Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. Let's get into it.
In today's edition:
→ The Conservatives have pulled out every procedural trick to block things from happening in the House.
→ A Senate committee is calling for an overhaul of Global Affairs Canada.
→ A quartet of ministers unveils details of a long-awaited oil and gas emissions cap.
DRIVING THE DAY
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the House on Wednesday: "forcing all-night, 'round-the-clock voting." | Sean Kilpatrick, The Canadian Press
VOTING DAY — Conservatives want to block anything that moves on Parliament Hill until the Liberals hollow out the federal carbon price. The Liberals won't do that, so PIERRE POILIEVRE is going to exert as much parliamentary pain as he can muster.
The Tory leader wants to make a political point, and he wants to own the final week of Parliament's sitting before MPs head home for the holidays.
— How to obstruct: The Official Opposition has a small toolkit of blunt instruments that can prevent a handful of procedurally powerful Liberal-NDP motions from fast-tracking priority government bills.
Perhaps the bluntest of them all is a flood of amendments meant to halt whatever the government hopes to accomplish before adjournment.
The Conservatives submitted 120 amendments to Treasury Board President ANITA ANAND's spending estimates late Tuesday. They concocted many more for the government's sustainable jobs bill that kept the House natural resources committee voting late into the night Wednesday.
— Just watch me: Poilievre boasted about the obstruction before his Wednesday national caucus meeting, basically copping to his plan to hold Parliament hostage unless the Liberals give into his demands to continue to roll back the carbon tax.
"We are going to put in thousands of amendments at committee and in the House of Commons, forcing all-night, 'round-the-clock voting to block your $20 billion of inflationary spending, and the rest of your economically destructive plans, until you agree to our demand to take the tax off farmers, First Nations and families. You will know you will have no rest until the tax is gone."
Government House Leader KARINA GOULD was unimpressed with the cavalcade of minor tweaks to government bills. "They’re all jokes. They’re about amending the title, they’re about amending specific words," she said Wednesday. "He is not a serious politician."
Poilievre's band of Tories isn't the first party to go nuclear on amendments.
Liberals slammed the House finance committee with budget bill amendments during the Harper years. They'll do it again. For now, though, House skullduggery is a Tory art.
DISRUPTING SUPPLY — Today is a "business of supply" day in the House, when an opposition party hoovers up most headlines with a motion meant to apply pressure on the government. (Today is a Tory opposition day. More on that later.)
But the House also votes to approve spending estimates — the literal "supply" of money the government spends. These are often perfunctory, no-drama approvals. But the opposition can force votes on any spending estimate line items.
Enter Tory House Leader ANDREWSCHEER, who dropped 120 line-by-line objections on the order paper. Each vote takes more than 10 minutes in the hybrid format. If they vote on all of them, MPs could easily be in the chamber — or voting virtually — for 24 hours.
A sample vote: "Notice of opposition to Vote 5b, in the amount of $1, under Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council — Grants, in the Supplementary Estimates (B) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024."
Yes, you read that correctly. It's a vote to oppose a loonie's worth of planned spending on a federal research granting council.
SPOTLIGHT ON C-50 — The government teamed up with the NDP to fast-track a sustainable jobs bill that Liberals hoped to send to the Senate before the holiday break — a substantive legislative win for a governing party on a key energy transition priority.
That agreement sent the bill to the House natural resources committee, which was granted two hours to consider its clause-by-clause analysis of C-50 as well as any amendments submitted by MPs. The goal was to expedite the bill's progress.
— Marathon vote: Here, too, the Tories went big, submitting a pile of amendments in time for a Tuesday deadline. The committee spent Wednesday evening arguing points of order and voting, with Liberals and New Democrats combining to defeat most amendments.
Conservatives weren't content to simply state "yay" or "nay," routinely offering brief reasons or clearing their throats, further slowing the process. They repeatedly challenged committee chair GEORGE CHAHAL's rulings, losing each of those, too.
The committee approved the amended bill at 11:45 p.m., sending it back to the House. C-50 will see just one more day of debate at report stage, and another at third reading.
