| | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey | | | Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. In today's edition: → Fallout from those awkward standing ovations, with no end in sight. → Housing Minister SEAN FRASER is striking more municipal housing deals. → WestJet's CEO is pitching a rethink on who should pay passengers for flight delays. |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a speech in the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa on September 22, 2023. | Sean Kilpatrick/POOL/AFP | WHAT A FIASCO — Cue the awkward, messy blame game. As in: who's to blame for a pair of House of Commons standing ovations for YAROSLAV HUNKA, a veteran who fought with Nazis. It's awkward because House Speaker ANTHONY ROTA — who insisted on taking the blame — was in the chair on Monday for every punishing moment of the House debate. It's messy because few people truly understand how protocol works in the chamber. — The official line: Rota took sole responsibility for inviting and recognizing Hunka, a humiliating mea culpa to open the day's sitting corroborated by Government House Leader KARINA GOULD over and over and over again. (Gould also moved to strike the chamber's recognition of Hunka, a proposal widely condemned by Conservatives as "erasing history.") NDP MP PETER JULIAN was first to call for Rota's resignation, arguing a "sacred bond of trust" had been broken between the speaker and his House. The Bloc Québécois followed suit. Radio-Canada has quoted unnamed Liberal Cabinet ministers as saying Rota isn't long for the job. Rota presided over a raucous question period in which his conduct played a starring role. By the end of the day, to the befuddlement of many in the fishbowl, he still held his job. — The alternate view: Conservative House leader ANDREW SCHEER refused to fully accept Rota's version of events. Sure, an apology was in order. But somebody employed by the federal government should have spotted and removed Hunka's name from a list, Scheer argued. The Tories blamed varying officials: the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council Office that advises the prime minister, Global Affairs Canada, and the Parliamentary Protective Service. They wonder how somebody in a position to run a serious background check could have missed this.
| | | | A message from Team SkyGuardian Canada: Leveraging the well-proven MQ-9 platform that has supported Five Eyes and NATO missions for more than a decade, Team SkyGuardian brings together the best in business and technology to serve Canada, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the many industries that support them. Our government and industry team will help ensure Canada’s safety and security for the long term. | | | — The expert view: Playbook got on the horn with ROY NORTON, a former diplomat who served a three-year stint as Canada's chief of protocol between 2016 and 2019 — aka the guy who knows how this all works. Here's what we learned. → The House is its own master: Norton has been in the room when Global Affairs and the parliamentary protocol office tousled over jurisdiction. Here’s how he described the extreme version of competing visions when a foreign leader visits Parliament — and the compromises reached: GAC's view: "Parliament is no different from the Chateau Laurier. We should have absolute and exclusive authority over anything of an international nature that takes place in Parliament." Parliament's view: "The parliamentary precinct is sacrosanct. The government should have no role whatsoever in anything that happens in the precinct, including the chamber." The middle ground: "We essentially gravitated towards the position whereby unquestionably in the chamber itself, Parliament's prerogative is supreme, and the government has no real role." → How it works, usually: When a foreign leader comes to town, Global Affairs Canada's Office of Protocol produces guest lists for most formal events. The chamber is a different beast. The parliamentary protocol office typically generates and distributes an allotment of seats to be filled. GAC submits a list, as would the Prime Minister's Office and each recognized party in the House. Rota would also compile his own guestlist. → The caveat to end all caveats: Rota insisted repeatedly on Monday that he didn't run his guests by anybody who works for GAC, the Prime Minister's Office or the Ukrainian delegation. His guests were subject to little "vetting" outside of any checks undertaken by the speaker's office. → The vetters: The Parliamentary Protective Service reviews the entry of every individual who enters the precinct — they sit at the front of each building — but Hunka appears to have raised no red flags in any background checks run by the PPS. — What's next: CBC reported that Rota is meeting with party House leaders at noon. If he doesn’t step down, opposition parties may press for his resignation in Parliament and call for a vote or reach for other tools. The matter could be sent to a committee for study, breathing more oxygen into the scandal that could burn for weeks. Whatever actions lie ahead, that pressure is about to ramp up. As of Playbook's publication, a reception at the speaker's country estate for journalists and MPs was still on for this evening. | | For your radar | | DRIP, DRIP, DRIP — Charlottetown Mayor PHILIP BROWN's inbox pinged Monday with a letter from Housing Minister SEAN FRASER. The mayor of Kitchener, Ont., BERRY VRBANOVIC, received his own dispatch the same day. The correspondence is the latest in a series meant to convince cities to rethink how they approve housing in exchange for federal dollars. Halifax last week joined Calgary and London, Ont., in a growing cluster of cities paying attention to Fraser's frantic efforts to get more housing built in Canada, ASAP. The minister is announcing