Where does one apply for the Fentanyl Czar job?

I have to give my friend C.B. credit for the idea, but this “Fentanyl Czar” job sounds like a good use of time for someone still tied down by a Private Debt non-compete agreement: where do I apply?

Ottawa’s natural default will be to appoint some former CAF General, and I respect that instinct. Premier Doug Ford turned to retired CDS Rick Hillier, OC to lead Ontario’s Covid vaccine roll-out, and Ottawa engaged Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, a former NATO commander in Iraq, to play a similar role at the national level.

According to exclusive reporting by The Logic’s David Reevely: the “New fentanyl czar won't be in cabinet but will be 'central' to government, minister says.” That’s perfect for someone who would neither be asked, nor ever agree, to be in a Liberal Cabinet.

Here’s my pitch: unlike a military mission, this Czar assignment requires a level of cross-border collaboration that’s akin to the Toronto Port Authority or the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, the latter being the Crown agency tasked with building the $6 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON. More than logistics and battle planning, the GHIB project involves working with every level of government (on both sides of the border), the private sector, media, Courts, and an endless supply of vested bureaucratic interests across Ottawa.

As the first Chair of the WDBA Board, I found few public servants who were galvanized (Ed. note: cared?) by the fact that the GHIB was then-PM Stephen Harper’s most important infrastructure project — amazingly, despite the project benefitting 10,000 Canadian exporters, it had been “underway” so long that it dated back to Prime Minister Jean Chretien and President George W. Bush in September 2002. Twelve years had passed, and not a single stone had been turned (see prior post “Who gets to set ‘the Narrative?’” Aug 12-24).

If there was a roadblock to throw-up, Treasury Board would find it. Project funding would be approved by Parliament, but they’d wouldn’t let you spend that capital. Want to start digging? — you’ll have to get the annual “Corporate Plan” approved first, despite Parliament having already funded the digging phase of project. If you thought the purpose of an arms length Crown Corp. was to fulfill its mandate, you’ve not met the Treasury Board official who wants to review the “Risk Matrix” associated with the monthly execution of the project that the single purpose Crown Corp. was created to complete. And there was no one at Transport Canada who’d stick their neck out (other than then-Minister Lisa Raitt and her exempt staff) given just how important the three central coordinating agencies (PCO, Finance, and Treasury Board) are to every department’s broad portfolio of interests.

I handed back the role in Dec. 2015, figuring that the incoming Trudeau government would want to appoint their own person. Then-Infrastructure and Communities Minister Amarjeet Sohi was surprised, having been briefed that construction had already started after years of delays. I knew that if I didn’t pull the chute and the bridge wound up opening later than Mr. Harper’s promised 2020 date, the Liberals would be tempted to blame a Conservative for mucking things up.

Sure enough, the system would immediately revert to form, despite January 2016-era promises from the new Chair, Dwight Duncan, that the “project remains on schedule to open by 2020.” The moment someone stopped pushing, things were off the rails again. The Windsor Star’s Dave Battagello would report that summer that no further progress had been made in the wake of the 2015 election:

Questions are being asked about progress on the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, which appears to have come to a halt.

“We are getting close to seven months behind expectations of where this should be,” said MP Brian Masse (NDP—Windsor West). “I have been disappointed in (the Trudeau government’s) response. There has not been a sufficient answer.

“The public and industry need to be reassured. People are asking ‘What are they doing?’ and ‘What’s happening with the bridge file?’ It would be nice to hear from someone what is going on.”

Slated to finally open at the end of 2025, five years late, the GHIB is an expensive reminder of what happens when you put the wrong horse on the course.

There zero chance that President Donald Trump will be very forgiving if we don’t take the North American fentanyl problem seriously, which was telegraphed by the short 30-day Tariff grace period — to keep the pressure on. Health Canada has tracked >49,000 opioid deaths between 2016 and June 2024, which makes the cross-border piece a bit of a red herring.

The very public process that we’re being put through is also an opportunity for Canada to deal with not just the labs, but the trucking companies that ferry the illegal contraband around, the gangs who run the gun smuggling routes that seem to overlap with larger fentanyl production sites, and the human trafficking networks that can’t be too far behind.

That part of Ontario has long been known as “smuggler’s paradise” is as big a practical national security threat as outright nuclear war. An added benefit for the Liberals to consider: I was already approved for a TS SA III (no code word) security clearance back in 1991, and I’d have to give up my occasionally biting Star column.

MRM

(this post, like all blogs, is an Opinion Piece)

(photo credit: Coachman with Whip, New York, 1951 by Irving Penn)