Mark Carney's to-do list is short, but steep

Aaron Wherry · CBC News

· Posted: May 24, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

Emerging from his cabinet's archetypal "planning forum" — what erstwhile premier ministers would person called a furniture "retreat" — on Tuesday evening, Mark Carney told reporters that his ministers had each been fixed a azygous mandate letter.

"It reflects a unified mission," the premier curate said of his missive. "This 1 missive outlines the halfway priorities of Canada's caller government, reflecting the mandate that Canadians person fixed to us."

Coming successful astatine conscionable nether 800 words, Carney's mandate missive contrasts successful perchance absorbing ways with the wordier epistles that his predecessor released successful 2015. But nevertheless succinct, Carney's missive besides inactive makes wide the sizeable challenges and aims that are present laid retired earlier this caller government.

The issuing of mandate letters to furniture ministers is not a caller practice. But until Justin Trudeau decided to publically station a acceptable of letters for his caller ministers successful November 2015, the memos containing a minister's authoritative marching orders were kept confidential — seen lone by the ministers themselves and a fistful of elder civilian servants. 

It has been argued that this signifier of officially instructing ministers mislaid immoderate of its inferior erstwhile the letters were drafted for nationalist consumption. But Trudeau's attack inactive held imaginable worth successful presumption of some transparency and accountability. 

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Each of Trudeau's letters included a lengthy preamble mounting retired (or advertising, arsenic it were) the government's stated principles. For each minister, a circumstantial acceptable of tasks was past outlined — essentially a to-do database explaining which argumentation initiatives the curate was liable for. For the astir part, these items were drawn from commitments successful the Liberal party's run platform. 

The missive issued to the wellness minister, for instance, contained 10 bulleted points, including instructions to prosecute caller health-care backing agreements with provincial and territorial governments (and what those agreements would ideally include). 

By the Trudeau government's authoritative count, that archetypal acceptable of mandate letters covered nary less than 289 initiatives that ministers were to implicit — an expansive database of tasks that the authorities later collateed and tracked online in a "mandate missive tracker."  

In the Trudeau government's ain estimation, its ministers fared decently good astatine completing that archetypal acceptable of tasks — a judgement that was broadly supported by autarkic researchers who looked astatine the Liberal government's promises and actions. At the aforesaid time, it was just to inquire whether 289 commitments was altogether excessively galore commitments (subsequent mandate letters really brought that total, by the government's count, to 432 commitments).

Carney's 7 priorities

Instead of an itemized database of commitments, Carney's missive centres connected a database of 7 "priorities." And successful attempting to constrictive and specify the government's focus, Carney's list is somewhat reminiscent of the database of 5 priorities that Stephen Harper's Conservatives identified earlier coming to bureau successful 2006.

But nevertheless adjacent successful number, Harper's stated goals were much straightforward. A Conservative government, helium said, would walk caller morals legislation, chopped the GST, enforce caller mandatory-minimum sentencing requirements, instrumentality a caller kid benefit, and found caller wait-time guarantees for definite aesculapian procedures. The Conservative authorities checked disconnected the archetypal 4 items with comparative easiness and past softly stopped worrying astir the fifth.

Carney's priorities are not truthful tidy.

The caller Liberal authorities volition absorption on: renegotiating Canada's narration with the United States and strengthening relations with different countries; removing interprovincial commercialized barriers and expediting large infrastructure projects; helping Canadians with the outgo of living; making lodging much affordable and catalyzing a modern lodging industry; gathering the Canadian subject and reinforcing home security; refocusing immigration; and reducing the outgo of authorities operations. 

On 1 level, Carney's determination to outline 7 wide priorities, alternatively of publically charging each curate with a checklist of tasks, mightiness springiness members of furniture much country to manoeuvre — to devise and thrust their ain ideas and initiatives. After outlining the 7 priorities of the government, Carney asks each curate to "identify" some "how specifically you tin lend to these missions" and "the cardinal goals and measures of occurrence connected which to measure the results you volition achieve."

Whether this volition bring backmost the benignant of "cabinet government" that immoderate agelong for remains to beryllium seen, but Carney's 7 large priorities tin besides beryllium work arsenic 7 large challenges to beryllium met.

"We indispensable conscionable a bid of unprecedented challenges," Carney writes successful the letter's preamble "with some a disciplined absorption connected halfway priorities and caller approaches to governing."

And amid those unprecedented challenges, Carney seemingly does not deficiency for ambition. Speaking to reporters connected Tuesday, helium said his authorities is "charged to physique the strongest system successful the G7, an system that works for everyone."

Four years, if this Parliament adjacent lasts that long, is not a agelong clip to crook Canada into the envy of the G7. And respective of the things that Carney is aiming to absorption connected — building large infrastructure, procuring subject instrumentality — have been known to instrumentality time. Right-sizing the proviso of lodging could instrumentality the remainder of the decennary oregon longer.

But Carney is not backing distant from the consciousness of urgency helium emphasized passim this spring's campaign. And adjacent conscionable 2 oregon 3 years mightiness beryllium capable time, if utilized wisely, to amusement existent advancement connected each of these priorities.

Without a acceptable of itemized lists of tasks to beryllium performed, much attraction mightiness besides beryllium paid to the existent results of the government's actions — a absorption that the Trudeau Liberals struggled to establish.

There is overmuch to beryllium said for governmental parties telling the nationalist what they volition bash with powerfulness and arsenic overmuch to beryllium said for expecting governments to marque bully connected their commitments. But governing is much than a substance of checking boxes.