FIRST THING — A looming vaccine mandate for truckers entering Canada appears to be no more. The Canadian Press reported late Wednesday that a Transport Canada spokeswoman confirmed that unvaccinated truck drivers won't have to quarantine on entering Canada. It was a strange way to announce a reversal. Earlier in the day, Trade Minister MARY NG wasn't exactly backing away from the mandate — though one line sticks out from the rest from a midday press conference. "Certainly, the issue of making sure that supply chains continue to move and that they remain resilient is work that we are continuing to monitor," she told reporters. 5G or not 5G — Two business days into the new year, a tender popped up on the federal procurement website. The Department of Defence's research agency was looking for a supplier for a 5G communication lab — a facility that would "demonstrate potential applications" across government and "examine the vulnerabilities and cybersecurity of 5G/Internet of Things communication networks." Ottawa has repeatedly delayed a decision on whether to follow the lead of Five Eyes allies and ban Huawei, the Chinese telecom whose 5G gear resides in cell towers in many parts of Canada, from future network infrastructure. Playbook wondered if Huawei was eligible for the DND contract. (It's extremely unlikely the company would submit a bid.) — DND's response: On Wednesday morning, the department wrote to Playbook. We had to read the reply twice to be sure. They'd canceled the project. An unsigned statement insisted the 5G lab wouldn't be connected to anything. "This was to be standalone equipment in an R&D lab, and not to be connected to any operational networks." But the agency still wanted a mulligan on the project's design. "In light of the fast pace of the evolution of 5G technology and out of an abundance of caution, DRDC has decided to re-evaluate the potential addition of a security requirement associated with the purchase of these goods." Just days after the tender went live, the agency had also reconsidered its human resources. "In light of the omicron variant limiting DRDC staff from accessing the ORC lab regularly, the department has concluded that these goods are no longer urgent for year-end and would be under-utilized at this time." "For these reasons, this RFP is being canceled," read the statement, "and will be revisited in due course." There's that pesky phrase again. UNANIMOUS CONSENT — Conservative finance critic PIERRE POILIEVRE sounded like the rhetorical chest-beater everyone expected at the first House finance committee meeting of the year. He asked a "metaphysical" question — his word, not ours — about all the investment driving housing inflation: "Everything comes from somewhere. Nothing comes from nowhere. Where is all the money coming from?" But that was sort of it from the Conservative firebrand. He pitched a 10-meeting study on the rising cost of housing and groceries. No one quibbled with the urgency of the issues. Liberals sang from the same songbook, repeating the "importance" of talking about inflation. They offered friendly amendments. They praised each other. And Poilievre found unanimous consent for his motion. — What they'll study: “Inflation in the current economy, including housing inflation, food inflation, repatriating supply chains for strategic goods, and any other issue the committee deems pertinent to the question of inflation.” — Who they'll hear from: Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND and Bank of Canada governor TIFF MACKLEM will spend three hours with the committee. They'll also ask for PETER ROUTLEDGE, the superintendent of financial institutions, ROMY BOWERS, the president and CEO of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and ANIL ARORA, the chief statistician at Statistics Canada. Also on the docket: anyone at StatsCan who plays a role in crunching the numbers on the Consumer Price Index. (Bureaucrats who likely never thought they'd have to speak to their work at a high stakes parliamentary committee.) TRADE WINDS — We almost never hear what goes on behind closed doors when deputy ministers meet international counterparts. So-called "readouts" are mostly reserved for Cabinet ministers on this side of the Canada-U.S. border. But that's not how things work in Washington. JAYME WHITE, the deputy U.S. trade representative, published a readout of his first meeting with his new counterpart north of the border: International Trade DM DAVID MORRISON. — Pesky irritants: White's version of the conversation says he "stressed the importance of Canada fully meeting its USMCA commitments." He flagged dairy tariff-rate quotas and U.S. home shopping programming, which is supposed to be made available to Canadians. He also "expressed concern" about a digital service tax north of the border (which Ottawa wants to implement as of 2024, unless a OECD/G20 tax treaty is finalized first). | 