NOT TO MENTION… Conservatives are also out to get House Speaker GREG FERGUS. They have championed a move to force the House procedure committee to consider the party's attempt to force Fergus out of the chair.
Scheer led the condemnations of Fergus' decision to record a video tribute for outgoing interim Ontario Liberal leader JOHN FRASER.
Once the Liberals indicated they'd support sending the Tory House leader's question of privilege to committee, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
MPs referred the matter to PROC — Hill shorthand for the committee — before adjourning for the day at 7:51 p.m.
They also voted unanimously in favor of an amendment to Scheer's motion that forced the committee to hold a meeting into Fergus' conduct no more than 24 hours after the House referred Scheer's question of privilege to committee.
— What's next: That means the House procedure committee has to discuss this today.
WAIT, THERE'S MORE — The Conservatives will hoover up House time today with debate on the party's latest non-binding motion to eliminate the carbon tax for "farmers, First Nations and families."
The odds of the motion passing are slim, but that's not really the goal here. On that point, Poilievre has been clear. His orders to the troops are simple: block it all.
TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in Montreal for "private meetings" before heading back to Ottawa, where he'll present the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence at 3:15 p.m.
— Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND will be at the House finance committee at 11 a.m. Freeland will also attend question period.
8:15 a.m. MPs on the House agriculture committee will take on top officials from Walmart and Loblaw.
11 a.m. The Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly opens voting on the seventh ballot for the election of a new national chief.
The two remaining candidates are CINDY WOODHOUSE and DAVID PRATT. Woodhouse scored 50.1 percent of the votes on the sixth ballot, falling short of the 60 percent threshold required for victory. The Shaw Centre closed its doors at midnight Wednesday, forcing the AFN to suspend votes until this morning.
3:30 p.m. Defense Minister BILL BLAIR has an appointment with the House defense committee.
5 p.m. Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE hosts a fundraiser at a suburban steakhouse in Pointe-Claire, Que. — a convenient stop on the Island of Montreal just off the Trans-Canada Highway less than two hours from Stornoway.
5 p.m. Foreign Minister MÉLANIE JOLY hosts a cocktail fundraiser — her eighth this year and 12th since the last election — at Hôtel Place d'Armes in Montreal.
For your radar
FROM DFAIT TO D:\FIX_ME — A Senate committee is recommending Ottawa consider overhauling Global Affairs Canada by cutting upper management and red tape, boosting recruitment and making it a separate agency.
“As the committee looked at the structure of the department, it does appear to be rather top heavy,” said Independent Sen. Peter Boehm, chair of the red chamber’s foreign affairs committee and a former department official.
He suggested peeling back the layers of senior management would empower bureaucrats further down the chain. “What we’re suggesting is a rationalization of that senior cadre.”
— Retool the machine: The report, based on the committee’s study that began in 2022 and involved trips to Washington, London, Oslo and Berlin, suggests the Liberal government “consider how separate-agency status could allow Global Affairs Canada to restructure the department and redesign its human resource regime.”
— Context: Experts and foreign service representatives have warned that Global Affairs is losing its “surge capacity” to respond to major conflicts due to challenges with recruitment and retention.
At the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit in Dubai. | Joshua A. Bickel/AP
CAP DAY AT COP — Details of Canada’s long-awaited oil and gas emissions cap will be unveiled this morning.
Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT will beam in from Dubai, joining Energy and Natural Resources Minister JONATHAN WILKINSON, Employment Minister RANDY BOISSONNAULT and Women and Gender Equality Minister MARCI IEN in Ottawa.
The arrival of the cap means the Liberals can partially check off a campaign promise. Only partially because actual draft regulations are expected to be published in early to mid-2024.
— What we know: Conservatives have been hyping the idea of a federal cap as one that unfairly targets the oil and gas sector, which has seen rising emissions.
A senior government official not authorized to speak about details of the cap publicly said they’ve created “compliance flexibilities” for companies to help Ottawa cut 40 percent of emissions below 2005 levels by 2030.
