The 45th Parliament is now in session, but the priorities of each cabinet minister still remain largely unknown.
On May 21, Prime Minister Mark Carney released a single mandate letter that set out seven priorities for the whole government.
But Carney has not released mandate letters for individual ministers setting out their specific responsibilities.
The lack of individual mandate letters has some political experts worried about the implications for government transparency and accountability.
“This is really a big step backwards for transparency in a country that is already among the most opaque of the democratic world,” said Emmett Macfarlane, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo.
But others say it is not a concern.
The government “will be finding other ways to deal with tasking and traffic management,” Michael Wernick, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa and former clerk of the Privy Council, said in an email to Canadian Affairs. “It just makes it harder to see the overall picture.”
‘Vibe check’
Since 2019, the Access to Information Act has required federal mandate letters be publicly released 30 days after a minister receives them. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau published mandate letters for individual ministers after the 2015, 2019 and 2021 elections.
Carney broke with this practice by releasing a single mandate letter.
That letter lists the economic and security relationship with the United States as a top priority, along with strengthening international trade partnerships. Other priorities include removing interprovincial trade barriers; cutting the cost of living; making housing affordable by building more houses; strengthening Canada’s security; making immigration levels more sustainable; and reducing government spending.
Some experts say this letter does little more than repeat Liberal campaign promises.
The letter is a “vibe check,” said Elizabeth McCallion, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. It does not give any specifics of how the government plans to address each of the key priorities.
“This is like the opening paragraph of a speech from the throne,” she said. “This isn’t a mandate letter.”
Marching orders
Individual mandate letters help keep ministers accountable, says McCallion. They help Canadians know what they can expect ministers to do — and who may be responsible if the government fails to meet a goal.
“Because Canada has a strong tradition of ministerial responsibility, we expect our ministers to take accountability for anything that happens within their ministry,” said McCallion.
In the single mandate letter, Carney says each minister should identify how they can “fulfill” each of the government’s top priorities. Each minister will be “expected and empowered to lead and to bring new ideas, clear focus and decisive action to [their] work,” the letter says. The prime minister signed the letter with the words “in partnership.”
The prime minister will still tell each minister what they are expected to do, says Macfarlane.
“My suspicion is this [one mandate letter] that was released will be the basis for cabinet discussions, which, of course, are secret,” he said. “Then the marching orders will happen within cabinet behind closed doors.”
But it is “unfortunate” that the mandate letters are not released for each minister, Macfarlane says. The lack of public details about ministers’ responsibilities can make citizens cynical or cause them to fear what a government may do in specific policy areas.
He points to the newly created minister of AI and digital innovation, a position held by rookie MP Evan Solomon, as a role that needs more clarification.
“The AI portfolio could end up being really useful if it’s about assessing risks and regulatory approaches to ensuring good AI governance,” he said. “Or it might be an unmitigated disaster if it’s treated the way the previous government treated the innovation agenda, with vague, nebulous promises about productivity and economic impact leading into artificial intelligence.”
There are many risks and concerns associated with AI, such as biases in data collection, he says.
“Knowing what tact the government is going to take on the file would be really helpful to either alleviating concerns or to serve as a warning sign about what [the government’s] doing.”
‘Directions given in other ways’
Jared Wesley, a political science professor at the University of Alberta, takes a different view.
“It’s a misconception to think that publicly released mandate letters contain everything that everyone needs to know about what ministers are being directed to do by the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Mandate letters can be helpful for stakeholders and citizens who are interested in particular policy areas, Wesley says. But they are primarily public relations documents, he says.
“They are messaging, not for the minister so much as it is for the public and for stakeholders,” said Wesley, who spent six years in a non-partisan role with the executive council of the Alberta government.
Information in mandate letters is often vague and can be confusing, he says.
“Even in public letters, there’s still a lot of questions that remain as to what — beyond the top three priorities that you want the minister to work on — what else are they supposed to be working on.
“And those kinds of directions are given in other ways.”
