PORT UNION STRIKES BACK — Just when you thought it was over. The union representing B.C. port workers is returning to the picket lines, and Cabinet ministers are examining all options, vowing this cannot go on. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the B.C. Maritime Employers Association had signaled last week they reached a tentative deal to end the weeks-long work stoppage. But the ILWU’s Canada longshore caucus suddenly rejected the mediator’s terms of settlement Tuesday on the grounds it doesn’t have the “ability to protect our jobs now or into the future.” The employers association put out a statement saying the union caucus had “rejected the tentative agreement before it was even taken to a vote of the full union membership.” Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE tweeted it’s a sign of “colossal incompetence by Trudeau’s Labour Minister” SEAMUS O’REGAN, who days earlier said it was settled. O’Regan put out a joint statement with Transport Minister Omar Alghabra late into the night that said the government is looking at “all options” and will have more to say about this later today. “Workers and employers across Canada cannot face further disruption on the scale we saw last week,” it said. "We have been patient. We have respected the collective bargaining process. But we need our ports operating." O’Regan never threatened back-to-work legislation when he imposed last week’s deadline on the union and employer, but its specter had loomed ever so lightly over the stoppage. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is now calling for immediately reconvening Parliament to pass back-to-work legislation. “We need our politicians to show leadership, now,” said ROBIN GUY, vice president of government relations at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, re-upping the call for reconvening Parliament to pass back-to-work legislation. “There is too much at risk.” — By the numbers: The Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s business data lab estimates the strike “put the brakes on nearly 21,000 related truck trips in the Port of Vancouver alone.” Greater Vancouver Board of Trade estimates the strike disrupted some C$9.9 billion in trade. ‘MILESTONE MOMENT’ — Speaking to reporters from an airport lounge in Delhi, India after her G-20 meetings, Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND underscored that inflation fell to 2.8 percent on lower gas prices. It’s the lowest CPI has been in two years, putting it “back to the Bank of Canada’s target range.” She called it a “significant moment” that “should provide a lot of relief to Canadians,” who have suffered a “really tough time economically since Covid.” A pretty good effort to sell worse news than what people were hoping for, even if it beat expectations. But pop open the hood, and the engine still looks messy. Grocery prices up 9.1 percent. Mortgage interest up 30.1 percent. Asked about rising food prices, Freeland pivoted to the temporary boost to the GST rebate. Aka “our grocery rebate,” which provides targeted relief in a way that doesn't “pour fuel on the flames of inflation” and is “exactly the kind of policy” the IMF has recommended. Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE will likely offer up a different interpretation at his newser this morning in Niagara Falls, Ontario. His finance critic, JASRAJ SINGH HALLAN,already slammed the Liberals as being out of touch for telling Canadians “struggling to buy groceries, pay rent or put gas in their car, that everything is OK." — The chessboard: A slight positioning problem if the headline trend continues into the fall. “Poilievre will have to flush his favorite propaganda point, Justinflation, down the toilet,” longtime political commentator CHARLES ADLER tweeted on the point we’re all wondering about. But aside from how the messaging might get tweaked, Canadians are still very much feeling the squeeze in tangible ways the Conservatives can drill down into. — What’s next: All eyes will be on the next Bank of Canada rate announcement, scheduled for Sept. 6. — CPI not a ‘Ouija board’: It’s hard to predict how the central bank will act based on this one set of data, cautions MARWA ABDOU, senior research director at the Chamber of Commerce. The takeaway shouldn’t be that “the fight is over or that we're near the end,” she tells Playbook. “It's only just beginning.” Energy prices falling from a year ago when Russia invaded Ukraine and supply chain issues easing are behind the number pulldown, but key indicators have yet to budge. “The real core measures of inflation are still ahead of us and those will be the toughest to bring down. And those core measures are still well above the target range.” — Too early to celebrate: “Although some progress has been made, the Bank of Canada’s preferred measures of core inflation still shows sticky inflation,” ROBERT ASSELIN, senior vice president at the Business Council of Canada, tells Playbook. ”The job is not done.” But RANDALL BARTLETT, senior director of Canadian economics at Desjardins, tells Playbook CPI coming down should “take a lot of pressure off the bank to raise rates in September.” “The toughest part of the Bank of Canada’s job is to bring inflation back down to the 2 percent target, and it's really going to be 2025 before we're likely to get there without some sort of significant weakness in economic activity.” Playbook notes that just happens to be around the time the Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement expires: June 2025. That’s assuming the two parties remain dance partners until then. Like Ottawa Playbook? 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