He instructs International Trade Minister Mary Ng to “lead Canada’s efforts to combat protectionism, unfair trade practices, and economic coercion around the world.”
“You will also engage the United States to address bilateral trade issues and protectionist measures, including with respect to government procurement and in the automotive, energy, and agricultural sectors,” Trudeau writes to Ng.
He also directs her to help ensure “full and fair compensation to supply-managed sectors” under the renegotiated North American free trade agreement, USMCA.
The backdrop: Canada’s business community has been voicing deep concerns about the advance of U.S. protectionist policies ever since Biden’s arrival in the White House.
Major sticking points include Biden’s proposed electric vehicle tax incentive — which has led to threats of reprisals from Canada — and a dispute over potatoes from Prince Edward Island.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration warned Canada could face trade retaliation if it passes a digital service tax that discriminates against U.S. internet giants like Google and Facebook. Trudeau’s mandate letter Thursday to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland doubled down on Canada’s plans for a digital tax.
The newer U.S.-Canada frictions are in addition to longer-running — yet still very relevant — spats over softwood lumber and dairy.
More on defending Canada: The prime minister’s mandate letter to Freeland also appears to nod at American protectionist policies around procurement.
He directs her to “protect Canadian supply chains and ensure that Canada’s trading relationships are mutually beneficial economic relationships.”
Trudeau calls on Freeland to work with Ng “to introduce a reciprocal procurement policy that will ensure goods and services are procured from countries that grant Canadian businesses a similar level of market access.”
Ng has also been assigned to continue working to position Canada as a global leader on critical minerals — and to secure supply chains — by working with international partners through the implementation of the Canada–U.S. Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals Collaboration and the Canada-EU Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials.
Quick background on the letters: The last time Trudeau posted a complete set of brand new mandate letters was December 2019, a few months after his Liberals won reelection.
In January 2021, following a Cabinet shuffle, he released supplementary mandate letters for his ministers — in large part to reflect how much the Covid-19 pandemic had altered his government’s objectives.
The new mandate letters copy and paste many of the Liberals’ campaign promises from Canada’s most recent federal election, back in September.
The release of the letters is a big event for the Ottawa bubble and beyond because of how they zoom in on a government’s priorities. In the past, policy experts, interest groups, journalists and public service workers have plunged into the contents to the point that, back in 2019, the prime minister’s website crashed after they were posted online.
Here are highlights from key Cabinet portfolios on POLITICO’s radar:
Chrystia Freeland — Deputy Prime Minister and Finance
Trudeau directs Freeland to deliver in an area long sought by Canada’s business community — “driving a plan for long-term economic growth.” The Trudeau government has been accused of lacking a true growth agenda and of focusing instead of redistributing government funds.
To help her get there, Trudeau has asked Freeland to establish a permanent “Council of Economic Advisors” to provide independent advice and policy options on long-term economic growth.
On Tuesday, Freeland signaled in her fall update that she will produce a growth plan in her spring budget, which will likely come in April.
She’s also been asked to boost investment and productivity by amending the Income Tax Act to allow privately owned, Canadian-controlled businesses to expense up to C$1.5 million of growth-enhancing investments, such as software, patents and machinery.
The prime minister’s letter to Freeland also instructs her to follow through on the Liberal vows to introduce a suite of new taxes on wealthy — from a luxury tax on cars, boats and planes to new legislation to boost the corporate income tax payable by banks and insurance companies that earn more than C$1 billion.
Steven Guilbeault — Environment and Climate Change
Guilbeault is tasked with driving the Trudeau government’s climate plan. One of his many responsibilities includes working with Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne to pump the brakes a bit on commercial diplomacy and launch a new C$100-million fund to scale-up and commercialize made-in-Canada technologies and solutions for the reuse and recycling of plastics.”
Mélanie Joly — Foreign Affairs
Trudeau’s new foreign minister is responsible for helping develop and launch a “comprehensive Indo-Pacific strategy to deepen diplomatic, economic and defence partnerships and international assistance in the region.”
Joly’s “Indo-Pacific” assignment is a departure from last summer’s election campaign when the Liberal platform called it an “Asia-Pacific” strategy. Experts, like Trudeau’s former adviser Roland Paris, see the change in terminology an acknowledgment of the strategic challenges China poses in the region.
