Author: Aaron Wherry

Emerging from his cabinet’s first “planning forum” — what previous prime ministers would have called a cabinet “retreat” — on Tuesday evening, Mark Carney told reporters that his ministers had all been given a single mandate letter.”It reflects a unified mission,” the prime minister said of his missive. “This one letter outlines the core priorities of Canada’s new government, reflecting the mandate that Canadians have given to us.”Coming in at just under 800 words, Carney’s mandate letter contrasts in potentially interesting ways with the wordier epistles that his predecessor released in 2015. But however succinct, Carney’s letter also still makes clear the sizeable challenges and aims that are now laid out before this new government.The issuing of mandate letters to cabinet ministers is not a new practice. But until Justin Trudeau decided to publicly post a set of letters for his new ministers in November 2015, the memos containing a minister’s official marching orders were kept confidential — seen only by the ministers themselves and a handful of senior civil servants. It has been argued that this practice of officially instructing ministers lost some of its utility once the letters were drafted for public consumption. But Trudeau’s approach still held potential value in terms of both transparency and accountability. WATCH | Prepping for the throne speech:At Issue | Carney sets up throne speech 2 days agoDuration 22:05At Issue this week: Prime Minister Mark Carney sets the stage for a throne speech with a mandate letter outlining tasks and priorities for his cabinet. Canada looks beyond the U.S. for allies. And, Liberal MPs will soon decide whether to give themselves the powers to order leadership reviews.Each of Trudeau’s letters included a lengthy preamble setting out (or advertising, as it were) the government’s stated principles. For each minister, a specific set of tasks was then outlined — essentially a to-do list explaining which policy initiatives the minister was responsible for. For the most part, these items were drawn from commitments in the Liberal party’s campaign platform. The letter issued to the health minister, for instance, contained ten bulleted points, including instructions to pursue new health-care funding agreements with provincial and territorial governments (and what those agreements would ideally include). Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with reporters in Ottawa on Dec. 16, 2015. Trudeau made the unusual move of making the mandate letters to his cabinet public.