Morning Update: Ottawa seeks to scale back outsourcing with new guidelines

Good morning,

The federal government will announce new guidelines today aimed at reducing the use of outside consultants, a move that is part of an effort to cut about $15-billion from existing spending plans.

Treasury Board President Anita Anand will release a new “manager’s guide” for public servants who are responsible for signing off on billions of dollars in outsourcing and procurement each year.

The announcement will be made a day after The Globe and Mail reported that the RCMP is investigating allegations of misconduct at the Canada Border Services Agency involving an outsourced IT project. The Globe report also said the agency received warnings about cozy ties between IT consultants and federal officials.

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For Wab Kinew, historic win in Manitoba a personal and political triumph

Wab Kinew is set to become Canada’s first First Nations premier after his party won the Manitoba election on Tuesday. His victory is a historic triumph but also a personal one as he overcame a troubled history and negative stereotypes about Indigenous people.

Kinew said his win is much more than about Indigenous representation, it’s about Manitobans wanting a brighter future. The premier-designate said he is now focused on fixing health care in the province and dealing with affordability issues.

The NDP’s victory marked a rejection of what was seen as a divisive strategy deployed by the Progressive Conservatives. Party leader Heather Stefanson promised not to search a Winnipeg landfill for the remains of two Indigenous women police believe ended up at the site after they were murdered by an alleged serial killer. The PCs framed it as “standing firm” in the face of an expensive and potentially dangerous effort. Critics argued it was a cold-hearted campaign promise at best, and a racist ploy at worst.

• Families celebrate Wab Kinew victory after pledge to search landfill for remains
• Tanya Talaga: Wab Kinew’s win in Manitoba suggests the lighting of the Anishinaabe’s eighth fire

Laurentian Bank board chair resigned to protest sudden firing of CEO

The chair of Laurentian Bank of Canada resigned his position in protest over the abrupt termination of the bank’s chief executive officer, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Michael Mueller stepped down after CEO Rania Llewellyn was called into a board meeting on Sunday expecting to discuss a five-day service outage that hit the bank a week earlier, but was instead dismissed and replaced in her role.

It is extremely rare for a chair to resign at a major bank in Canada, and it is equally rare for a bank CEO to leave suddenly. Typically, an orderly succession plays out over many months, planned out to avoid alarming investors, staff and customers. Laurentian will likely face questions about the apparent lack of unity over the bank’s strategy.

• Opinion: Rapid turnover at Laurentian Bank suggests tumultuous reality in Canada’s banking world

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Also on our radar

Governor-General apologizes for Order of Canada to soldier who fought in Nazi unit: Governor-General Mary Simon has apologized for the 1987 appointment to the Order of Canada of Peter Savaryn, a veteran who served in the Nazi-led Waffen-SS division. The move came as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday that senior public servants were looking into publishing the full report of the Deschênes Commission, which examined claims that Canada was playing host to war criminals.

Libya’s former ambassador arrested over Gadhafi assets in Canada: A former Libyan ambassador to Canada has been arrested in his home country after safeguarding documents related to the billions of dollars the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi kept in Canadian bank accounts and to a Toronto penthouse owned by his son, Saadi Gadhafi.

Pope’s historic synod marks potential watershed moment: Pope Francis’s latest synod, which began in Rome yesterday, could unfold as one of the key events in his decade-long papacy. Even before the synod was officially launched, it created waves, as the church’s conservative and progressive arms prepared for a tug of war over issues ranging from the ordination of women and same-sex marriage to clerical celibacy and the status and rights of LGBTQ+ Catholics.

At Camp Kerry, grieving families find community: Held in a bucolic mountain valley near Princeton, B.C., Camp Kerry is a “grief camp,” a four-day retreat for families dealing with the loss of loved ones. With a mix of recreational and therapeutic activities, the camp creates a surprising juxtaposition of grief and joy. Demand has surged in recent years, says Heather Mohan, the executive director of Lumara Grief and Bereavement Care Society, the charity that runs Camp Kerry. She attributes it to the COVID-19 pandemic, toxic drug deaths and the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools.

Jays eliminated from playoffs: The Toronto Blue Jays were eliminated from the playoffs after being swept by the Minnesota Twins in the American League wild-card series. It’s the second year in a row that the Blue Jays recorded no wins in the postseason. Toronto’s offence just couldn’t get going in the series, scoring only one run in the two games.

• Cathal Kelly: Toronto Blue Jays have a new historic flub to complain about as they’re eliminated from playoffs

Morning markets

Markets focus on yields, crude prices: European stocks steadied early Thursday, after a plunge in oil prices and softer U.S. labour data late on Wednesday helped bring U.S. Treasury yields back down from 16-year highs. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.05 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 slid 0.22 per cent and 0.28 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.8 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.10 per cent. New York futures were lower. The Canadian dollar was down at 72.57 US cents.

What everyone’s talking about

David Parkinson: “New Statistics Canada data on household income and wealth distribution provide a snapshot of how our challenging economic conditions are affecting individual Canadians quite differently. It’s a reminder that trying to gauge the impacts of overheated inflation, and the aggressive interest-rate increases designed to cool it, is no easy or straightforward task.”

Today’s editorial cartoon

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Living better

An Indigenous chef showcases the food culture of coastal First Nations

For Indigenous chef Ximana Nola Mack, the best place to showcase the food culture of coastal First Nations, address food insecurity and educate people about the importance of Indigenous food sovereignty is around the table. Here she shares her recipe for salmon, fish egg and seaweed soup.

Moment in time: Oct. 5, 1983

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Poland’s Lech Walesa receives Nobel Peace Prize

Unemployed electrician Lech Walesa performed his first act as a mustachioed hero when he scaled the fence at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, to help negotiate the demands of more than 10,000 workers in the national strikes of August, 1980. The country was facing crippling price increases and food shortages. Mr. Walesa’s actions led to the formation of Solidarity, a national federation of unions with him as their de facto leader. Solidarity’s influence reached its apex in September, 1981, when it came to represent as many as 10 million people. Polish leaders pushed back: Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law on Dec. 13 that year and had Mr. Walesa arrested in an attempt to quash Solidarity’s growth. His detainment lasted 11 months. On this day in 1983, Mr. Walesa received the Nobel Peace Prize for leading the non-violent struggle for freedom to organize in Poland. “What until then seemed impossible to achieve,” Mr. Walesa wrote in his Nobel lecture, “has become a fact of life.” Seven years later, he became the country’s first democratically elected president, leading Solidarity to victory and Poland out of communism. Daniel Reale-Chin

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