OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave his ministers their orders in mandate letters released Thursday, and each of them is shot through with green.

In the letters, Trudeau writes that fighting the pandemic is Job One—but after that, climate change.

“The science is clear. Canadians have been clear. We must not only continue taking real climate action, we must also move faster and go further,” the prime minister wrote. “As Canadians are increasingly experiencing across the country, climate change is an existential threat.”

The letters contain instructions to multiple ministers about executing a transition to a greener economy, and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson is specifically told to “prioritize moving forward with legislation and comprehensive action to achieve a Just Transition” that works for people in all parts of the country.

(Trudeau notably does not tell Wilkinson anything about petroleum pipelines—even the Trans Mountain project the federal government bought and that Trudeau vowed to see completed.)

“Our platform lays out an ambitious agenda,” the letters say. “While finishing the fight against the pandemic must remain our central focus, we must continue building a strong middle class and work toward a better future where everyone has a real and fair chance at success and no one is left behind.”

Here’s what the mandate letters say about matters important to the innovation economy.

A greener Canada

Watch these people: Jonathan Wilkinson (Natural Resources); Steven Guilbeault (Environment); François-Philippe Champagne (Innovation); Dominic LeBlanc (Infrastructure)

Wilkinson and Guilbeault, his successor in the environment portfolio, have intimidating to-do lists. The Liberals have promised to slash Canada’s emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, and it’s their shared job to make it happen. Wilkinson is charged with laying the groundwork for a pan-Canadian energy grid, getting 50,000 new vehicle chargers and hydrogen stations installed, helping develop model building codes for emissions-free structures, and finishing a national flood-mapping project. For starters.

He and Champagne are to collaborate on a critical-minerals strategy. The Liberals’ re-election platform focused on the minerals needed for electric-vehicle batteries, but Wilkinson’s mandate letter is not so focused—it talks about the broader need to “supply the green and digitized economy and improve critical-minerals supply-chain resiliency in collaboration with key trading partners, positioning Canada as the leading mining nation.”

But they’re to work on batteries, too, filling gaps in Canada’s capacity to do everything from mining the raw materials to finishing the vehicles into which they’re to be installed. They’re also told to work together on the government’s Net Zero Accelerator, an $8-billion offshoot of Ottawa’s flagship Strategic Innovation Fund focused on reducing industrial emissions via subsidies and R&D. The Liberals have already begun distributing the green cash, to steelmakers, helicopter firms and carbon-capture companies.

And Trudeau wants multiple ministers working on a “buy clean” strategy that will prioritize materials for infrastructure projects that are made in Canada and use low-carbon processes.

Guilbeault has a task not included in the Liberal platform. That document talked about the importance of factoring climate considerations into financial standards and about issuing green bonds, but Guilbeault’s mandate letter tells him to work with International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan “to mobilize and provide climate finance in order to support developing-country adaptation, mitigation and resilience, including support for small island states at particular risk of climate-related emergencies.”

Trudeau’s friend Dominic LeBlanc, who is in charge of both intergovernmental affairs and infrastructure, is to keep good relations with the provinces and territories as his first duty. But after that, Nos. 2 and 3 on his list are to focus “on the successful and timely delivery of our growth-generating investments in public transit and green and social infrastructure,” and to “shape a clear path forward for the Atlantic Loop initiative”—a scheme to link the power grids of the Atlantic provinces so hydro dams in Quebec and Labrador can displace fossil-fuel power.

And Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has instructions to get on with the procurements needed to start building high-frequency rail between the Greater Toronto Area and Quebec City.

Digital policy

Watch these people: François-Philippe Champagne (Innovation); Pablo Rodriguez (Heritage); David Lametti (Justice); Marco Mendicino (Public Safety)

After forming government in October 2015, the Liberals spent their first mandate establishing billions of dollars worth of business-support programs and re-orienting existing agencies to focus on scaling up small firms. Technology-related legislation and regulation was meant to be a major focus of their second term following their October 2019 re-election, but they failed to pass any of those bills before calling this summer’s vote.

On Thursday, Trudeau ordered his ministers back into the parliamentary fray. 

Bill C-11 would have overhauled Canada’s 20-year-old privacy law, and implemented the Liberal government’s digital charter of high-level principles for rule-making in the internet era. Earlier this month, Champagne told The Logic that introducing amended legislation was his “top priority,” and that he planned to do so next year. It’s listed third in his mandate letter. 

