Introduction

Each section of the “Civil Society Handbook” focuses on a specific international institution and identifies the parts of the Government that are responsible for managing Canada’s relations with that particular institution. This section, however, looks at the Canadian Government’s foreign policy-making process in general and briefly touches upon its key components. This analysis is drawn, in part, from a workshop given by Aaron Freeman, an Ottawa-based public policy consultant and co-author of The Laws of Government: The Legal Foundations of Canadian Democracy.

There are essentially five areas of government that are instrumental to the policy-making process: 1) line departments; 2) the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office; 3) central agencies; 4) Cabinet; and 5) Parliament.  What follows is a discussion of each of these areas with respect to their role in foreign policy decision-making.

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Line Departments

Line departments are government departments, headed by a Minister, that have mandates related to specific areas of federal jurisdiction (see Appendix 1 for a list of line departments).  When it comes to Canada’s voice in the world, one of the most important line departments is Foreign Affairs Canada (FAC), which has general responsibility for managing Canada’s relations with other countries and takes the lead in formulating Canadian foreign policy.  But FAC is not the only line department that is relevant to Canada’s foreign relations, nor is this function limited to the other departments that we are used to thinking of as having an international role, like the Canadian International Development Agency, the Department of National Defence and International Trade Canada.  In fact, a 2003 government study found that 26 departments played an international role or had an interest in Canada’s international relations.^[1]  Surprisingly, many of these departments have signed Memorandums of Understanding with their counterparts in other countries without the knowledge of FAC officials.^[2] 

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The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Privy Council Office

The Prime Minister is supported on a day-to-day basis by staff in two separate bodies – the Prime Minister’s Office, which consists of his/her political and support staff, and the Privy Council Office, which is a branch of the civil service whose job is to offer advice to the Cabinet (and Prime Minister) on policy and operational issues.  One can think of the PMO as the Prime Minister’s top political advisors, and the PCO as his/her top policy advisors.  While they have different roles and provide different kinds of advice, the two offices work very closely together in advising the Prime Minister. 

The Prime Minister’s Office can be seen as an extension of the governing party.  It provides advice from a partisan political perspective, and is mostly concerned with putting out political “fires”.  The Prime Minister and his/her close advisors can only handle one or two in-depth issues at a time, and they don’t usually get deeply involved in an issue unless it is (or has the potential to be) front page news.  While relatively small, the PMO operates with the full power of the Prime Minister behind it, and it may assume control of any issue, in any department, if it deems it to be appropriate.

The Privy Council Office, on the other hand, is non-partisan in theory, though still sensitive to political realities, and provides advice to the Prime Minister based on what it thinks is the best public policy.^[3]  As such, it generally takes a longer-term view, and tends to be more research oriented.  The PCO is generally involved if there is a decision to be made on an issue by Cabinet (for which the PCO is the Secretariat), or if it involves the Prime Minister directly (like meetings with foreign leaders).  The PCO will also get involved if an issue is seen as being of critical importance to the government, or if two or more departments can’t come to agreement on a matter of shared jurisdiction.

The Prime Minister has a personal Foreign Policy Advisor in the PCO at the level of Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (the second-highest rank).  This person heads up the PCO’s Global Affairs and Canada-U.S. Secretariats, provides support to the Prime Minister in his/her dealings with other heads of state or governments, and communicates on behalf of the Prime Minister with foreign government representatives in Canada and officials in foreign leaders’ offices.  While the Foreign Policy Advisor and his/her staff work closely with officials at Foreign Affairs Canada and other departments with international mandates, s/he may also give the Prime Minister independent advice. 

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Central Agencies

Several central agencies maintain an over-arching mandate that affects other departments and agencies (See Appendix 1 for a list of central agencies).  A central agency may carry direct responsibility for a policy file, even in cases where this responsibility would normally fall primarily with a line department. As a result, central agencies can wield tremendous influence and this influence has grown in recent decades.  Central agencies often play an important role in setting the government’s priorities, determining the allocation of resources, settling disputes between ministers, and coordinating the work of line departments.^[4]  They are therefore important to consider when thinking about policy influence because even if a line department favours a particular policy, it is unlikely to prevail if a central agency disagrees (especially where resource questions are involved). 

There are four central agencies in the government of Canada that are particularly influential.  They are the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury Board, the PCO, and Intergovernmental Affairs. The latter is now part of the PCO but has its own Minister.  Much of the government’s agenda is dictated by the annual budget, which is prepared by the Ministry of Finance, with substantial input from the Treasury Board Secretariat on matters of resource allocation.  For example, Finance Canada decides how much of the foreign aid budget (or the Official Development Assistance “envelope”) goes to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and how much of it will be allocated to the Canadian International Development Agency.  Finance (not International Trade Canada) also makes most decisions about tariffs and anti-dumping measures.^[5]  As described above, the PCO serves both as the Cabinet Secretariat and as the Prime Minister’s department.  This proximity to the Prime Minister makes the PCO a particularly powerful central agency.

