Prime Minister Carney has released his own mandate letter

Plus other hopeful news

May 24, 2025

As we had been expecting, prime minister Mark Carney released his mandate letters for his cabinet ministers this week. What we weren’t quite expecting was that every member of the cabinet got the exact same letter.

In the letter, Carney lays out his expectations for the members of his government, framed against what is described as a “generational challenge” that must be met with “purpose and force.” He lists seven priorities for the government, which include establishing new economic and security partnerships, removing interprovincial barriers to trade, making housing more affordable, protecting our sovereignty and strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces, and attracting the best global talent.

Not everyone is happy with Carney’s effort. In an article published Friday in Le Devoir, a number of political scientists – including Emmett Macfarlane of Waterloo and Geneviève Tellier of the University of Ottawa – complained that it wasn’t a “true mandate letter.”

“This statement is very vague, and falls far short of the level of detail one would expect from a mandate letter," said Macfarlane. "For me, this isn't a mandate letter. And we won't know anything more about the ministers' tasks,” added Tellier.

We at Build Canada have to confess, we like this letter quite a bit. It is short (under 800 words) direct, and the priorities are substantially aligned with the policy areas that were the focus of many of our policy memos. It also compares quite favourably against the mandate letters that Justin Trudeau gave to his cabinet, which were very long (exceeding 2500 words in some cases) and which were prefaced by a great deal of boilerplate language about needing to focus on the government’s climate change, inequality, gender-based analysis, and DEI priorities, even for the minister of national defence.

While these certainly have their place, we are pleased to see that Carney has adopted a “mission first” approach to government, asking his ministers to focus on strengthening Canada’s security and prosperity.

For those interested, earlier last week Build Canada released our own mandate letters, outlining for key ministries what we think could be their key priorities and policy initiatives.

From the Ministers

In the week since prime minister Carney has announced his cabinet, some of his ministers have made questionable statements. On a more hopeful note, the newly appointed Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, gave a speech at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. It’s very good.

I want to be very clear. In the new economy we are building, Canada will no longer be defined by delay.
We will be defined by delivery.
So what does delivery look like? It begins with a vision: to build Canada into a conventional and clean energy and natural resources superpower.

We would recommend watching or reading the speech in full.

In Other News

Stablecoins moving forward in the US

The United States continues to advance stablecoin legislation. Stablecoins are a digital currency tied to the US dollar. The Senate voted in favour of the GENIUS Act on Monday, clearing the way for final passage:

“Innovation in this space is happening, with or without us. We have a responsibility to ensure it happens safely, transparently, and in a way that advances U.S. economic and national security interests. The GENIUS Act will help get us started,”

Meanwhile, Canadian legislators continue to actively fight against this technology. See our memo for digitizing the Canadian dollar.

What Else We’re Reading

If Canada continues to treat defence as a procurement problem to be solved abroad, we will never escape our dependency. But if we treat it as an industrial strategy to be developed at home, we might just become a country capable of exporting the very kit we now overpay to import.

🗞️ Canada is doing everything wrong with defence procurement [Globe & Mail]