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Thanks for reading. I’m your host, Zi-Ann Lum, with Nick Taylor-Vaisey. In today’s Playbook, a Cabinet minister called us up with a bone to pick about a recent POLITICO interview on the Inflation Reduction Act and Ottawa’s climate agenda. In other developments, a veteran member of the prime minister’s inner circle is calling it quits. Plus, an odd-couple Canada-U.S. task force finally met in Washington.
TARGETS VS. JOBS: ROUND 2 — JONATHAN WILKINSON says he was bugged by something POLITICO published last week.
“A couple of things surprised me a little bit,” the natural resources minister tells Playbook about our interview with LISA RAITT. He says he was bothered by her take on the Inflation Reduction Act (the idea that it is more about “jobs” than “decarbonization”) and her suggestion that hitting climate targets in Canada has turned “almost into a religion.”
“It’s science, and we should be very clear about that,” Wilkinson said. “We are in a climate crisis — underline the word ‘crisis.’”
— The stakes: Canada is a major oil and gas producer and faces a daunting challenge in making quick progress to decarbonize its economy without undermining competition. Its tricky political terrain for Team JUSTIN TRUDEAU.
Panned by the right for turning its back on the fossil fuel industry, the Liberals also risk losing votes on the left over the perception they’re soft on Big Oil.
— The other stakes: Being terrible stewards of a habitable Earth.
Ottawa has recently ratcheted up its high-level engagement with the Biden administration, which is caught in a similar political situation.
— For example: Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND was in Washington Tuesday for the first meeting of the Canada-U.S. Energy Transformation Task Force — the brainchild of LESLIE CHURCH and the PM’s senior global affairs adviser PATRICK TRAVERS.
— Wilkinson on the task force’s work: “We are looking to really crystallize some of the key things we really need to see move more quickly — and to put the weight of both governments behind getting to specific deliverables.”
— Prognosticating zone: Despite noise around a GOP proposal to gut the IRA to avoid breaching the U.S. debt limit, Wilkinson said the signature climate law isn’t likely to go anywhere since it is pouring money into Republican and Democrat jurisdictions.
“Some of the uncertainty with respect to the political scene in the United States actually plays in Canada’s favor,” he said. “We have a greater amount of political stability here.”
Read the extended cut of Wilkinson’s interview with POLITICO Canada.
— Related: Raitt has a date with a parliamentary committee this afternoon to talk to senators about business investment in Canada.
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PMO SHAKE UP — Trudeau’s director of communications, CAMERON AHMAD, is moving on.
KATIE TELFORD and BRIAN CLOW confirmed the news Tuesday in an all-staff memo that lauded Ahmad’s 10-year stint with Trudeau.
— Contact list update: VANESSA HAGE-MOUSSA will fill in as acting DComm and JOANNA ROBINSON will become acting director of digital communications & strategy, managing a new digital team.
Ahmad has been in the top PMO role since KATE PURCHASE left politics in 2019.
COMMITTEE FRACAS — JENNI BYRNE didn’t have to appear at the procedure and House affairs committee on foreign interference after all.
Another kind of interference torpedoed Tuesday night’s meeting. Liberals are blaming Conservatives for using delay tactics to drive the House finance committee meeting into overtime. The move is gobbling up staff resources, forcing the cancellation of other meetings.
— Another no-go: A meeting of the House natural resources committee, where MPs were to kick off a study of Canada’s pulp and paper industry.
326 DAYS TO GO — Nuclear, steel and aluminum received special focus Tuesday after Freeland’s meeting with AMOS HOCHSTEIN, U.S. special presidential coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security.
Freeland was in Washington for the first gathering of the joint Canada-U.S. energy transformation task force, which was announced at the end of JOE BIDEN’s Ottawa visit. Tuesday’s meeting was intended to sort the workstreams and meeting schedules involved in the task force’s one-year mandate. Those details were not included in a Canadian readout of the session.