Housing Accelerator Fund agreements today with a pair of B.C. mayors: Surrey's BRENDA LOCKE and Burnaby's MIKE HURLEY. Expect more municipalities to see things Fraser's way before the end of the year. — The strategy is clear: Fraser's office is working its way through a big pile of municipal applications for a piece of a C$4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund. The minister writes letters to cities that show promise. He credits what he likes in the submissions, but also dictates terms. Federal money will flow more easily if city councils play ball. Fraser wants an end to exclusionary zoning and rules that allow for more density. — Good cop: Fraser applauded Charlottetown's intention to adopt e-permitting to "streamline applications and interdepartmental reviews," reduce parking minimums "to allow for increased density and affordability," and push forward "much needed" high-density, multi-unit apartments. — Bad cop: Fraser wants Charlottetown to allow four units on a single property, increase density around post-secondary institutions, remove "subjective measures that make it difficult for builders to understand what will be approved," and remove "excessive restrictions on additional dwelling units to allow them to be genuinely affordable housing options." — The payoff: "If you and your council are able to adopt these measures," Fraser wrote, "I will be in a position to approve Charlottetown’s application." — Get in line: Playbook canvassed a sampling of major cities that could use a dollop of dough to catch supply up to demand. They had all applied for the Housing Accelerator Fund, they all said polite things about Ottawa, and they all expected to hear back this fall. — Case study: Ottawa Mayor MARK SUTCLIFFE is angling for a meeting with Fraser within weeks. The price tag on his city's application runs into the hundreds of millions, and affordable housing is a significant target for investment. TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES — Parliament's public websites were down much of Monday, something its tech department described as “an unscheduled network services interruption.” Internal communications appeared to acknowledge a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack had occurred. The sites were up and running on Tuesday morning. The outage followed an advisory Friday from the Communications Security Establishment. “We have observed that it’s not uncommon to see increased distributed denial of service campaigns against NATO countries that support Ukraine, or host visits from Ukrainian government officials,” it warned.
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| | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | |
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will chair the Cabinet meeting.
— BOB RAE, Canada's ambassador to the U.N., expects to address the General Assembly between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. 11:45 a.m. EVAN SIDDALL, CEO of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, speaks to the Canadian Club in Toronto at the Fairmont Royal York. Subject: The Canadian model of pension investment. 1 p.m. Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND will make an announcement and hold a media availability. She will be joined by Innovation Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE, Housing Minister SEAN FRASER and Treasury Board President ANITA ANAND. 3 p.m. Trudeau is in Toronto to participate in a fireside chat with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association President FLAVIO VOLPE during APMA’s annual conference. 3:30 p.m. Champagne will appear at the House industry committee to talk about Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act. 3:45 p.m. Housing Minister SEAN FRASER makes an announcement with Surrey Mayor BRENDA LOCKE and Burnaby Mayor MIKE HURLEY. | | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | |
FLIGHT RISK — WestJet CEO ALEXIS VON HOENSBROECH knows he's fighting an uphill battle. Von Hoensbroech is on a mission to persuade policymakers that proposed revisions to federal Air Passenger Protection Regulations are fundamentally flawed.
The APPR regime is meant to compensate travelers who face unjustified delays or cancelations. Von Hoensbroech thinks it's a problem only airlines are held accountable. The German-born astrophysicist — seriously, he explained his Ph.D. thesis on pulsars in two minutes flat — is in Ottawa for a summit on the future of Canadian aviation and open sessions with party caucuses where he'll make his case. The C-suiter sat down with Playbook in a glassy Ottawa tower with a commanding view of Parliament Hill. He pitched a revamped set of regs. — More players should pay: Everybody knows somebody who faced airport misery when the world opened up in the era of Covid vaccine mandates. Airlines took a massive PR hit. But they weren't the only source of delays. Air traffic control staff shortages, interminable customs lines and frustrating security lines stymied the efficient flow of people. "There's no mechanism whatsoever that airlines can recover any of the costs that are incurred by any kind of disruption from a third party," says von Hoensbroech. "We cannot go to the airport and say, 'Hey, your baggage system broke down. We had to pay for the delivery of all the bags. Now you have to reimburse me.' " — A solution, in brief: Force everybody to pay for their role in delays (with exemptions for serious weather events, security risks and safety-related issues). "If the government wants a regulation that is easy and understandable, and has no loopholes, then every cancelation should be compensable — and paid by the party that caused it," says von Hoensbroech. He notes it's not impossible to track that information. The airlines already do. — Why airfares could rise: Airlines are forking