New Canadian PM Mark Carney forms government, with minister of government transformation among appointments
Mark Carney – the former public servant who served both the Department of Finance and central bank in Canada and was governor of the Bank of England in the UK – formed his first government on Friday.
Announcing what the government called a “leaner, focused cabinet”, top appointments include François-Philippe Champagne being named minister of finance, Ginette Petitpas Taylor becoming president of the Treasury Board, and Ali Ehsassi, being named minister of government transformation, public services and procurement. The latter post was previously known as minister of public services and procurement, but Ehsassi will also be tasked with driving government transformation.
Chrystia Freeland, who resigned from government last December citing policy disagreements with then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and who lost out to Carney to replace him, has been named minister of transport and internal trade.
Other appointments include Dominic LeBlanc, minister of international trade and intergovernmental affairs and president of the King’s Privy Council for Canada; Mélanie Joly, minister of foreign affairs and international development; and Anita Anand, minister of innovation, science and industry.
Anita Anand moves from her role as president of the Treasury Board, in which capacity she spoke at Global Government Forum’s AccelerateGOV conference in Ottawa last year, where she set out three pillars of transformation.
“We need to talk about people, we need to talk about policy, and we need to talk about the accompanying technology,” she explained.
Read more: Canadian minister signals push for cybersecurity and digital credentials
Carney reaffirms Canada’s sovereignty and pledges to strengthen ties with allies
Carney comes to the post of prime minister at a time of growing tensions between the US and Canada. US president Donald Trump has said that he wants Canada to become a state of the US, but Carney said that he would focus on what matters to Canadians: “Creating more higher-paying jobs, building new trade relationships with reliable partners, and making Canada more secure.”
Carney therefore announced that he would undertake an international trip to France and the UK this week, with the aim of strengthening economic and security partnerships, followed by a visit to Iqaluit, Nunavut, on March 18 to reassert Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic.
Carney said: “Canada was built upon a union of peoples – Indigenous, French, and British. My visit to France and the United Kingdom will strengthen trade, commercial, and defence ties with two of our strongest and most reliable partners, and my visit to Nunavut will be an opportunity to bolster Canada’s Arctic sovereignty and security, and our plan to unlock the North’s full economic potential.”
Carney cans Canada carbon tax
Also among Carney’s first moves as prime minister was a decision to scrap the consumer carbon tax. Carney announced that the fuel charge be removed effective April 1 and that April’s carbon rebates go ahead as planned.
“This will make a difference to hard-pressed Canadians, but it is part of a much bigger set of measures that this government is taking to ensure that we fight against climate change, that our companies are competitive and the country moves forward,” Carney said in front of cameras that were allowed into the cabinet meeting room.
There are two systems for pricing carbon in Canada: the fuel charge applied to consumers, and another system applied to industrial emitters. Carney has now ended the consumer levy, which comes after provincial premiers told his predessor prime minister Justin Trudeau to pause or cancel the levy.~
Speakinbg last week, Carney said hisgovernment is “focused on action.”
“We will be eliminating the Canada fuel charge, the consumer fuel charge, immediately, immediately,” he said.
In his leadership campaign, Carney said that he would cancel the tax, stating that the consumer carbon tax wasn’t working and had become too divisive.
In the campaign, he said that he would immediately remove the consumer carbon tax and instead, create a system of incentives to reward Canadians for making greener choices.
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