The readout did say Freeland told her American counterparts: “Canada is a key partner for the United States in developing clean energy technologies, including nuclear, and strengthening North America’s clean power grid. [She] emphasized the need to preserve the competitiveness of cross-border supply chains, including for steel and aluminum.”
— Manifesting manufacturing: A much shorter readout from the White House emphasized a bilat commitment to “fuel the future North America automotive industry.”
We asked Freeland’s office who was at the closed-door meeting, and how long it lasted. They have yet to respond.
— Also on Tuesday: International Trade Minister MARY NG was in Washington to meet U.S. Trade Representative KATHERINE TAI.
One meeting, two readouts:
— Tai mentioned Canada’s proposed digital service tax and concerns it could “unfairly impact U.S. businesses.” Ng did not.
— Ng mentioned “unjustified duties on Canadian softwood lumber and Buy America provisions.” Tai’s readout did not.
— It’s caucus day on the Hill.
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in Ottawa with plans to attend the national caucus meeting; he’ll also speak with Kenyan President WILLIAM RUTO at an unspecified time.
— Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND is back in Ottawa with similar plans to attend the national caucus meeting.
8:30 a.m. Mental Health and Addictions Minister CAROLYN BENNETT will make an announcement related to World Maternal Mental Health Day.
11:30 a.m. World Press Freedom Canada hosts a lunch at the National Arts Centre featuring an armchair discussion between ANNA MARIA TREMONTI and IRENE GENTLE. They’ll also present their Press Freedom prize, the Spencer Moore Award for career achievement, and the top prize in the WPFC international cartoon contest.
12:30 p.m. International Development Minister HARJIT SAJJAN holds a press conference to announce funding for humanitarian assistance for Sudan and neighboring countries.
2 p.m. NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH holds a media availability in West Block before attending question period.
3:15 p.m. U.S. Ambassador To Canada DAVID COHEN headlines a Wilson Center event in Washington about “the possibilities for Canadians and Americans to build back better together.”
4:30 p.m. The prime minister’s brother, ALEXANDRE TRUDEAU, will be a witness as a representative of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation at the House ethics committee’s study of foreign interference and threats.
4:30 p.m. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister MARC MILLER will be at the House Indigenous and northern affairs committee where Bill C-45 is the focus.
4:45 p.m. The Senate banking committee will hear from Coalition for a Better Future co-chairs LISA RAITT and ANNE MCLELLAN in relation to their study of business investment in Canada. Its second panel will change gears to Bill C-47’s crypto-asset mining provisions, featuring at least a dozen finance department officials.
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY — World Press Freedom Canada is hosting its annual luncheon today at the National Arts Centre to deliver a sweep of awards to some of the industry’s finest journalists.
La Presse’s VINCENT LAROUCHE is the winner of this year’s Press Freedom Award for his reporting on a criminal trial that involved a police informant conducted in Quebec in total secrecy.
Playbook caught up with Larouche to talk about his award-winning work.
Why did you decide to chase this story? What pulled you in?
We have great cooperation between journalists in our newsroom. Collectively, we try to comb through as many court decisions as possible. If someone is not available to look at everything that came out on a particular day, someone else will step in and see if he/she can find something newsworthy. On March 24, 2022, a bunch of decisions came out, and I was the only one available to work on them. Some of it turned out to be pretty newsworthy.
How quickly did the reporting come together?
The initial story was ready in a matter of hours. I decided to dig more. I contacted confidential sources, officials in the justice system, filed access to information requests. Then our lawyers went to court to request more transparency.
More than a year later, some of that work is still ongoing. For example, the department of justice said it would need an extended delay of 295 days to answer our request for some documents related to the trial.
What were some challenges you encountered in reporting about a secret trial?
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada did everything in its power to prevent us from reporting on their conduct in this case. They even refused to disclose a list of (supposedly public) criminal proceedings they had opened in Quebec during the relevant period, which prevented us from finding patterns or parallels with ongoing criminal prosecutions.
Quebec’s justice minister vowed a trial wouldn’t be conducted in secrecy again. Do you know if any criminal trials have been secretly held with no paper trail since?
