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Presented by Insurance Bureau of Canada: A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Kyle Duggan and Nick Taylor-Vaisey | | | Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Ottawa Playbook | Follow Politico Canada Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. In today's edition: → The kind of scandal-deepening that happens from missing records. → Toronto Mayor OLIVIA CHOW talks Playbook through the art of negotiation. → Do the Democrats need a Plan B? |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | |
PAPER TRAIL-LESS — The Liberals began a second week in a row on defensive footing with no Alberta premier in sight to swoop in and disrupt the news agenda.
The Opposition managed to keep pace on the government last week through some interesting scheduling that had leader PIERRE POILIEVRE bounce all around, one day to Vancouver, another to Brampton, another the Port of Montreal and then right back into QP to hammer away on rising auto thefts. This week, the timing is thanks to the AG’s calendar. Auditor General KAREN HOGAN’s blistering report into the pandemic-era ArriveCan travel app landed Monday and drove the news cycle (as Playbook previewed Monday). It’s branded on her website as uncovering a “glaring disregard for basic management and contracting practices.” — MIA: The departments in question moved at lightning speed and bureaucrats dispensed with the normal rules. She told MPs during her committee appearance the issue is not with what she uncovered, it’s with what she didn’t. Opposition parties piled on after she said public servants failed at the most basic record keeping — so bad that it’s not even clear exactly how much the sole-sourced app cost: maybe about C$59.5 million. — Related reading: The Globe’s BILL CURRY has the big takeaways. AARON WHERRY of CBC News writes: The scandal hides some bigger questions. — Political vulnerability: Pandemic-era programs like this one that were rushed out the door at a time of crisis never got the (pricey) deep-dive inquiry that some had called for. An Abacus Data poll out this weekend found 67 percent of Canadians think that the words “transparent and accountable” describe the Trudeau government either “not at all” or only “a little.” — Around the table: Conservative MP MICHAEL BARRETT went for the headline questions: Could it have cost more than the estimate? Is this the “worst” spending under the Liberals?NDP MP BLAKE DESJARLAIS hammered away at the “shadow public service” created by consultants. Tory MP GARNETT GENUIS, whose kids dressed up for Halloween as this very scandal, called the audit details “shocking” and described the relationship consultants had with the Canada Border Services Agency as “akin to having the coach of one of the teams making the rules and directing the referee.” — Shields up: Cabmins DOMINIC LEBLANC and JEAN-YVES DUCLOS ran interference ahead of QP, which resulted in LeBlanc delivering this almost third-person like line: “The Trudeau Government accepts that taxpayers’ money needs to be treated with the utmost respect. In no way are we going to defend this particular contracting process. We have already taken corrective measures.” He pointed to a border services agency investigation that’s ongoing that will determine any wrongdoing. — Tipple of the iceberg: Any public servants invited to whisky tastings by consultants are going to want to think twice — the issue came up three times in question period Monday alone. — Calls for punishment: Former ethics commissioner MARIO DION delivered a fatalist critique on social media, calling for repercussions: “I hope but I know it will not happen that sanctions will follow.” — What’s next: Hogan appears before the Commons government operations and estimates committee late Wednesday for a Valentine’s Day round two of questions on her ArriveCAN audit. | | | | A message from Insurance Bureau of Canada: Canada needs to fund the National Flood Insurance Program now because flooding is Canada’s greatest climate threat. By launching the National Flood Insurance Program, the federal government can help protect the 1.5 million high-risk households that cannot obtain affordable flood insurance. And this can be done on a cost-neutral basis. Read more here. | | | | | Where the leaders are | |
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is on the Hill to chair Cabinet and attend QP.
— Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND will give her weekly update on the government's economic policies at a 9 a.m. news conference alongside Housing Minister SEAN FRASER, Employment Minister RANDY BOISSONNAULT and Rural Economic Development Minister GUDIE HUTCHINGS. — NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH holds a 10:45 a.m. media avail to talk pharmacare, ahead of attending a rally for public health care on the Hill. — Green Party Leader ELIZABETH MAY attends Parliament in person. | | DULY NOTED | |
11 a.m. House of Commons clerks and then later Government House Leader STEVEN MACKINNON are up to bat at PROC to chart the procedural errors that led to the YAROSLAV HUNKA incident.
12 p.m. Housing Minister SEAN FRASER appears at the Commons finance committee to talk about factors behind the high costs of homes. 1 p.m. Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY is in Washington, D.C., to attend a Wilson Center expert panel event titled, “Hostage Diplomacy as an International Security Threat: Strengthening our Collective Action, Deterrence and Response.” She and Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN deliver keynotes, and the two will also meet to discuss “the strength of the Canada-U.S. relationship,” the Middle East, Haiti and Ukraine, per her trip itinerary. Energy Minister JONATHAN WILKINSON is in Paris for a two-day meeting of the International Energy Agency. Wilkinson, vice chair of this year’s IEA energy and climate ministerial meeting, will lead a panel about labor and its role in a clean energy economy. ZI-ANN LUM shared the details with Pro s. We're tracking every major political event of 2024 on a mega-calendar. Send us events and download the calendar yourself for Google and other clients . | | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | | | | 
Toronto Mayor Oliva Chow and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a housing announcement last December. | Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press | THE ART OF THE DEAL — A year after former Toronto Mayor JOHN TORY started a drawn-out process of stepping down amid reports of an affair with a younger staffer, Playbook sat down with his successor, OLIVIA CHOW, in her office overlooking Nathan Phillips Square. Chow is coming off a pair of big-ticket wins following negotiations with Ottawa. She scored C$471 million from Housing Minister SEAN FRASER's housing accelerator fund and C$162 million to support asylum seekers and low-income renters. Chow played hardball, threatening to increase the annual property tax hike by 16.5 percent if the feds didn't come through with help for asylum seekers. The gambit angered unnamed Liberal MPs; YVAN BAKER even lashed out at Chow. Ask the mayor about that leverage, though, and she shrugs. — From the backbench to the mayor's office: Chow was an NDP MP from 2006 to 2014. How, Playbook wondered, does pressuring the government from opposition benches compare to negotiating deals on behalf of Canada's largest city? It's kinda the same, she said. Chow wound back the clock to 2006, when she pushed the newly elected Harper Conservatives to see through a campaign promise to apologize for a head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants a century earlier. "That was with BEV ODA, but it's really JASON KENNEY that was behind it. There was a lot of negotiation. Working with Kenney — when it was a 'yes,' what does the yes look like?” she said of talks around compensation and the timing of the apology. "You're finding common ground. There's already some willingness to do something. And then from that point on, when there's a willingness, how do you actually close the deal and then make it so that everybody wins?" Working with the federal government from the mayor’s office is not that different, she said. "It's finding the common ground, making sure everyone feels that they contributed, and just getting it done. Be practical about it." — As for jurisdiction: Chow agreed that jurisdictional squabbles are "our favorite national pastime," but once again downplayed the inevitability of constitutional gridlock whenever governments are at odds. "Jurisdiction will work itself out. Number one is the political will. Is the public really onside? Yes? Okay. Then, is there a political moment that something needs to be solved? Okay, yes. How do we solve it? Well, we need to bring the province and the feds onside. That's always been the case, right? "Because I've been dealing with it since the late '90s, I'm quite familiar with all of that. It makes it a lot easier for me to come in and immediately, with no learning curve, know how to do the intergovernmental relationship." — Not a walk in the snow: On the eve of Tory's stunning announcement last February, did Chow ever expect to be sitting in the mayor's chair? "Absolutely not. No intention of doing anything like that. I was happily skiing Mont-Tremblant." | | | | A message from Insurance Bureau of Canada:   | | | | | 2024 WATCH | | |  In other campaign news, U.S. President Joe Biden has already racked up more than 6 million views for a Super Bowl-themed video his campaign posted on TikTok Sunday night, making him the first major Democratic presidential candidate to embrace TikTok. | Andrew Harnik/AP | BIDEN’S CHOICES — U.S. Democrats have vigorously avoided any discussion of a Plan B for their presidential nominee. But special counsel Robert Hur’s report may have forced their hand, POLITICO’s CHARLIE MAHTESIAN and STEVEN SHEPARD report. — The latest: Fairly or not, Hur’s stinging characterization of U.S. President Joe Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties” has thrust the president’s age and mental fitness into the debate. — The landscape: Coupled with the widespread perception that Biden is too old for another term and the fact he frequently trails former president Donald Trump in swing state polling matchups, it’s raised serious questions