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Presented by Innovative Medicines Canada: A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Maura Forrest | Presented by Innovative Medicines Canada | Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Maura | Follow Politico Canada Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. I’m your host, Nick Taylor-Vaisey, with Maura Forrest. Today, we're gearing up for a federal budget. We're also keeping a close eye on the latest Hill rhetoric on foreign interference. Plus, the feds are paying for thousands of dormant phone lines. Also, a Q&A with a retired Canadian Navy commander and former diplomat offers perspective on China via Australia.
|  | THREE THINGS WE'RE WATCHING | | THE BUDGET — Playbook will be in the daylong lockup on Tuesday before Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND tables her much-anticipated budget. Everybody whose business is decarbonization is watching for a response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act. Freeland is expected to introduce targeted cost-of-living help, too — a key demand of NDP leader JAGMEET SINGH, who also wants an expansion of federally funded dentalcare. The Commons will debate the budget on Wednesday and Thursday. We're tracing the contours of Freeland's post-budget roadshow. We know she'll be on the west coast this week. The minister is in Vancouver on Thursday for a Laurier Club evening fundraiser at a downtown Marriott. FOREIGN INTERFERENCE — The procedure and House affairs committee is sneaking in work on riding redistribution proposals. The committee heard from nine MPs on Thursday — five from Alberta, four from Quebec. They'll listen to the concerns of seven more Quebecers on Tuesday. But soon enough, they'll be back to the high-stakes stuff. Liberals on the committee ceased their filibuster last week on a motion to bring KATIE TELFORD, the PM's chief of staff, to the committee to testify on foreign interference allegations. The motion passed unanimously. Chair BARDISH CHAGGER offered the committee a rough-ish timeline on when Telford would testify. Chagger appeared to rule out this week. Meanwhile, Telford's acquiescence isn't likely to end calls for a public inquiry into foreign interference. Two days of JOE BIDEN offered the Trudeau set a reprieve from all the headaches, but today is just another day — and question period starts at 2:15 p.m. CENTRE BLOCK — Early in his parliamentary address, Biden brought his trademark folksiness to describing the temporary House of Commons digs in West Block. "You’ve done a hell of a job here. This is really beautiful. It’s really very beautiful," he said. The former courtyard is four-ish years into its run as alt-Centre Block, while the real thing undergoes a long-term structural refit. Today, auditor general KAREN HOGAN checks in on those massive renos at Centre Block. Hogan will report on whether Public Services and Procurement Canada has "effectively managed" the "cost, schedule, and scope" of what the department calls the "largest, most complex heritage rehabilitation project ever seen in Canada." — The official estimate: PSPC pegs the renos at C$4.5–5 billion, to be completed in either 2030 or 2031. The department's latest quarterly report, published Friday, boasts the scope and cost of the project are on track. The schedule is faltering. — Potential headline-makers: Hogan will also publish performance audits on accessible transportation for persons with disabilities, connectivity in rural and remote areas and international assistance in support of gender equality. Tabling of the reports is scheduled for approximately 11 a.m. Know someone who could use Ottawa Playbook? Direct them to this link. Five days a week, zero dollars.
| | | | A message from Innovative Medicines Canada: Canada’s vaccine strategy was one of the most effective in the world. Historic co-operation between pharmaceutical industry and government led to one of the fastest rollouts of vaccines, saving Canadians over $30 billion. This wasn’t an accident. With so much uncertainty looming over Canadians right now, knowing how to protect yourself from illness should never be a concern. Take a look at how we’re working with governments and stakeholders to protect Canadians. | | | | | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | | — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in Ottawa. He'll attend question period at 2 p.m. At 7 p.m., Trudeau will attend an iftar dinner with Muslim women leaders. He will be joined by the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth MARCI IEN and the Transport Minister OMAR ALGHABRA. — Bloc Québécois leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET will tour the riding of Thérèse-De Blainville, accompanied by MP LOUISE CHABOT. Blanchet will meet students at Collège Lionel-Groulx. 10 a.m. NDP leader JAGMEET SINGH will speak at the International Association of Fire Fighters 30th Canadian Legislative Conference. 10:30 a.m. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation will release the results of a Léger poll on planned MP pay increases, which kick in April 1, "as well as analysis of April tax hikes" — presumably including the alcohol excise tax. 11 a.m. Auditor general KAREN HOGAN tables her latest performance audits, and testifies at the House public accounts committee. 11 a.m. Innovation Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE is at Ranovus in Kanata to "make an announcement about advancing Canada’s production and manufacturing of semiconductor products and services." Relatedly, the Biden visit produced an agreement to "advance a cross-border semiconductor manufacturing corridor." 11:30 a.m. Green Party leaders ELIZABETH MAY and JONATHAN PEDNEAULT and MP MIKE MORRICE will speak to reporters in West Block about their priorities for Budget 2023. 1:30 p.m. Four ministers respond to the AG reports: OMAR ALGHABRA, GUDIE HUTCHINGS, HELENA JACZEK and HARJIT SAJJAN. 2 p.m. Singh will speak to reporters before attending question period.