over serious dough for delays and cancelations. "For any big airline in Canada, compensation is already a triple-digit million cost that cannot be absorbed by airlines with small margins. It has to be passed on to the consumer. So this is ultimately driving up airfares at a time when Canada is already facing a cost of living crisis." — And regional cuts could follow: WestJet has the crew and aircraft to manage unexpected disruptions on high-frequency routes, says the CEO. But he claims pricey compensation potentially paid to passengers on less frequent routes puts pressure on the company's bottom line. "Half of our network is one flight a day or less. In a place like St. John's, my ability to fix anything is really, really low, because I have only two flights a week," says von Hoensbroech. "In St. John's, or Prince George, or Brandon, Manitoba, one single compensable flight will eliminate the profit that I do potentially in a year." | | MEDIA ROOM | | | — “The incomprehensible decision by Canada to honour a former Nazi, in our Parliament, in front of Zelenskyy, must have the Russians rolling on the floors laughing in their embassy down on Charlotte Street in Ottawa,” ANDREW POTTER writes on The Line. — Reuters reports: The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) approved a route change request for the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion on Monday. — From our colleagues in D.C.: Where do Republican candidates stand on the issues ahead of this week’s debate? See for yourself. — Almost 500 elected positions are up for grabs in municipal elections across Nunavut on Oct. 23. Nunatsiaq News previews the races. — “Indigenous people always have a right to ask other Indigenous people who they are, where they come from and what they’re doing here,” NIIGAAN SINCLAIR writes in the Winnipeg Free Press against a Manitoba politician’s insistence that his heritage and identity are a private matter. | | | | A message from Team SkyGuardian Canada:   | | | | | PROZONE | |
For POLITICO Pro subscribers, our latest policy newsletter from NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY and SUE ALLAN: Build, baby, build.
In other news for POLITICO Pro subscribers: — Let the countdown to shutdown begin. — U.K. aiming for global agreement on dangerous AI. — EV sales in the U.S. grew to 9 percent of car market in second quarter. — Ukraine's Danube ports 'only available option' to export grain, minister says. — EU talks tough on trade in China as it looks to play defense. | | On the Hill | |
9 a.m. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation senior VP Lisa Williams and chief economist Bob Dugan will be witnesses at the Senate national finance committee to talk main estimates.
11 a.m. The House foreign affairs committee’s subcommittee on international human rights will elect vice-chairs before going in camera to discuss “committee business.” 11 a.m. The House environment committee will be in camera for part of its session to discuss a report on clean technologies. 3:30 p.m. Industry Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE and officials will be at the industry committee on Bill C-27. 3:30 p.m. RICHARD FADDEN will be at the House defense committee as it discusses procurement. 3:30 p.m. The House immigration committee will elect a new chair, then move behind closed doors. 3:30 p.m. The House committee on Indigenous and northern affairs will elect a chair. 3:30 p.m. The House justice committee also has “election of chair” on the agenda. 6:30 p.m. Bill C-234 is up for discussion at the Senate agriculture and forestry committee with witnesses including Agriculture Carbon Alliance and Climate Action Network Canada. — Behind closed doors: The House public accounts committee meets to go over three studies on auditor general reports; the House procedure and House affairs committee has “committee business” on its agenda; same with the House heritage committee’s subcommittee on agenda and procedure; the House veterans affairs committee reviews its study of a national strategy for veterans employment after service.
| | | | A message from Team SkyGuardian Canada: Learn about the remotely piloted multi-mission aircraft built on Canadian industrial partnerships to deliver sovereignty and security for Canada. | | | | | Playbookers | | Birthdays: HBD to retired Canadian senator LOWELL MURRAY, former Alberta MLA LEELA AHEER, former Parti Québécois cabinet minister LOUISE BEAUDOIN, former Ottawa councilor MATHIEU FLEURY, Nova Scotia MLA ALLAN MACMASTER and CARL NEUSTAEDTER of the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Send us birthdays: ottawaplaybook@politico.com Spotted: Mayor Sutcliffe, running the Berlin Marathon … Liberal MP JOHN ALDAG, rising in the House to wish his parents a happy 65th wedding anniversary. Movers and shakers: SONYA SAVAGE, former energy minister of Alberta, announced Monday that she has joined Borden Ladner Gervais as senior counsel … ANDY SINGH joined Rubicon Strategy as vice president of public affairs and general legal counsel. JESSICA JOHNSON, former editor of the Walrus, has joined the Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy as a research lead, "looking at the future of media, and public media in particular." | | | TRIVIA | | |
Monday’s answer: “They have been an inspiration to all of us.” The prime minister was talking about MICHAEL KOVRIG and MICHAEL SPAVOR, who were freed from China last year at this time.
Props to PARKER VARNAI, QASIR DAR, GEORGE SCHOENHOFER, BOB GORDON, ROBERT MCDOUGALL and ALYSON FAIR. Have a question that will stump Playbook readers? Send it our way. Today’s question: What city was home to the first YMCA in North America? 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, Luiza Ch. Savage and Emma Anderson. | | | | 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 | | | | |