I have no information about any new similar case. I have heard from lawyers, cops, prosecutors, judges and politicians who were all outraged by this situation. I think there has been some serious pushback against it. For now, it’s unlikely someone would try it again. However, I think it’s important that we get to the bottom of what happened, why it happened and who was responsible. We are not there yet.
— Additional honors: Citation of Merit certificates will be presented to freelance journalist JUSTIN LING and The Trillium’s CHARLIE PINKERTON.
RACHEL PULFER, executive director of Journalists for Human Rights, will also be honored as this year’s winner of the 2023 Spencer Moore Award for Lifetime Achievement.
— The Globe’s MARK MACKINNON reports: It’s more dangerous than ever for foreign reporters to do their jobs in Putin’s Russia.
— Top of Newswatch via the CBC: CRA holding back tax refunds from people it says received pandemic benefits by mistake.
— “If you live on planet Earth, you might have noticed climate change activists have become increasingly annoying in recent years,” POLITICO’s KARL MATHIESEN writes after shadowing a leaderless movement on a mission to deflate the tires of SUVs.
— From our colleague GARY FINEOUT in Florida: Who paid for Ron DeSantis’ trip overseas? No one will say.
— The Star reports: Calgary pastor convicted of mischief in case that drew in DANIELLE SMITH.
— How’s this for campaign clarity: The Star’s ROB FERGUSON reports Toronto mayoral candidate MITZIE HUNTER says she’ll quit as MPP next week.
Our latest policy newsletter for Pro subscribers by ZI-ANN LUM: Ng on seeds, weeds and trade needs.
In other news for Pros:
— Ng says USMCA ‘must continue’ ahead of sunset clause review.
— EU due diligence bill spooks American finance.
— U.S. planning to send 1,500 more troops to southern border.
— Manchin reintroduces bill to overhaul permitting laws.
— EPA blocks employee use of ChatGPT.
Birthdays: Count economist PETER NICHOLSON, Conservative MP ARNOLD VIERSEN and MATTHEW DUBÉ among those celebrating today.
+ Happy 80th birthday to faithful Ottawa Playbook reader BOB ERNEST, who wrote in to say he got his first taste of politics in 1962 when he, as a high schooler, helped organize a rally for LESTER PEARSON.
Spotted: International Trade Minister MARY NG declining an incoming call from Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND onstage at the 53rd Annual Washington Conference on the Americas.
At a reception hosted at Beckta by the U.N. Spotlight Initiative, the “largest targeted effort to end all forms of violence against women and girls”: LAUREN DOBSON-HUGHES, senators KIM PATE, JULIE MIVILLE-DECHÊNE and GIGI OSLER; MPs MICHELLE REMPEL GARNER, ANDRÉANNE LAROUCHE, LORI IDLOUT, SONIA SIDHU, LISA MARIE BARON; Canada’s Ambassador for Women, Peace & Security JACQUIE O’NEILL and UN officials NAHLA VALJI, SAMU NGWENYA-TSHUMA, TERESA BENITO LOPEZ.
— Former Tory leader ERIN O’TOOLE, hosting the 10th annual Sam Sharpe Breakfast for veterans’ mental health in the Sir John A. Macdonald Building.
Defense Minister ANITA ANAND, Veterans Affairs Minister LAWRENCE MACAULAY and Mental Health Minister CAROLYN BENNETT were seated near the front of the room. “I’m leaving and all the ministers show up,” said O’Toole, who plans to vacate his seat in June.
Joke of the day: O’Toole broke the ice with a polite jab at the CBC. “Power & Politics has had more hosts than the Conservative party over the last 10 years,” he said. “And this could be the last year the show is on the air.” Cue uncomfortable laughter.
Straight talk: MARK CAMPBELL, a veteran who in 2008 lost both of his legs to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, delivered the breakfast keynote. Campbell pilloried Liberal and Conservative treatment of veterans. Earlier, O’Toole had earlier noted he first met Campbell when disabled vets took the government to court over compensation.