Companies that exceed their allowance in pollution will have two avenues to course correct: They’ll be able to buy offset credits or pay into a so-called decarbonization fund.
— More on the cap-and-trade system: The official confirmed the government will create a new decarbonization fund to get the sector to spend more on greening production.
— Lessons from the past: Today’s details come two years after Trudeau announced at COP26 that Canada would introduce an oil and gas emissions cap. The original intent was to release details before the start of COP28.
MEDIA ROOM
Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy participate in a Republican presidential primary debate at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, last night. | Gerald Herbert/AP
— The Star’s MARK RAMZY writes on warnings from the Communications Security Establishment that foreign adversaries are likely to target the next federal election campaign through cyber activities including the use of “deepfakes.”
— ERICA IFILL writes in The Hill Times: “The CBC’s cuts result from a C$125-million shortfall, yet beyond the hackneyed explanation of tech and competition from foreign entities, one should look a little deeper at why.”
— In a piece for Policy Options, constitutional lawyer DEREK ROSS and law professor MARY J. SHARIFF write on the far-reaching implications of offering assisted suicide to people who aren’t dying.
— “It’s tough for journalists to assert their rights when they lack strength in numbers,” JOSH DEHAAS, counsel with the Canadian Constitution Foundation, writes on The Hub.
Movers and shakers: MARIE-ÈVE MARTE joins the Institute for Research on Public Policy as deputy editor (French) for Policy Options. In other IRPP news, ELIZABETH ROSCOE takes over from ANNE MCLELLAN as chair of the board.
Named to the new Canadian Military Colleges Review Board: KATHY HOGARTH (chairperson), CHANTAL BEAUVAIS, MICHAEL GOLDBLOOM, RENÉE LÉGARÉ, MARTIN MALTAIS, SUNEETA MILLINGTON and KYLE SOLOMON.
8:15 a.m. Wal-Mart Canada Corp. President and CEO GONZALO GEBARA will be first up at the House agriculture committee as it studies food inflation. In the second hour, Loblaw Companies Limited Chairman GALEN G. WESTON returns to Parliament Hill.
9 a.m. The Parliamentary Budget Officer will release a new report titled, “Fall economic statement 2023: Issues for parliamentarians.”
11 a.m. Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND has a date with the House finance committee. The subject of the study she will inform: “Policy decisions and market forces that have led to Increases in the cost of buying or renting a home in Canada.”
11 a.m. The House environment committee will start this session in camera with a briefing from the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development. In the second hour, DEBORAH CURRAN of the Environmental Law Centre and former MP ROBERT SOPUCK will be among the witnesses to inform the committee’s fresh water study.
3:30 p.m.TOMOYA OBOKATA, the UN’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, will appear at the House citizenship and immigration committee. To be discussed: Closed work permits and temporary foreign workers.
3:30 p.m. Defense Minister BILL BLAIR will at the House defense committee to discuss Supplementary Estimates B. Chief of the Communications Security Establishment CAROLINE XAVIER and Deputy Minister BILL MATTHEWS will attend and stick around in the committee’s second hour.
Behind closed doors: Public accounts; the House procedures committee.
TRIVIA
Wednesday’s answer: The Canadian National Institute for the Blind was created after the Halifax Explosion in 1917. One in 50 people in Halifax were blinded that day or suffered serious eye damage.
Props to DAN MCCARTHY, RUTHA ASTRAVAS, JONATHAN INGRAHAM, KATIE FEENAN, DARREN MAJOR, ROB LEFORTE, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, MARC LEBLANC, CAMERON RYAN, AMY BOUGHNER, KATELIN CUMMINGS, JIM CAMPBELL, MADDY STIEVA, MATT DELISLE, SEAN MOORE, PETER WALKER, D.G. STRINGER, DARRYL DAMUDE, MATT POIRIER, BOB GORDON, MARCEL MARCOTTE, JOE MACDONALD and GEORGE SCHOENHOFER.
Today’s question: Late in the evening on Dec. 7, 1941, Prime Minister WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE KING emerged with details of a Cabinet decision. What was it about?
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