Trudeau also instructs the innovation minister to set up a “digital-policy task force” that will coordinate work across the government on emerging technologies and other digital issues, echoing a Liberal platform promise, which said it would be staffed by “industry experts, academia, and government” and focus on “data and privacy rights, taxation, online violent extremism, the ethical use of new technologies and the future of work.” 

Champagne’s marching orders include “a broad review of the current legislative and structural elements that may restrict or hinder competition,” including the competition commissioner’s mandate. Current commissioner Matthew Boswell has called for a reevaluation of the federal law, particularly as other countries update their antitrust regimes to keep pace with the digital economy. Champagne recently told The Logic he’s open to suggestions on competition policy, but wouldn’t commit to legislate on the issue.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, is tasked with reintroducing legislation to “reform” broadcasting laws “to ensure foreign web giants contribute to the creation and promotion of Canadian stories and music.” Opposition MPs, large tech firms and some policy experts criticized Bill C-10, the Liberal government’s last attempt, for giving the CRTC’s oversight of platforms that host user-generated content.

Domestic and international digital rights groups were even less welcoming of the government’s proposals to combat “online harms” like hate, terrorist content and non-consensual sharing of sexual images. They described the measures as “unworkable,” saying they would mimic and reinforce the worst practices of more authoritarian regimes in other countries.

Rodriguez and Lametti are instructed to introduce legislation “as soon as possible to combat serious forms of harmful online content” and hold online platforms “accountable for the content they host.” But their mandate letters acknowledge the criticism, noting that the rules “should be reflective of the feedback received during the recent consultations.”  

And Rodriguez is to “swiftly” propose a system to require digital platforms to “share a portion of their revenues with Canadian news outlets,” inspired by Australia’s model, “in early 2022.” The Liberal platform promised the broadcasting, online harms and news-funding bills within the government’s first 100 days, which, measured from the day he was sworn into the gig, gives the minister till Feb. 3.

Several ministers are tasked with measures to protect Canadian companies and IP from international interference and espionage. Mendicino’s letter includes instructions to bring in “legislation to safeguard Canada’s critical infrastructure, including our 5G networks, to preserve the integrity and security of our telecommunications systems,” suggesting the federal security review of next-generation wireless technology and the risks of allowing China’s Huawei to sell its gear here might be reaching a conclusion.

Champagne’s role involves “modernizing” the country’s foreign-investment law to “better ​​identify and mitigate economic security threats.” And he’s to team up with Mendicino to “safeguard Canada’s world-leading research ecosystem, as well as our [IP] intensive businesses.” Some of this work is already underway. Earlier this year, Ottawa signalled it will particularly scrutinize deals that involve emerging technologies, and weigh national security considerations in federal research funding. And Mendicino’s department has consulted on new foreign-investment rules and export controls. 

Support for innovators

Watch these people: Champagne (Innovation); Chrystia Freeland (Finance); Mary Ng (International Trade); Jean-Yves Duclos (Health)

Champagne’s to-do list includes implementing national strategies for emerging technology fields that the Liberals proposed in April’s federal budget, among them a renewed plan for AI and a new one for quantum. 

His mandate letter also calls for a Canadian version of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which the document describes as the centre of a “new approach to support high-risk/high-reward transformative research and development to unleash bold new research ideas [and] drive technological breakthroughs,” among other objectives. The Liberal platform promised $2 billion for the new entity. Champagne is also to work with Duclos on updating the federal granting councils.

Freeland’s economic tasks are many, but innovation-economy stakeholders will be watching one in particular: Her letter instructs her to “reform the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Program” (SR&ED), including cutting paperwork, aligning qualifying expenses with “today’s innovation and R&D” and making the incentive “more generous for companies that take the biggest risks.” Tech founders have long called for an overhaul of the program, Ottawa’s biggest annual R&D expense.

In a nod to the growing importance of intangible assets, Freeland is also instructed to amend income-tax rules to allow private domestic firms “to expense up to $1.5 million of growth-enhancing investments, such as software, patents and machinery.”

Ng, meanwhile, is tasked with rolling out the Canada Digital Adoption Program, $4 billion worth of measures in the April budget designed to help get small businesses online. But her letter doesn’t mention reviewing the mandate of the Business Development Bank of Canada, a process that’s required by law but which the government has yet to formally initiate. The agency, a major loan-provider and investor in the innovation economy, faces increasing private-sector competition and questions over its purpose.