PM Carney issues mandate letter to Cabinet
New government, new priorities.....
Prime Minister Carney has laid out a clear set of priorities for the new Cabinet in a Mandate letter.
The tone of the letter was in sharp contrast to the individual mandates given to ministers under the previous Prime Minister.
While it leaves important decisions regarding specific departmental priorities up to Ministers, it highlights that these departmental priorities need to conform to the Government's priorities laid out in the mandate letter.
In general, this lowers expectations for ambitious priorities such as environmental regulation, social policy etc.
It is useful to contrast this with the Fall Economic Statement (FES), which had many social priorities.
Among other things, the FES included a promise to table of new human rights due diligence legislation.
Our summary of what was contained in the following statement is available here:
Our priorities
We will focus on seven priorities:
- Building new economic and security relationships with the United States, and strengthening our collaboration with our allies and trusted trading partners around the world.
- Building a single, unified Canadian economy by eliminating barriers to interprovincial trade and identifying and accelerating projects of national interest that connect our communities and transform our country.
- Reducing costs for Canadians and helping them move forward.
- Making housing more affordable by harnessing the power of public-private cooperation, stimulating a modern housing industry, and creating new careers in the skilled trades.
- Protecting Canada's sovereignty and ensuring the safety of Canadians through measures that will strengthen the Canadian Armed Forces, our border and our police services.
- Attracting the world's best talent to build our economy while bringing our overall immigration rates back to sustainable levels.
- Spend less money on running government so Canadians can invest more in the people and businesses that will build the strongest economy in the G7.
Link to full Mandate letters:
English: https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/mandate-letters/2025/05/21/mandate-letter
Français: https://www.pm.gc.ca/fr/lettres-de-mandat/2025/05/21/lettre-de-mandat