| | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey | | Presented by |  | | | Ottawa Playbook will not publish Friday. We'll be back in your inbox Monday morning. Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. Let's get into it. In today's edition: → SCOTT MOE, BLAINE HIGGS and DANIELLE SMITH enter the chat. → Step aside, boomers. The budget spotlight shines on millennials and Gen Zers. → Conservatives go for the clips in front of Liberal constit offices.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | CARBON CIRCUS — There was a SAM SHEEPDOG and RALPH WOLF moment just before the House government operations committee Wednesday morning. You've seen the Merrie Melodies bit. Sam and Ralph cordially punched into work then proceeded to spend the day violently battling in a field of innocent sheep. The committee's chair, Conservative MP KELLY MCCAULEY, made pre-meeting small talk with Liberal MP FRANCIS DROUIN about how kids — Drouin’s young one, in this case — grow up so darn fast. They chuckled. Sam, meet Ralph. — Bad vibes: Everybody in the room knew it would be no ordinary meeting of "OGGO," the goofy-sounding shorthand used exclusively by Hill geeks to describe the committee. MPs were gathering in sleepy West Block during a two-week constituency break. They were supposed to be scrutinizing line items in the government's annual spending plan. Yeeeeeah, not so much. — Special guest: Before the meeting was called to order, Saskatchewan Premier SCOTT MOE appeared on screen via videoconference, doing premier things as he waited. Moe’s name had popped up on an amended meeting notice less than 24 hours earlier, not long after he had asked to testify about the federal carbon tax at a different House committee. Three other conservative premiers have made similar requests. Before Moe had his say, Liberals tried to raise a little hell. The figurative Sam got an earful from the figurative Ralph. (We know we're pressing our luck with the cartoon references.) Drouin said McCauley disrespected MPs by calling the meeting without consulting them. He'd never seen anything like it, he said. All the while, Moe patiently waited, reading something offscreen, occasionally putting pen to paper. — Procedural scrap: McCauley acknowledged he’d used the chair’s prerogative to call the meeting because Moe's concerns merited OGGO attention. Non-Conservative committee members complained that the carbon levy had nothing to do with the estimates laid out in the meeting notice. Pish tosh, McCauley seemed to say. The fiscal impact of the federal carbon price falls somewhere in the government's spending estimates — therefore, it's fair game. — Framing win: Once Moe's testimony got underway, the premier got his wish — an hour of nearly unfettered airtime to complain about the carbon tax and boast about his province's climate bonafides. Conservatives pitched softballs. Liberals tried to outwit the premier on his preferred subject matter. Parliamentary Budget Officer YVES GIROUX, who watched Moe's testimony from the room's public seating area, took OGGO's questions during the meeting's second hour. Conservatives and Liberals relitigated the debate they both think they're winning about the real impact of the carbon levy on Canadian households. Both sides quote selectively from the PBO's carbon pricing analysis, the most reliable political Rorschach test on the Hill this year. Anyway, we've covered all this ground before. → Worth noting: Liberals could've used all of their time with Giroux to ask about any of the spending estimates they'd earlier complained weren't getting the proper attention. Giroux was prepped for it. Instead, Liberal MP IREK KUSMIERCZYK pelted the PBO with questions about carbon. The Conservative frame won the day. They wanted to talk about the tax, and they did. — Round 2: New Brunswick Premier BLAINE HIGGS and Alberta Premier DANIELLE SMITH are on the OGGO docket today. Expect a rerun.
| | | | A message from Electricity Canada: Despite massive gains over the past year, the electricity sector still faces an enormous challenge with a culture of “no”. Electricity projects are being delayed or are held up in approvals. There are simple solutions that can help make our grid cleaner, more reliable and affordable. We need to move things forward so we can achieve a net zero economy by 2050. Read our State of the Canadian Electricity Industry report to find out more. | | | | | For your radar | | |  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland kick off their budget roadshow in Vancouver. | Ethan Cairns, The Canadian Press | ROADSHOW NO. 1 — By the time CHRYSTIA FREELAND unveils the 2024 Budget April 16, there'll be little suspense about it. Which is precisely the point, this time 'round. As we let you know Monday, Freeland dropped the budget date several weeks in advance in order to roll it out piece by piece — capturing slow news days during constituency weeks where Ottawa is mostly tumbleweeds. — Target demos: This isn't a budget for the oldest and youngest among us. Those cohorts were so 2015-2023. Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU unveiled Budget 2024's first major items yesterday in Vancouver: renter-focused measures meant to capture the imagination of millennials and Gen Z. (No mention of Gen X. They’ve aged out, it seems.) It's impossible to ignore the electoral math. Millennials and Gen Zers wield massive influence in Canadian politics. It's their turn to get all the goodies. Shoutout to economic thinker SEAN SPEER, who wrote about generational tension in POLITICO three years ago. — Better is always possible: Here's how Trudeau frames the budget for youngins — or at least youngish. "The middle-class dream feels out of reach. Your hard work isn’t paying off like it did for previous generations," he says. "Your paycheck doesn’t go as far as costs go up, and saving enough to go after your dreams seems harder and harder. It doesn’t have to be this way. Everyone deserves a fair shot at success." That kinda sounds like the rhetoric of "more powerful paychecks" promised by a certain Conservative leader who insists all the bad vibes will evaporate when Trudeau leaves office. — The measures: A new C$15 million "Tenant Protection Fund" meant to help renters fight unfair landlords; a Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights meant to "crack down on" renovictions and create a "standard nationwide lease agreement"; and incorporate on-time rent payments into renters' credit scores. — An early review: Economist ROB GILLEZEAU judged Wednesday's renter tidbits to be decidedly mid. “The fact that these were viewed as topline measures worth a full event from the prime minister is a pretty brutal signal on what we should expect from the government on housing policy in the federal budget," Gillezeau, who once worked for the NDP, tweeted. — In related reading: "Get some popcorn," TONDA MACCHARLES writes in the Star. "By the time Freeland stands to table the actual document in the House of Commons on April 16, we will all have seen the teasers, a trailer or two, and more than a few spoilers." — Next up: Childcare-related budget announcements across Canada today. Trudeau is in in the Vancouver area. Freeland is in Winnipeg. Ministers are popping up in Regina, Windsor, Mississauga, Montreal and Halifax. — It got us thinking: Budget day in the fishbowl includes an exercise known as a “lockup.” Ahead of the finance minister’s big reveal, reporters are sealed in a room for the day where they get a head start on making sense of the government’s plans. Once the markets close and the minister stands in the House to share those details, journalists release a flood of reporting. — What's the point? If everything is already out there, the need for secrecy seems moot.
| | WHO'S UP, WHO'S DOWN | | UP: The number of police officers in Canada in 2023. Statistics Canada counted 71,472 police officers across the country in May 2023, a year-over-year increase of 892. But the proliferation of cops couldn't keep up with population growth. The rate of 178 officers per 100,000 Canadians is the lowest rate since 1970. DOWN: The ArriveCAN app, which somehow hasn't hit rock bottom. RCMP Commissioner MICHAEL DUHEME confirmed to CTV News that Mounties are expanding a fraud investigation related to the border-crossing app's development.
| | | | A message from Electricity Canada:   | | | | | Where the leaders are | | — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in Vancouver, where he'll make a 12:50 p.m. (9:50 a.m. local time) Budget 2024 childcare announcement alongside Families Minister JENNA SUDDS and B.C. Deputy Premier MIKE FARNWORTH. — Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND is also on the childcare beat. Freeland and Northern Affairs Minister DAN VANDAL will make a 12 p.m. (11 a.m. local time) announcement in Winnipeg. — Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE rallies party faithful at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg. — NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH will speak at the CUPE national committees meeting in Ottawa at 9 a.m. — Green Party Leader ELIZABETH MAY will attend the breakfast gathering of Sidney By the Sea Rotary, where she is a member.
| | | DULY NOTED | | — It's child care day on the ministerial road trip circuit. 8:15 a.m. Ontario Premier DOUG FORD is featured guest at Ottawa Mayor MARK SUTCLIFFE's breakfast series. Ford will participate in a fireside chat and is expected to make an announcement. 1:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. CT) Energy Minister JONATHAN WILKINSON and Treasury Board President ANITA ANAND are in Regina where they’ll hold a media availability on “affordability for families.” 1:30 p.m. Justice Minister ARIF VIRANI is at the University of Windsor — also for a child care announcement. 2 p.m. (3 p.m. AT) Rural Development Minister GUDIE HUTCHINGS and Veterans Affairs Minister GINETTE PETITPAS TAYLOR will talk child care at the Nova Scotia College of Early Childhood Education in Halifax. 2:30 p.m. Small Business Minister RECHIE VALDEZ and Women and Gender Equality and Youth Minister MARCI IEN will be at a YMCA Child Care Centre in Mississauga, Ont. 2:45 p.m. Transport Minister PABLO RODRIGUEZ and Immigration Minister MARC MILLER will stick with the theme in Montreal.
| | MEDIA ROOM | | | | 
A container ship rests against wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge as dawn approaches on March 27, 2024, in Baltimore, Maryland. | Matt Rourke/AP | — Top of POLITICO this hour: Outmoded bridge design likely contributed to catastrophic loss in Baltimore. — Eggheads vs. Everybody: Conservatives are dismissing an open letter, signed by 200-plus economists making the case for carbon pricing, as the work of “so-called experts.” We hear echoes of another era in the CPC rhetoric (see: Why Stephen Harper thinks he’s smarter than the experts). — Liberal MP ANTHONY HOUSEFATHER's latest stop on the interview circuit: The Line, with JEN GERSON. Housefather also penned a National Post op-ed. — NAHEED NENSHI joined the Daveberta pod to talk up his run for Alberta NDP leader. — Canada's electricity providers are worried about a shortage of hydro poles in the wake of a government ban on a chemical used to treat wood. Playbook devotees will recall the industry making noise about this for more than a year. — Bloomberg brings the headline the PMO doesn't want you to read: Housing crisis, packed hospitals and drug overdoses: What happened to Canada? — Writing for POLITICO, ASHLEY JACKSON, who has spent the past year interviewing ISIS-K fighters and commanders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has a primer on the group that claimed last week’s deadly terror attack at a Moscow concert hall.