about whether Biden is positioned to lead the party in November — and whether Democrats need a contingency plan. — The TL:DR: It would not be easy to simply swap Biden out, write Mahtesian and Shepard in a feature that considers the political and procedural steps for picking a new presidential nominee. ON THE DEFENSE — In response to Trump without naming him, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called any “relativization” of NATO’s mutual defense obligations “irresponsible and dangerous.” The alliance’s “promise of protection applies unreservedly — all for one, one for all,” said Scholz, standing at the chancellery in Berlin beside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who invoked the same phrase in comments made earlier in the day. David Cameron, Britain’s foreign secretary, stressed Monday that the military alliance is “what helps to keep us safe — and that is so essential in this world where we have seen Putin’s terrible, illegal invasion of Ukraine.” — Top of POLITICO this morning: “Everyone should be scared as hell” — Democrats call for Trump-proofing NATO. | | MEDIA ROOM | |
— PIERRE POILIEVRE got into another scrap with CP. This time, it was over questions about his party helping to grant C$40 million in regulatory relief to Bell Media, which slashed thousands of jobs last week. MICKEY DJURIC reports.
— The Star’s SUSAN DELACOURT writes: “The higher Pierre Poilievre climbs in the polls, the testier he gets with media questions.” — "The Big Story" pod talks to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business in an episode on the precarious state of independent businesses. — NOJOUD AL MALLEES of The Canadian Press reports that documents prepared for former immigration minister SEAN FRASER was warned that lifting the international student work limit could undermine program. — Critical minerals are key to Canada’s global influence, HEATHER EXNER-PIROT writes at The Hub. — LYNN CUNNINGHAM took a sleeper train across the country. “I learned Via Rail is still stuck in the twentieth century,” she writes in The Walrus. | | PROZONE | |
Don’t miss our latest newsletter for Pro s from ZI-ANN LUM and SUE ALLAN: On the IEA’s unofficial agenda: Trump 2.0.
In other news for Pros: — U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai tiptoes around Trump. — The Biden campaign joins TikTok. — Ex-Treasury official dishes on climate, insurance risk. — Proposal to mine near fabled Okefenokee Swamp advances. | | Playbookers | |
Birthdays: HBD to ROBERT FULFORD, born in Ottawa on this day in 1932. Former MP CORNELIU CHISU also celebrates today (75!).
Celebrate your day with the Playbook community. Send us the details. We’ll let everyone know. Spotted: News that KING CHARLES will not travel to Canada this year for his first royal tour as Canada's monarch, as he battles cancer. Nunavut Health Minister JOHN MAIN walking down Sparks Street. Political cartoonist MICHAEL DE ADDER on X tallying up his lampooning of Trudeau vs. Poilievre. Former MP RAJ GREWAL, seeking damages following his acquittal last year. Jordan’s KING ABDULLAH II, coming to Canada Wednesday. Liberal MP ANNIE KOUTRAKIS using her SO31 in the House to wish her husband a happy 70th birthday. “Behind every committed elected official stands a pillar of unwavering support and, for me, that pillar has been Gerry.” For the uber-avid gardener, GCSurplus has 105 terracotta plant pots, currently going for C$30. The Bloc Québécois and a coalition of Sikh diaspora groups were granted standing to the foreign interference inquiry. Movers and shakers: MICHELLE JOHNSTON has started a new gig as deputy director of communications at the Prime Minister's Office. In memoriam: Past president of the PPF JODI WHITE passed away, the organization announced on LinkedIn. White was the first woman in Canada to lead a national election campaign, in 1997 for JEAN CHAREST. GRAHAM FOX wrote on X: “Deeply saddened by this news. Jodi White was a trailblazer for women in politics, an incredibly effective leader, and the best boss. Working with her at [PPF] was one of the most formative experiences of my career. Toutes mes sympathies à ses proches.” | | | | A message from Insurance Bureau of Canada: DON’T BE FLOODED WITH REGRET – Roughly 10% of Canadian households are at high risk for flooding but lack access to flood insurance. Over the past few years, devastating floods in BC, Newfoundland and Labrador and, most recently, in Nova Scotia have massive financial and emotional consequences for residents in those regions. The federal government, to its credit, recognizes that a public-private solution is needed and, in 2023, Finance Canada committed seed funding to set up Canada’s first National Flood Insurance Program. But that is not enough. The program requires more than a pledge. It needs operational funding as part of the 2024 federal budget in order to be up and running before the next federal election. The good news? It can be run on a cost-neutral basis. Canadians have waited long enough. It is time to fund the National Flood Insurance Program. Read more here. | | | | | On the Hill | |
9 a.m. Parliamentary Budget Officer YVES GIROUX will be at the Senate finance committee as it studies Bill C-59.