| | For your radar | | | 
Travel agent Scott McCord (center) poses for a photo alongside Conservative MP Adam Chambers | Photo courtesy of Dave Chan | POTUS NOTES — The finer details get lost in the noise when JOE BIDEN comes to town. Playbook filled our notebook with observations and interactions that flew under the radar during a parliamentary address, fancy gala and boozy afterparty. → A long evening: The famously friendly MÉLANIE JOLY and ANTONY BLINKEN dined Thursday in the former basement bank vault within Riviera on Sparks. The pair ate and laughed late into the evening, blowing past the two-hour mark and keeping yawning staff away from their hotel beds. → The hair fixer: It's not like STEFANIA CAPOVILLA to reveal her clientele. Her discretion is as legendary as her hairdressing prowess. Suffice to say Capovilla's Sparks Street salon was a "revolving door of blowout after blowout" for gala-goers starting at 6 a.m., she told Playbook. Capovilla worked to a 3 p.m. deadline, when cops closed off Sparks temporarily. → A rare sighting: The travel agent to Ottawa's jet-setting political set, SCOTT MCCORD, showed up at the Canadian American Business Council/Canada2020 unofficial Biden gala afterparty at the National Arts Centre. Few photos exist online of McCord, the mere mention of whose name produces endless day-saving anecdotes from generations of Hill insiders.
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Secretary of state Antony Blinken with Canadian royalty, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, in Ottawa. | Antony Blinken on Twitter | Noted on Twitter via @SenBlinken → The anonymous celeb: The Friday gala drew Hollywood stars including EUGENE LEVY, CATHERINE O'HARA, ERIC MCCORMACK and HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN. One unnamed MP who attended asked Christensen to snap a photo — but of them, not with them. "This doesn't happen very often to me," said the star of “Little Italy.” → Hands off: Journalists often forget to eat and stay hydrated on busy days. A snack-and-drink table in a corner of a West Block filing room packed with Canadian and American reporters was an oasis in the desert. It was also a mirage for half the room. Those icy cold Diet Cokes were reserved for the visitors from the south. "Sorry," said a minder. PAPER TRAIL DISCONNECT — Nearly four out of every 10 landlines the government was paying for last fall weren’t being used, according to a document tabled in the House of Commons last week. Shared Services Canada paid C$113 million in 2022 for 523,000 landlines, but more than 200,000 of those lines were dormant as of November, the document says. That means they hadn’t been used in more than three months, according to the most recent available data. The government also paid C$48 million for 410,000 mobile lines last year. More than 85,000 of those were dormant last fall. Shared Services provides IT services for 44 government departments and agencies. — Update: According to the document, tabled in response to a question from a Conservative MP, 45,000 of the inactive mobile devices have since been suspended. Roughly 50,000 of the dormant landlines have also been disconnected.
| | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | | | 
Paul Maddison, director of the University of New South Wales Defence Research Institute in Canberra, shown in his days with National Defence. | Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press | PAUL MADDISON is a wearer of many hats. The longtime sailor rose through the ranks to vice-admiral, eventually commanding the Royal Canadian Navy from 2011 to 2013. Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU appointed Maddison as high commissioner to Australia in 2015. Four years later, he was the inaugural director of the University of New South Wales Defence Research Institute in Canberra. "There's a jump in my step in Australia, whereas I might be kind of walking around Orleans with my hands in my pockets right now if I was back there," he tells Playbook. As alleged Chinese foreign interference has everyone's attention in Ottawa, Maddison spoke to Playbook about the view from his adopted home (he's now an Aussie citizen, too). He touched on his top concerns as a diplomat, the weaknesses of his political masters, and the ongoing frustrations of old friends back in Ottawa. — On sounding the alarm: When I was high commissioner, it didn't take me long to realize Australia was really on the leading edge of discovering the degree to which China was using coercive economic actions, was actively penetrating lines of influence via United Front and Ministry of State Security activities. My message to Canada was that we really need to be paying attention here, because the assumption should be that whatever's happening here is happening in Canada as well. If the consulate in Melbourne or in Sydney is active in the Chinese language and media, and shaping opinion and active at the state level, at the party level, then we should assume this is happening in Vancouver and Toronto as well. Ottawa has viewed Australia as a like-minded, safe friend, where there are no real fires burning that need to consume any strategic bandwidth. The priorities for the government have been Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and there really hasn't been a lot of excess bandwidth for focusing on how important the relationship with Australia could be. — On being a diplomat: I loved it, serving Canada, in a great country. I was there in the first government of Prime Minister Trudeau, and I really enjoyed the key messages of the government around climate, around reconciliation with Indigenous people, around gender equity. What I found frustrating was kind of a lack of focus on the realpolitik of global security. And I could see this gap widening, especially between the Morrison coalition government in Australia, and where Canada was going. — On staying down under: This may sound kind of strange. It feels much more comfortable for me, as a former military professional, to be living and working in this sector in Australia, than I would be in Canada. When I talk to my friends, and I frequently do, in Canada, the level of frustration is just so high and almost a feeling of helplessness — watching Canada kind of fail to reach up towards the government's most important responsibility, which is defending sovereignty, protecting those values that we hold so dear.
