Climate buried among priorities in Carney's cabinet action plan

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mandate letter to his cabinet made one fleeting mention of climate change, but political experts and one MP say it’s too soon to despair.

The letter, published May 21, lays out seven priorities, including “building one Canadian economy,” bringing down costs, tackling affordable housing, strengthening the armed forces, strengthening trade relationships and more.

The second last paragraph stated: “We will fight climate change.” The only other related reference is Carney’s oft-repeated line about turning Canada into “an energy superpower in both clean and conventional energies.” Fossil fuel energy, like oil and gas, is often referred to as “conventional energy.” 

The letter says little about climate, “but it's so vague that I don't want to jump to conclusions,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said in a phone interview with Canada’s National Observer. May said she’s waiting for more detail in next week’s throne speech.

“If climate gets as short shrift in the speech from the throne as it's gotten in this mandate letter, I will be very worried,” May said.

King Charles III is set to officially open Parliament with a throne speech on May 27 in Ottawa.

Despite her worry, May said Carney’s book, Values, does indicate that he understands the need to move quickly to address the climate crisis.

Two other political experts agree that it's too early to read into the scant mention of climate change.

“At this point, I wouldn't be too quick to judge the prime minister on the basis of the veiled reference and then, the direct reference to climate change, but rather to wait and see how he approaches this,” Kathy Brock, a professor of policy and politics at Queen’s University, said in a phone interview with Canada’s National Observer.

“It’s consistent with his thinking in his book — as he laid out, when you address an economy, you have to consider the effects on climate change and the environment.”

Michael Wernick, former clerk of the Privy Council, pointed out that climate change was also not a huge factor in the federal election.

Mandate letters, generally speaking, are a relatively new development in the last couple of decades, and they weren't made public before then, Brock said.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau was the first federal leader to publicly publish mandate letters for each individual minister, complete with specific instructions and policy expectations. Having a written record of what the federal government said it would accomplish was a step forward for transparency and accountability, May said. She hopes Carney will make individual mandate letters public or release more information.

Mandate letters are definitely a tool for communicating political and policy priorities, but more so, they are used for “tasking and traffic control,” Wernick told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview. They help set clear expectations for ministers to prevent confusion “or turf wars and ego issues about who's in charge,” he said.

Publishing a single, blanket mandate letter for the whole government marks a significant departure from Trudeau — “and that may be the whole point of it,” May said.

Brock and Wernick agree it signals a different approach to managing the cabinet.

Carney’s letter said his ministers are “expected and empowered to lead, and to bring new ideas, clear focus, and decisive action” to their work. Over the coming weeks, he will get cabinet members to “identify the key goals and measures of success” to evaluate the results of their work.

“He has set the tone very clearly: ministers are going to be guiding the departments, but they will report to him, and he will be following what they're doing,” Brock said. 

“It's much more along the line of a CEO for a corporation than some of the cabinets we've seen in the past.”

For example, in a company, vice presidents are in charge of particular departments, but ultimately they respond to the central mandate and what the top is directing them to do, Brock said.

Brock isn’t convinced a lack of public, specific mandate letters is a huge loss to transparency, and said it may even help cabinet work together.

One of the political problems with public, detailed mandate letters is that ministers have to respond to those priorities, and the media, public and opposition parties are all going to do their jobs of holding the government to account on those priorities, she said. 

“But often, circumstances can change, and one priority can rise up, or one that you thought was going to be important isn't this important, and then it looks like you're walking things back, or ministers get very criticized for not making every priority count to the same level.”

She said the strength of this approach is a certain efficiency, but also transparency in the sense that the prime minister is accepting accountability.

Carney’s list of seven priorities is fairly directional but “set at a level of generality that they've got lots of room to fill in the detail, and that'll be the challenge for them,” Wernick said.

“They have a lot of work to do to turn this into laws, policies, regulations [and] specific action,” he said.

The same day Carney released the mandate letter, the Conservative Party announced its shadow cabinet of 48 shadow ministers and 14 associate shadow ministers.

“We will work with the government to put an end to unfair American tariffs or to pass good laws — but we will fight hard when the government is wrong,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in the press release. The statement said new MPs will be shuffled into roles in the fall and winter. 

The NDP and Bloc Qébécois did not respond to a request for comment.

Natasha Bulowski / local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer