Over eggs, Sutcliffe presses Ottawa's case with PM-designate

CBC

11-03-2025

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe wasted no time, pushing his case for more federal funding for Ottawa during a breakfast meeting with Mark Carney on his first morning as Canada's prime minister-designate.
Within hours of Carney's landslide win in Sunday night's Liberal Party leadership contest — and as interest groups in the capital were mulling what a new prime minister would mean for their constituents — Sutcliffe was already sitting down for eggs with the former governor of the Bank of Canada at John's Family Diner on Wellington Street W.
A new Liberal leader represented a fresh opportunity to advocate for the capital's needs, Sutcliffe said.
"With the prospect of an election coming soon, I would assume that the new administration is going to want to have some impact right away, make some things happen," he told CBC.
Sutcliffe said he took the opportunity to highlight his Fairness for Ottawa campaign.
"We need support around building more homes in the city, around infrastructure, around public transit," he said. "So those are our priorities."
Sutcliffe's speedy securing of a face-to-face meeting with Carney impressed Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine.
"It's a big opportunity to discuss federal investment in Ottawa's priorities," Devine wrote on the Bluesky social network.
Carney also posted about the breakfast meeting, writing on Bluesky: "There's lots of hard work ahead for Canadians — and we're getting right into it."
Unions call on Carney to protect public sector
Meanwhile, the president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), Nathan Prier, called on Carney to commit to protecting the public service workforce.
"A strong united federal public sector is a critical line of defence against this constantly shifting American attack that we're seeing," he said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated tariff threats and jibes about annexing Canada.
"This national crisis, which is without precedent, is not the time to start hollowing out our brain trust," said Cape, whose union represents some 27,000 federal public servants.
He called on Carney to reduce the Liberal Party's reliance on outsourcing, which hit record levels last year, despite the government's commitment to reduce reliance on external contacts.
"This government is gutting in-house talent while we're spending ever increasing amounts on consultants to fill the gap that's left behind," Prier said. "This is a giveaway to the friends of the Liberal Party that needs to stop. We're going to need institutional memory to respond effectively to the Americans right now."
'Competitiveness,' not 'complacency'
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) also called on Carney to commit to working with and investing in the public service.
"Canadians deserve a government that leverages our members' professional expertise, values dialogue, and drives evidence-based decision-making," acting president David Sutherland said in a statement to CBC.
The Ottawa Board of Trade called on Carney to respond firmly to Trump's tariff threats and to work to dismantle interprovincial trade barriers.
"Canada must replace complacency with competitiveness — supporting business investment, innovation, and productivity while strengthening supply chains and talent development," the group's president and CEO Sueling Ching said in a statement to CBC.