Welcome to Consultant Town Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. The Professional Institute for the Public Service of Canada, a 60,000-member union, calls the small army of paid consultants in the nation's capital a "shadow public service"—hired guns who earn a pretty penny for packaging up complex policy advice. Shannon Proudfoot talked to a bunch of people who know the ins and outs of the consulting world. Peter Donolo, vice chairman at Hill + Knowlton Strategies and former director of communications to Jean Chrétien, made one thing clear: they're not paid to get anything done. The hired-gun aspect of consultants creates a fundamental problem: they don’t have to live with the results of what they recommend. “The irony of course of consultants—I’m a consultant!—is consultants don’t execute,” says Donolo. “Consultants give you advice and then walk away. They might give you a plan, but then they walk away. They walk away. They’re not the guys who are there at the end of the day holding the bag or doing the job.” Last week, the Public Health Agency of Canada posted another callout for external help. The agency is looking for someone to support efforts to "roll out vaccines, conduct post-mortems on decisions and activities, and provide guidance on mass vaccination efforts." The original tender document looked for a solo expert. An amended version extends the opportunity to "a team of experts." Earlier this year, PHAC put out a similar call. At the time, the agency told Maclean's it was "leveraging the vast public health expertise that exists in Canada" in order to "ensure a comprehensive response." The latest vaccine pause: Yesterday's first big headline blared that both the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control were hitting pause on administering Johnson & Johnson's COVID vaccine. The issue is, once again, blood clots—the same extremely rare reaction experienced by a handful of AstraZeneca recipients around the world. Health Canada also reported the country's first blood clot linked to the AZ shot, but the regulator insists the vaccine is safe. Public health experts also say the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risk of clots (about one in 100,000). Down under target: Australia has decided against procuring millions of doses of J&J's vaccine. The Aussies planned to go big on domestically produced AstraZeneca vaccine, but the inoculation effort has fallen millions of doses short of targets—and the country is now switching to the Pfizer shot for those under 55 years old. That company has a hefty order book, so the Aussies will see the bulk of those shots delivered only after October. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is also taking heat for not disclosing how many Pfizer doses the country has actually secured. In conversation with Michael Warner: Toronto Life spoke with the head of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital, a prominent public figure—on TV and Twitter in equal parts—who tells heart-wrenching stories from COVID's front lines and advocates for patients. "I’ve independently forged direct lines of communication with the premier and the mayor. They may not agree with everything I say, but at least they know exactly what I think," he said. "I won’t stop until I have nothing left to say." A new Leger poll helps explain why exactly certain premiers are so keen to keep certain businesses open. More than two-thirds of Canadians want retail to remain open, and restaurants are a 50-50 split. The numbers vary by province: 89 per cent of Albertans want retail to open its doors. That number is 57 per cent in Ontario. Leger also called Americans, who were far keener to reopen. More Canadians, though, plan to get a vaccine: 80 per cent, versus 61 per cent south of the border. Suboptimal submarines: Canada's beleaguered quartet of British-made boats have been in and out of dry docks for most of their time in the Navy. Tory MP Steven Blaney asked the feds just how many days they've been at sea since 2008. HMCS Corner Brook hasn't been out in a decade. None of them were at sea in 2019. HMCS Windsor racked up 593 total days on the water, the most of the four. The subs averaged about 33 days at sea per year. Not much incentive: Back in 2019, the Liberals launched a first-time home buyers incentive they hoped would help young folks get a toehold in a tough housing market. The program offered help on a downpayment to the tune of 5 or 10 per cent, and the feds would share the home's equity. Tory MP Tom Kmiec asked how many Canadians have been approved for mortgages using the incentive. The answer is 9,108. That includes 1,187 in Edmonton, 39 in Toronto, and a whopping five in Vancouver. The mean value of qualifying mortgages was $242,251. (The average sale price in Canada in March was $678,091.) Don't mess with us, CNN: In his popular morning newsletter, CNN's Brian Stelter mistakenly claimed that Canada has a president. Of course, polite Canadians politely corrected him. Shout out to Proof Strategies senior veep Greg MacEachern for exhibiting peak Canadian couth. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 