The Biden administration is keen to see what Canada comes up with. David Cohen, the new U.S. ambassador to Ottawa, told his Senate confirmation hearing in September that “we are all waiting for Canada to release its framework for its overall China policy.”
Mary Ng — International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development
Among all her major responsibilities, Trudeau is calling on Ng to work with Champagne to strengthen and secure supply chains. Part of the effort is to be done through the “Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership,” which Trudeau developed with Biden earlier this year.
In his letter to Ng, the prime minister also puts an emphasis on pursuing opportunities for trade diversification and improving “trade facilitating infrastructure” with Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. A goal will be to “reduce and prevent supply chain bottlenecks in Canada’s transportation network,” the directive says.
François-Philippe Champagne — Innovation, Science and Industry
Champagne’s top priority: Lead the delivery of the Net Zero Accelerator Initiative, a multibillion-dollar effort sourced from the government’s Strategic Innovation Fund meant to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the industrial sector.
Elsewhere in the innovation minister’s lengthy to-do list: studying the effects of so-called long Covid, including on kids and vulnerable groups; advance the “Digital Charter” that strengthen consumer privacy protections; force companies that promise to expand broadband access to get it done — or lose their spectrum rights; and add 1,000 research chairs to a post-secondary network of researchers.
And there’s evidence of a subtle turn inward on a key Canada-U.S. priority in the Biden era. Champagne will work with Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson on a Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy — the hope being Canada can develop a globally competitive industry as zero-emission vehicle production ramps up around the world. No mention of the Canada–U.S. Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals.
Jonathan Wilkinson — Natural Resources
Wilkinson’s letter assigned him to work with Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc on introducing a Canadian version of Biden’s Buy America executive order which narrowed the procurement rules for U.S. infrastructure projects, irritating some trading partners.
The Liberals’ pitched the Canadian version, their Buy Clean Strategy, in the party’s election platform as a measure to “support and prioritize the use of made-in-Canada low-carbon products in public and private infrastructure projects.”
Another campaign promise to launch a Canada-U.S. Battery Alliance also appears word-for-word in Wilkinson’s letter, but without language used in the platform to “lead to an integrated, world-scale battery supply chain.”
Marie-Claude Bibeau — Agriculture and Agri-food
Trudeau’s letter asks Bibeau to work with ministers of trade and industry to secure supply chains. She is also directed to prioritize efforts with Ng via the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement “to protect supply-managed agricultural sectors, our family farms and the vitality of our rural areas.”
Top of the agriculture minister’s list: Work with provinces and territories to integrate climate risk management, environmental and climate readiness into planning and programming. Bibeau is asked to champion Canada’s “green agricultural plan” — supporting farmers with funding for clean tech and other practices while reducing methane and fertilizer emissions.
Pablo Rodriguez — Heritage
No surprise that reforming the Broadcasting Act appears near the top of the prime minister’s letter to Rodriguez. Trudeau also instructed his minister to “ask web giants to pay their fair share and combat serious forms of harmful online content.”
The letter later adds to that request: “Reintroduce legislation to reform the Broadcasting Act to ensure foreign web giants contribute to the creation and promotion of Canadian stories and music.”
The prime minister nods to “the Australian approach” as he advises Rodriguez to expedite the introduction of legislation “to require digital platforms that generate revenues from the publication of news content to share a portion of their revenues with Canadian news outlets to level the playing field between global platforms and Canadian outlets.”
Mark Holland — Government House Leader
Mark Holland’s first job? Keep Parliament afloat amid yet more Covid-fueled disruptions and work with opposition counterparts to “innovate to respond to the realities” of the pandemic. The House vaccine mandate also falls on his shoulders, as does a project that would study hybrid sittings and produce “a more inclusive place for families” that responds “with greater agility in the event of a future national health crisis.”
Trudeau also tasked Holland with striking a “collaborative and effective approach” to Parliament. The swift passage of a bill banning conversion therapy ban offered early evidence that, compared to the preelection House, better is always possible.
The prime minister also instructed Holland to allow Liberal MPs more freedom to vote their conscience — read: fewer whipped votes.
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