| | | | A message from Innovative Medicines Canada:   | | | | | ALSO FOR YOUR RADAR | | DAILY INSPO — Green MP MIKE MORRICE watched U.S. President JOE BIDEN's address to Parliament with another perspective. Morrice connected with Biden's stutter — a well-documented struggle that millions of Americans only learned about in 2019. — Morrice took to Twitter: Like many, I was so impressed by President Biden’s speech yesterday. It was only when I rewatched parts of it last night though that I heard his stutter. As a person who has stuttered my whole life, I feel so relieved and affirmed. While I’ve stuttered my whole life, it was worse when I was younger. To this day, I regularly stutter in the chamber. It’s made worse by heckling, and by some interventions — like Question Period — having a maximum time before the Speaker should cut off an MP (QP is 35 seconds). To this day, I find it embarrassing. I hope to have managed it enough that no one will notice. To this day, I worry it’s a sign of weakness: it’s hard to land a punchy question in QP, for example, if I get stuck on a word mid-sentence! This makes me worry that those I’m fighting for in Parliament might be disappointed that the person advocating for them isn’t an MP with fluent speech. Today, though, I watched one of the most polished speakers in the world give an incredibly powerful speech, with a stutter, and I’m inspired. Read the rest of Morrice's thread.
| | MEDIA ROOM | | — The CBC’s VERITY STEVENSON writes on the last hours of Roxham Road. — Here’s the latest from NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE of the Globe: Why Canada is among the prime targets for Chinese interference attempts. — On “It’s Political” with ALTHIA RAJ: How Canada is adopting a green new industrial policy with little public debate — The Daveberta pod responds to news that Alberta Finance Minister TRAVIS TOEWS and Environment Minister SONYA SAVAGE will not run for re-election. — The CBC’s West of Centre pod discusses the oil sands tailings pond leak that has raised national questions.
| | PROZONE | | For POLITICO Pro s, our latest policy newsletter: Biden and Trudeau close a loophole. Other headlines for Pro readers: — Biden, Trudeau pledge joint effort on critical mineral supply chains.
— U.S. eyeing ways to include Europe in electric car tax breaks.
— Canada announces C$420 million investment for Great Lakes restoration.
— Worries get real as China presses EU over carbon border levy.
— Battery industry, automakers square off over electric vehicle tax credit.
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | Birthdays: HBD to Sen. ROBERT BLACK. HBD + 1 to the Public Policy Forum’s ED GREENSPON. Spotted: Tory leader PIERRE POILIEVRE, chanting along with thousands assembled Saturday at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena at a "For Iran In Solidarity" event … Ontario PC MPP GOLDIE GHAMARI, whose provincial riding overlaps Poilievre's, criticizing the federal Tory leader for not inviting "outspoken pro-Regime Change Iranian Canadian politicians" to a meeting with REZA PAHLAVI, the eldest son of the last shah of Iran. At the CABC/Canada2020 Biden gala afterparty, organized in 10 days by planning lead JANE WISENER: 14 members of Cabinet, including JUSTIN TRUDEAU; House Speaker ANTHONY ROTA; MPs ADAM CHAMBERS, JAMES MALONEY, FRANCESCO SORBARA, ADAM VAN KOEVERDEN, ROB OLIPHANT, LAILA GOODRIDGE, RANDY HOBACK, FRANCIS SCARPALEGGIA, STEVE MACKINNON, RANDEEP SARAI, PAM DAMOFF and RUBY SAHOTA; MICHAEL KOVRIG; podcast powerhouses DAVID HERLE and SCOTT REID; Poilievre chief of staff IAN TODD and senior campaign adviser JENNI BYRNE; PMO senior staff KATIE TELFORD, BRIAN CLOW, JEREMY BROADHURST and JOHN BRODHEAD; former Trudeau adviser GERRY BUTTS; Ottawa mayor MARK SUTCLIFFE; Privy Council clerk JANICE CHARETTE; Canadian Medical Association president ALIKA LAFONTAINE; NDP national director ANNE MCGRATH; Liberal Party president SUZANNE COWAN; and ambassador KIRSTEN HILLMAN. And, of course, organizers including CABC CEO SCOTTY GREENWOOD, Canada2020 executive director BRAEDEN CALEY, Canada2020 executive chair ANNA GAINEY and CABC chair JENNIFER SLOAN. Plus scads of lobbyists, staffers and curious journalists. Ontario’s sunshine list … CONRAD BLACK at YOW on Friday afternoon around the time of Biden’s speech; PRESTON and SANDRA MANNING, too. Movers and shakers: The Tory candidate in the future Oxford byelection is ARPAN KHANNA, the party's national outreach coordinator. MICHAEL BARTON is now a senior associate of Sandstone Group. Barton joins from Hill + Knowlton, where he was VP and group lead of the federal procurement division. He spent 15 years at Lockheed Martin and worked as a Liberal aide on the Hill in the '90s. Got a document to share? A birthday coming up? Send it all our way.
