of “New York, New York” in the Commons on Wednesday.

Who’s down: International Development Minister HARJIT SAJJAN, who may want to consider the inbox zero method.

HALLWAY CONVERSATION

LABOR OF GUV — Playbook caught up with Labor Minister SEAMUS O’REGAN shortly after his candid convo about the role of workers in the energy transition at the Canada Growth Summit. He also remarked on Liberals losing every seat in Saskatchewan and Alberta on election night in 2019. That’s where we started our chat.

Why did you talk so much about the 2019 experience onstage?

I think about 2019 a lot. The Liberal Party was thrown out of Alberta and Saskatchewan. We lost RALPH GOODALE in Wascana. That was big. And you really have to ask yourself, “Well, what do we do?”

I really think that workers felt marginalized and patronized. You gotta watch that. If you were driven to lower emissions in this country, if you really do believe that Canada can be a leader in this field, then workers are not “that thing over there in that part of the country that we’ve got to kind of deal with.” They have to be the core of what we’re doing, because they’re the only ones who know how to do it. The rest of us are just waxing on with rhetoric.

What do you talk about most with your provincial counterparts?

The good news is, and it’s a dirty, dirty little secret of this country, is that a lot of federal and provincial ministers do work very well together. And I continue to work really well with ministers in the labor field — provincial and territorial leaders who in times previous could maybe, to and fro, complain about jurisdiction.

Now everybody’s just laser-focused on the fact that we’ve got a massive labor shortage in this country. And a massive skilled trade shortage.

You’ve spent a lot of time with unions since you entered Cabinet. Does that make a public service strike particularly uncomfortable in your role?

When you’re watching this happening, it is tough. This is particularly tough. It’s public sector. We have a responsibility to find a good deal for workers. That’s what union negotiators are very capable of doing, and in this role — we’re the employer — we’re going to make sure that we have a good deal for taxpayers. It’s messy. It’s necessarily messy.

MEDIA ROOM


— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will attend the coronation of KING CHARLES in London on May 6, ROZINA SABUR confirms for the Telegraph.

— The prime minister’s brother, ALEXANDRE TRUDEAU, told Le Devoir’s BORIS PROULX that he wants to appear before a parliamentary committee to “defend the reputation” of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, despite the public accounts committee voting Monday not to call on any Trudeau family members. Ethics committee chair JOHN BRASSARD has since invited him to appear on May 4, per the Globe and Mail’s STEVEN CHASE.

— Tuberculosis cases are on the rise in Canada since resources to eliminate the illness were redirected during the Covid-19 pandemic, the CBC’s ALISON NORTHCOTT reports.

— For the Hub, STUART THOMSON questions the opposition’s “muted reaction” to the government’s C$13 billion in subsidies for Volkswagen.

— For POLITICO Magazine, ELI STOKOLS shines a light on the secret TV in the Oval Office and six other quirks of President JOE BIDEN’s media diet.

PROZONE


For POLITICO Pro subscribers, our latest policy newsletter via SUE ALLAN: The trouble with friendshoring.

In other news for Pro subscribers:

— Southwest’s December meltdown cost the airline more than $1B.

— Meta beats back states’ challenges to Instagram, WhatsApp mergers.

— A new portrait of American teenagers in crisis.

— Biden admin to set up migrant processing centers in Latin America.

— Pentagon faces bipartisan demands to supply Ukraine faster.

PLAYBOOKERS


Birthdays: HBD to Conservative MP MARTIN SHIELDS (75!) and Sen. LARRY SMITH.

Celebrating Saturday: Sen. SALMA ATAULLAHJAN and former MP ROB NICHOLSON.

Sunday birthdays: Former PM STEPHEN HARPER turns 64. Also celebrating: Bloc Québécois MP CHRISTINE NORMANDIN and Liberal MPs PETER FRAGISKATOS and PATRICK WEILER.

Send birthdays to [email protected].

Spotted: WILLIAM WOLFE-WYLIE, with a new “Magic GEDS Machine.”

Tourism Minister RANDY BOISSONNAULT, revealing himself as a PEDRO PASCAL fan.

Movers and shakers: NDP MP RANDALL GARRISON will not seek re-election. He was first elected to the Vancouver Island riding of Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke in 2011.

On the Hill


→ Find upcoming House committees here

→ Keep track of Senate committees here

8:45 a.m. The House ethics committee will hear from PASCALE FOURNIER, former CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

8:45 a.m. The House national defense committee meets to begin its study of the military health system and provision of health and transition services under the Canadian Forces Health Services Group.

8:45 a.m. The House human resources committee meets to take Bill C-35 through clause-by-clause consideration.

1 p.m. The House subcommittee on human rights will study human rights in Nigeria.

— Behind closed doors: The House natural resources committee meets to draft a report; the House public safety committee’s subcommittee on agenda and procedure meets to go over “committee business.”

TRIVIA


Thursday’s answer: STEPHEN HARPER published “A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs & the Rise of Professional Hockey” in 2013, while he was prime minister.

Props to JOHN ECKER, CHRIS MCCLUSKEY, GEORGE SCHOENHOFER, PATRICK DION, ALYSON FAIR, NICOLAS DOIRE, GARY ALLEN, JEFF LABONTÉ, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, YAROSLAV BARAN, LAURA PAYTON, DOUG RICE, NANCI WAUGH, GERMAINE MALABRE, SHEILA GERVAIS, PIERRE JURY, CAMERON RYAN, MARC LEBLANC, BOB GORDON, J. D. M. STEWART and GORDON RANDALL.

On the subject of hockey, today’s question comes to us from reader JOHN ECKER: What future Canadian politician was nicknamed “Herr Zig-Zag” by the Swiss for his puck prowess?