Business community eyeing new cabinet for signs Carney is shifting priorities

Hamilton Spectator

12-05-2025

OTTAWA - Canada's business community will be watching Tuesday's cabinet shuffle closely for signs that Prime Minister Mark Carney will be easier to work with than the last Liberal government.
Business leaders say they want the new prime minister to use his cabinet lineup to extend an olive branch to Western Canada and to back up his claim that he wants to build up Canada's energy sector and launch nation-building projects.
Matthew Holmes, head of public policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said he wants to see business and international experience reflected in the new cabinet after Carney vowed to bring about big changes quickly.
'If he's going to do that, who has demonstrated the ability to do that in the past and not get bogged down with a lot of process or nitpicking? We need people who are big thinkers, who are all about delivery and execution,' he said.
Holmes said the business community has been sounding the alarm for many years about Canada's struggles to get major infrastructure projects built — a problem that's coming to a head now due to U.S. President Donald Trump's trade aggression.
'Those sorts of big things that have long tails for the economy, those have been really mired in a slow, sclerotic type of process with lots of redundancy, or argument between the federal government and provincial governments, a lot of opacity or process issues that don't allow the business community to move quickly,' Holmes said.
'At a moment that is really … a crisis moment for the economy, that's when these sorts of decisions come back to haunt you. That's why we're seeing such a focus right now on having a business-focused government.'
Robert Asselin, senior vice president of policy at the Business Council of Canada, also said he'll be looking to see if Carney can hit the reset button on energy and environment, following the prime minister's promises to work more collaboratively with Western provinces.
'For energy and environment, those two portfolios, I think new faces are required, frankly, and people that will reset the tone and the relationships with provinces, but also with the energy sector,' he said. 'That's an important test.'
One way Carney can show he is singularly committed to the economy and trade, he said, is by assembling a lean cabinet.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet ballooned to 40 ministers before he left office. Carney had 24 people in his first cabinet, including himself.
Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs in Ottawa, said the prime minister will have to address a very real source tension as he names his cabinet.
He said that while 'Carney version 1.0' cannot look like a 'retread of Trudeau 3.0,' he also has a number of 'steady hands at the tiller' — ministers in key portfolios who don't need to learn their jobs.
'He's going to have to put a fresh face on the government but keep people who were highly competent around,' Hampson said.
Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly have been the main interlocutors with key figures in the Trump administration, such as U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The government is expected to launch a packed legislative agenda when Parliament returns in two weeks — one that includes a tax cut and attempts to eliminate internal trade barriers. It also has to prepare for some major international diplomatic events that are just around the corner.
The next defence minister will be explaining the pace of Canada's defence spending at the NATO summit in The Hague in June. That same month, Canada hosts the G7 summit in Kananaskis.
Holmes said Carney's choice for the defence portfolio could prove to be a 'sleeper' decision on Tuesday, given the importance of selling the message that Canada is getting serious about its NATO commitments.
'It'll probably be overlooked in picking the bones after everything's revealed, but that one can come back to bite us if that selection isn't done carefully,' he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2025.