9 a.m. The Senate transport committee is studying the impacts of climate change on critical infrastructure. 9:30 a.m. The Senate rules and procedures committee meets. 11 a.m. On the witness roster at the House ethics committee: senior officials from Competition Bureau Canada, Shared Services Canada and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The committee also plans to discuss its budget for travel to RCMP facilities. 11 a.m. Costco’s Pierre Riel will be in front of the House agriculture and agri-food committee as it studies food prices. In the second hour, MP TIM LOUIS will discuss Bill C-355, which would ban the export by air of live horses for slaughter. In his speech introducing the bill, Louis said 2,600 live horses were exported for slaughter in 2022. 11 a.m. The House finance committee will study “the policy decisions and market forces” that have led to increases in the cost of buying or renting a home in Canada. Witnesses include Housing Minister SEAN FRASER, officials from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Office of Infrastructure of Canada. 11 a.m. House of Commons Clerk ERIC JANSE will be the first of many officials at the House committee on procedure as it studies “Parliamentary protocol related to an incident in the Speaker's Gallery on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.” Government House Leader STEVE MACKINNON will appear in the second hour. 11 a.m. The House committee on science and research continues its study of the integration of Indigenous traditional knowledge and science into government policy with help in the first hour from environment department officials. DANIKA LITTLECHILD of Carleton and HEATHER SAYINE-CRAWFORD of the Government of the Northwest Territories appear in the second hour. 11 a.m. The House transport committee is studying high-frequency rail. 11 a.m. The House committee on the status of women will spend its first hour in camera. At noon, it will study women’s economic empowerment with help from JULES GORHAM of the Canadian Health Food Association, RUTH VACHON of Réseau des Femmes d'affaires du Québec, and 3M Canada VP PENNY WISE. 3:30 p.m. CBSA President ERIN O’GORMAN, Auditor General KAREN HORGAN, Public Health Agency of Canada President HEATHER JEFFREY and Deputy Minister ARIANNE REZA will be at the House public accounts committee as it studies the AG’s findings on the ArriveCAN app. 3:30 p.m. The detention of JIMMY LAI in Hong Kong will be the focus of the subcommittee on international human rights of the foreign affairs committee. Witnesses include officials from the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, Canada-Hong Kong Link, Hong Kong Watch and Journalists for Human Rights. 4 p.m. The House heritage committee will convene for its first session in a new study of Canadian media. 6:30 p.m. The Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency has “committee business” on the agenda of its three-hour meeting. 6:30 p.m. The Senate agriculture and forestry committee continues its study of soil health. 6:30 p.m. “Climate Change: Canadian Oil & Gas Industry” is the topic of this evening session of the Senate environment committee. | | TRIVIA | |
Monday’s answer: LUCILLE HUNTER was the first woman granted honorary membership to the Yukon Order of Pioneers.
Props to ROBERT MCDOUGALL, SHAUGHN MCARTHUR, MARCEL MARCOTTE and BOB GORDON. Today’s question: This former MP who died in 2018 was a man of many firsts — in academia, civil rights and within the House of Commons. Answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com . Want to grab the attention of movers and shakers on Parliament Hill? Want your brand in front of a key audience of Ottawa influencers? Run a Playbook ad campaign. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com. Playbook wouldn’t happen without: POLITICO Canada editor Sue Allan, editor Willa Plank and Luiza Ch. Savage. | | | | 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 | | | | |  |
