Declaration of Emergency Committee on Oct. 27th, 2022

[Jim Watson]

No, that was a decision by the police and city staff. It wouldn't have been made at the political level. As you know—I hope you know—we're not allowed, as politicians, to direct police operations, so for me to start directing the police to go and clean up the Coventry site would have been completely inappropriate—

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

But you're acting as a third party negotiator with people who came with hostile interests.

[Jim Watson]

Well, as I tried to explain—and you cut me off, sir—the bottom line is that I did not negotiate. I had a call from Mr. French, who had contacts within the trucking industry. He got in touch with my chief of staff. They worked out an agreement that was signed by one of the protesters that they would do certain things and that we would then meet with them. They, obviously, did not live up to the agreement. The Emergencies Act was imposed, which I support, and that brought resolution relatively quickly. I commend the police for the work they did to clear our streets.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

I'm sorry, Mr. Watson, but your time was up 30 seconds ago. I let you complete your answer, but I can't let you continue speaking.

Senator Boniface has the floor for five minutes.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface (Senator, Ontario, ISG)]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here. I have a short time and a lot of questions.

Mayor Watson, I'm curious about the provincial role because you've been very specific in your comments, and you had meetings with the federal government—not with the provincial government. The last I looked, the provincial government is responsible for policing in the province and as an oversight for municipalities, so can you tell me what conversations you had with the provincial government on this and if you could tell us about the tripartite discussions that took place?

[Jim Watson]

Thank you, Senator.

I believe it was Minister Blair who suggested that we have, in essence, a tripartite political table with the City of Ottawa, the federal government and the provincial government. The federal government, of course, supported that—it was their idea. I supported it, but we could not get agreement from the province. I raised the issue myself with Premier Ford, and he did not want to be involved in the tripartite committee.

I can say that once we sent our letter asking for 1,800 resources from the province, the federal government and municipal police services, there was great co-operation in getting Wellington Street cleaned up after three weeks. However, I was disappointed that we did not have the province at that table because we thought that was a good way to share information and better coordinate our efforts to help take back our street.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Can you help me understand Mr. French's role? Why would he have reached out to you, what expertise does he have, or what did he think he had to offer?

[Jim Watson]

I met him on a few occasions when he was the premier's chief of staff. He called out of the blue. I had not had any contact with him since he left Queen's Park. He said he had contacts in the trucking industry. He did not want to get paid. He was not here to make money off this. He saw what was happening—as Canadians coast to coast saw what was happening—and offered to act as a go-between. I said, “Great, I will get my chief of staff to call you.” They had a number of calls. The police were informed that this approach had been made to my office.

At the end of the day, to his credit, Mr. French was able to reach an agreement that we felt was reasonable, one that would require the removal of all trucks from residential districts and that agreed not to backfill the residential areas or displace the truck convoy with other vehicles. At the end of that process, just prior to the Emergencies Act on February 14, we counted approximately 102 vehicles moved away from the residential area, which was my number one preoccupation—trying to give some peace of mind to those residents. About a third or half of those were big rigs, and the others were pickup trucks, other campers and so on.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Okay.

Mr. Kanellakos, if I could get clarity, I'm trying to understand the provincial role, as you would expect.

From your emergency management responsibility—yours and Mr. Ayotte's overall responsibility—what's your link to the province? Did you ask for any resources in that regard to fulfill your obligations from an emergency management perspective?

[Steve Kanellakos]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

No. Unlike other emergencies, as the senator well knows, we didn't link into the emergency operations centre of the province. It was very much between the police chief and Police Commissioner Carrique, who were doing the discussions, until the request was made by the police services board to ask the mayor to write the joint letter.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

With respect to your own order, could you tell me what the purpose was of your own declaration of emergency?

[Kim Ayotte]

I don't mind taking that question. Generally, the declaration of emergency will provide us with additional powers, purchasing powers, etc.

In Ottawa, we've been through many emergencies in the past few years. As a result, we've changed our bylaws to allow us to have those powers even without declaring a state of emergency.

Primarily we would use the state of emergency to motion to the public that this is a very, very serious matter and that we're engaging other levels of government as well. It's a symbolic gesture, and we would make that recommendation to the mayor. The mayor is the person who has the authority to declare that.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Okay.

With respect to the provincial emergency order, what benefit did it give to you as the City of Ottawa?

[Kim Ayotte]

Once again, from a symbolic gesture, it provided us with little benefit, except for that ideology that this is a serious event and that the province is taking it as seriously as we are with regard to the declaration. It also may have provided some additional abilities for the police, but I don't have that specific information before me.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Thank you, senator. Your time is up.

Senator Carignan, it's your turn for five minutes.

[Claude Carignan, Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Watson, I want to continue on the matter of the mediator, Mr. French, who was asked to do something. According to the media, you told the Rouleau commission that certain municipal councillors had wanted to bring in a mediator and that they had even prepared a draft resolution to submit to city council. However, Mr. Blair and Mr. Mendicino apparently dismissed the idea.

Could you clarify your thinking on the subject?

[Jim Watson]

Thank you, senator.

That was a suggestion made by two members of our city council, Mr. Cloutier and Mr. Egli, who drafted a resolution requesting that the federal government provide the services of a mediator. Unfortunately, they didn't submit that resolution, which was a draft, to city council. I don't know why.

I had probably mentioned the idea in the first week of the protest. I suggested it to Mr. Blair and other federal government representatives, who told me, however, that it wasn't a priority and that there would be no mediation with the persons responsible for the protest.

However, I think it was a good idea, but the federal government ultimately had the authority to say yes or no, and it said no.

[Claude Carignan]

Why didn't you challenge that decision by asking why it couldn't be attempted? It's somewhat strange for the federal government to say no like that.

[Jim Watson]

We had 20 or 25 items on the agenda during the meetings. We didn't have a lot of time for debate. The federal government said it wasn't a good idea, and we accepted that.

[Claude Carignan]

So the government felt it wasn't a good idea and told you that it was dismissing the idea, that there was no need for a mediator.

[Jim Watson]

I've forgotten all the details of that discussion with the federal government.

My priority was to convince the other two levels of government that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Provincial Police should provide more officers because that was the only solution.

[Claude Carignan]

I understood that. However, it seems that the intervention of a mediator, Mr. Dean French, as it happens, worked, at least for part of the city.

[Jim Watson]

Yes, I know Mr. French's intervention made it possible to make some progress because nearly 102 cars and trucks left that part of the city.

[Claude Carignan]

That was a real success; you were glad.

[Jim Watson]

I was glad because it was the first time we had seen any movement among the truckers.