| | On the Hill | | — Find the latest House committee meetings here. — Keep track of Senate committees here. 11 a.m. Auditor General KAREN HOGAN and four principals from the watchdog’s office will be at the House public accounts committee. 11 a.m. International Trade Minister MARY NG is the first act at the House international trade committee to take questions about environmental and human rights considerations related to Canadian mining firms abroad. 11 a.m. Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT will be at the House environment committee to take questions about main estimates. 11 a.m. The House heritage committee meets to continue their study of safe sport in Canada. 11 a.m. Fisheries Minister JOYCE MURRAY will be at the House fisheries committee to take questions on supplementary estimates. 11 a.m. The House committee on the status of women studies the human trafficking of women, girls and gender diverse people. 3:30 p.m. Improving graduation rates is the topic of study at the House Indigenous affairs committee with representatives from Nunavut Arctic College and Yukon University. 3:30 p.m. Sen. YONAH MARTIN and Conservative MP JASRAJ SINGH HALLAN are witnesses at the House citizenship committee to speak on Bill S-245. 3:30 p.m. The House industry committee has plans to take both Bill C-288 and Bill C-294 through clause-by-clause consideration. 3:30 p.m. The House committee on Indigenous and Northern affairs studies graduation rates and outcomes for Indigenous students. 3:30 p.m. The House justice committee continues its study of Canada’s bail system. 3:30 p.m. The House committee on operations and estimates hears from another witness on McKinsey contracts before moving in camera to talk about the office of the governor general’s expenses. 4 p.m. AMIRA ELGHAWABY, Canada’s special representative on combating Islamophobia, will be at the Senate human rights committee as senators continue their study of Islamophobia in Canada. 5:30 p.m. Treasury Board President MONA FORTIER will be at the Senate official languages committee. 6:30 p.m. Wal-Mart Canada executive GONZALO GEBARA will be at the House agriculture committee to take questions about food price inflation. — Behind closed doors: The House veterans affairs committee meets to review a draft report of a rehabilitation contract; the special Canada-China committee meets to discuss “committee business.”
| | | | A message from Innovative Medicines Canada: COVID-19 forced Canadians to work in new ways. Whether it was ditching the office commute or adjusting to seeing colleagues through a screen instead of in person.
Government and the pharmaceutical industry also found new ways to work, this time at warp speed to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to Canadians in every corner of the country.
Because of this partnership, COVID-19 vaccines led to over $30 billion in savings to the Canadian economy.
Take a look at how we’re working with governments and stakeholders to protect Canadians. | | | | | TRIVIA | | Friday’s answer: The excerpt was from Richard Nixon’s address to Parliament. Props to NARESH RAGHUBEER, JOHN ECKER, KEVIN BOSCH, and reader J.D.M. STEWART, who wrote this piece on presidential addresses for The Hub. Today’s question: Who presented his budget wearing handmade-in-Labrador sealskin Mukluks? Send your answer to ottawaplaybook@politico.com Clarification: On Friday, we mentioned that NDP MP BRIAN MASSE didn’t vote on an NDP concurrence motion regarding a public inquiry into foreign interference, despite being present for other votes at the same time. An NDP spokesperson has since followed up to say that Masse couldn’t vote due to a technical issue, but that he “fully supports a public inquiry.” Playbook wouldn’t happen without: Luiza Ch. Savage, Sue Allan and David Cohen. Want to grab the attention of movers and shakers on Parliament Hill? Want your brand in front of a key audience of Ottawa influencers? Playbook can help. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