| | | | A message from Electricity Canada: 2023 was a big year for the electricity sector, with real steps being made towards building a bigger, reliable and more affordable electricity system for 2050. This year’s report of the RBC Climate Action Institute is charting massive growth for electricity, particularly with the rise of electric vehicles and home heating. And yet, that report’s “word of the year” for the electricity sector in 2024 is moratorium. This is not a problem of funding. It’s not a problem of technology. It’s not even a problem of principle. What we have is a people problem. And until we get it fixed—and it can be fixed—nothing will move forward. We need to come together, and we need to work out all the complicated pieces that connect electricity companies, regulators, Federal, Provincial and Indigenous governments so we can build. Read our State of the Canadian Electricity Industry to find out more. | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Birthdays: HBD to Creative Currency president and political ad guy DENNIS MATTHEWS (4-0!). Greetings also to Ontario PC MPP GOLDIE GHAMARI, former Quebec MNA SÉBASTIEN PROUX, former Tory MP RODNEY WESTON (6-0), former president of the National Assembly of Quebec MICHEL BISSONNET, and former Saskatchewan MLA DON CODY. HBD + 1 to MARYAM SHAH of the Globe and Mail and National’s SAEED SELVAM. Celebrating Friday: Former Quebec premier PAULINE MAROIS. Sunday: NDP MP RICHARD CANNINGS (7-0!), Earnscliffe principal LAURA KURKIMAKI, former premier and ambassador GARY DOER, and former B.C. MLA PAT PIMM. Send birthdays to ottawaplaybook@politico.com. Spotted: Conservatives selling “Common Sense” hockey jerseys for C$75 a pop … Tory MP BOB ZIMMER and Tory Skeena–Bulkley Valley candidate ELLIS ROSS, showing up in front of NDP MP TAYLOR BACHRACH’s office to film a partisan video … Tory MP JASRAJ SINGH HALLAN and Tory Niagara Centre candidate FRED DAVIES showing up in front of Liberal MP VANCE BADAWEY’s office to film a partisan video … Tory MP JAKE STEWART showing up in front of Liberal MP SEAN CASEY’s office to film a partisan video. Canadian delegates in Geneva, Switzerland for Inter-Parliamentary Union meetings: Liberal MP PAM DAMOFF, Conservative MP LARRY MAGUIRE, Bloc MP ANDRÉANNE LAROUCHE, NDP MP MATTHEW GREEN and Sen. ROB BLACK. Bloc Québécois Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET itching for a LCN/TVA leaders’ debate, proposing some ground rules such as no notes (except those scribbled on site) and compensation. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier ANDREW FUREY and Industry Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE with their arms around each other in St. John’s. STEVE SALMONS, president and CEO of the Windsor Port Authority, explaining all the reasons why a Baltimore-style bridge collapse is not going to happen at the crossings between Windsor and Detroit. Movers and shakers: Press Gallery colleagues are celebrating CBC's HANNAH THIBEDEAU this evening as she bids adieu to the Ceeb's parliamentary bureau. No word yet on her next stop. Sandstone Group brought on two hires: Former Cabinet minister TONY CLEMENT, as a senior adviser; and former Hill staffer PETER STUYT, as a public affairs consultant ... STEPHANIE RITTER joined Maple Leaf Strategies as a senior consultant. BLAKE OLIVER, who left Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND's office earlier this year, announced her new gig as senior consultant at Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors.
| | PROZONE | | Our latest policy newsletter for Pro subscribers from SUE ALLAN: PM chides premiers for “not telling the truth” on carbon tax. From ZI-ANN LUM: Conservative premiers go to war with Trudeau. In other headlines for Pros: — Auto industry braces for “weeks of disruption” after bridge collapse. — Climate strife divides US Chamber. Will departures follow? — USAID might stop climate aid, boost fossil fuels under Trump. — House Oversight chair tells advocacy groups to preserve documents amid USTR probe. — EU, US eye closer alignment to counter reliance on Chinese microchips and telecoms.
| | ON THE HILL | | → Find House committees here. → Keep track of Senate committees here. Parliament returns April 8.
| | | TRIVIA | | Wednesday’s answer: Liberal MP KEVIN LAMOUREUX helped unveil an historical plaque in Winnipeg marking the 1972 Summit Series because that city hosted Game 3. Fun fact: JORDY DOUGLAS, president of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, said in a press release the Canadian national hockey team was based in Winnipeg for more than a decade. Props to RALPH LEVENSTEIN, GORDON RANDALL, DOUG RICE, ROBERT MCDOUGALL and BOB GORDON. Today’s question: STEPHEN HARPER’s final Cabinet included 39 members. How many of those ministers also sat in Harper's first Cabinet back in 2006? Send your answer 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? Playbook can help. 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 | | | | |