— In the crowd: Gen. WAYNE EYRE and Lieut-Gen. FRANCES ALLEN; retired general RICK HILLIER; Ontario Finance Minister PETER BETHLENFALVY; future breakfast co-hosts MP ALEX RUFF and Sen. REBECCA PATTERSON; MPs BLAKE RICHARDS, SHELBY KRAMP-NEUMAN, DARRELL SAMSON, JOHN MCKAY, JOHN BRASSARD, and FRANK CAPUTO; Uxbridge mayor DAVE BARTON; StatsCan media relations manager and naval reserve veteran MARTIN MAGNAN; former Hill staffers TAUSHA MICHAUD, FRED DELOREY, CORY HANN, LAURA KURKIMAKI, MELANIE PARADIS, and PAUL OLENIUK.
Media mentions: CBC Radio’s “All in a Day” team in Ottawa welcomes a new intern: ISABEL HARDER … Journalist CHARMAINE DE SILVA ls leaving Rogers Sports & Media after five years.
Movers and shakers: ANTHONY VELENTI joins Liberal MP ANNIE KOUTRAKIS’ office as a parliamentary and communications assistant.
Canada and the United Kingdom announce Egyptian online newspaper Mada Masr as the recipient of its third Media Freedom Award.
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— It’s caucus day on the Hill.
11:30 a.m. World Press Freedom Canada lunch at the National Arts Centre.
12 p.m. The Senate veterans affairs committee meets to hear from Hill 70 Memorial Project chairman, MARK HUTCHINGS.
12:30 p.m. NDP MP LAUREL COLLINS holds a media availability in West Block with sexual assault survivors to call on the government to ensure survivors have agency to tell their own stories.
12:40 p.m. Falun Gong practitioners are organizing an event on Parliament Hill to mark World Falun Dafa Day. More than a dozen MPs are expected to join.
4 p.m. The Senate social affairs, science and technology committee has two topics on its agenda: Canada’s temporary and migrant labor force and Bill C-22.
4:30 p.m. ALEXANDRE TRUDEAU will be a witness at the House ethics committee.
4:30 p.m. The House citizenship and immigration committee will take Bill S-245 through clause-by-clause consideration. MARC GARNEAU was previously on the witness list to answer questions related to the government’s response in Afghanistan.
4:30 p.m. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister MARC MILLER will be at the House Indigenous and northern affairs committee where Bill C-45 is the focus of the day.
4:30 p.m. The House agriculture committee meets to launch its study on animal biosecurity preparedness.
4:30 p.m. The House industry committee meets to discuss Bill C-34 with MALCOLM BRUCE, CEO of Edmonton Global, on the list.
4:30 p.m. Bill C-41 is again up for clause-by-clause consideration at the House justice committee.
4:45 p.m. The Senate banking committee will hear from Coalition for a Better Future co-chairs LISA RAITT and ANNE MCLELLAN. Its second panel will change gears to Bill C-47.
6:45 p.m. Treasury Board President MONA FORTIER drops by the Senate national finance committee, with eight department officials, to take questions.
6:45 p.m. The Senate transport committee meets to pick up on its study of Bill C-18 with witnesses from Google Canada and Meta Platforms.
— Behind closed doors: The Senate audit and oversight committee meets to discuss the red chamber’s “internal and external audits and related matters.”
Tuesday’s answer: That “18 long years” quote belongs to TONY BLAIR.
Props to GEORGE SCHOENHOFER, BOB GORDON, SHAUGHN MCARTHUR, SCOTT LOHNES, RYAN HAMILTON, JOSHUA ZANIN, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, JONATHAN KALLES and GRAHAM FOX.
Wednesday’s question: How many of the NDP’s “McGill 4” were re-elected in 2015?
Playbook wouldn’t happen: Without Luiza Ch. Savage and Sue Allan.
Clarification: Tuesday’s Playbook noted STEPHEN YARDY‘s lobbying work with Glencore Canada, but didn’t include his specific focus on “seeking federal financial support” for the company’s Hackett River Port and Road Project in Nunavut.