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The Cabinet

The Prime Minister, the Ministers in charge of the line departments and central agencies, and Ministers with responsibility for other government portfolios collectively, make up the Cabinet (See Appendix 1 for a list of Cabinet members).  Most policy initiatives don’t originate in Cabinet, but they can certainly be stopped there.  Cabinet is the most influential policy decision-making body in the Canadian government, to which all major policy matters are referred for decision.  “Cabinet ministers make decisions together, and bear collective responsibility for them.”^[6]  If a Minister of a line department wants to proceed with a policy or initiative, in most cases s/he has to be able to convince her/his colleagues in Cabinet to support it, or the plan can’t go forward.  Cabinet is chaired by the Prime Minister, who appoints all of the other Ministers and decides how the Cabinet is structured.

As in many executive bodies, a policy proposal is unlikely to win Cabinet approval without the support of the Minister responsible for the area that the policy falls under.  From an organizational management perspective, this makes sense.  After all, the prime minister appoints each minister to look after a particular area, so the default will be for the Prime Minister and his/her Cabinet colleagues to trust the minister’s judgement.  In addition, it is difficult to implement a policy if the person charged with implementing it does not support the direction of that policy.  Winning the support of the relevant minister(s) for a policy is therefore very important from a lobbying perspective. 

Because the Cabinet is quite large (close to 40 people), it is broken up into committees which do most of its work; they look at issues in greater detail and make recommendations for a final decision by the full Cabinet, which typically meets for about two hours per week or less.  A list of these committees and their members is publicly available on the PCO website.^[7]  When it comes to international affairs, most issues are dealt with by the Global Affairs Committee, chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, though there is a separate committee that deals with Canada-U.S. issues, and another that deals with national security and intelligence issues (the Security, Public Health and Emergencies Committee).  Issues that involve Canada making international commitments that will affect domestic policy decisions may appear before other Cabinet committees.  Because the meetings of Cabinet and its Committees, and any documents submitted to them, are secret, it can be difficult to track and influence the Cabinet process, even for Members of Parliament.

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Parliament

The final area of government that is instrumental to the Canadian foreign policy-making process is Parliament.  Parliament includes both the Senate and the House of Commons, although the Senate tends to exercise very little decision-making power.  Aside from the Cabinet, most of the power in the House of Commons is exercised by the caucus of the governing party, consisting of all of the Members of Parliament who belong to that party.  The Prime Minister and his/her caucus exist in a symbiotic (though lop-sided) relationship. The PM needs the support of the caucus in order to govern, and most MPs seek appointments to such positions as committee chairs, parliamentary secretaries, and ultimately to Cabinet – decisions only the Prime Minister can make.  The Prime Minister and Cabinet need the support of the caucus in order to pass bills and caucus members can sometimes use this influence to convince the Cabinet and the Prime Minister to take up certain priorities.

Opposition caucuses do not normally play a significant role in public policy decision-making.  Their influence is largely limited to their ability to garner media attention for an issue, or delay the passage of legislation.  Occasionally, opposition members may team up with governing party MPs on a parliamentary committee to influence policy and/or legislation.  More rarely, an opposition MP (or backbench governing party MP) may pass a private member’s bill, or use the introduction of such a bill to influence government policy.  In a minority parliament, the opposition’s clout is increased somewhat.^[8] 

Perhaps the place where individual MPs have the most influence is in House of Commons committees (see Appendix 2 for a complete list of committees), including the Foreign Affairs Committee, where they have the power to amend legislation.  If the governing party has a majority in the House, the majority of members on each committee will come from the governing party caucus, and party discipline means that voting the party line is the default for these MPs.  From time to time, however, governing party MPs will vote with opposition MPs to amend legislation or make recommendations contrary to Cabinet preferences. 

The relative importance of these five categories of decision-makers, and the way they are organized to deal with foreign policy issues, tends to evolve over time in response to both continuing developments in our system of government and the priorities of the government of the day.  Over the past several years, the Canadian system has evolved to reflect three overarching foreign policy priorities: Canada’s relationship with the United States, national security/emergency preparedness (i.e. response to international terrorism), and “everything else,” including multilateral institutions, trade, international development and defence.  Three new Cabinet committees were created to reflect these priorities (after a decade with no Cabinet committee dedicated specifically to foreign policy), with corresponding changes all the way down the line.  As noted above, a new position of Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister was created in the Privy Council Office, with responsibility for leading the Secretariats that support both the Global Affairs Committee and the Canada-U.S. Committee of the Cabinet.  The Foreign Affairs Department was re-organized as well, with an Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) assigned specific responsibility for North America (giving enhanced profile to the Canada-U.S. relationship), and another ADM responsible for Canada’s relations with all other countries.  Finally, a new department was created for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, along with a corresponding Cabinet Committee and a new position of National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister in the Privy Council Office. 

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Appendix 1: Canada’s Cabinet

Canada’s Cabinet is made up of the Ministers and Ministers of State (less senior ministers) who lead: a) line departments; b) certain agencies that fall under those the line departments; c) central agencies; and d) certain other agencies or offices of government.  The list below reflects the composition of Canada’s Cabinet in July 2005.

Line Departments:

§       Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada -- Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

§       Department of Canadian Heritage -- Minister of Canadian Heritage

o         Office of the Minister of State (Multiculturalism) -- Minister of State (Multiculturalism)

o         Sport Canada -- Minister of State (Sport)

§       Citizenship and Immigration Canada -- Minister of Citizenship and Immigration

§       Environment Canada -- Minister of the Environment

§       Fisheries and Oceans Canada -- Minister of Fisheries and Oceans

§       Foreign Affairs Canada -- Minister of Foreign Affairs

§       Canadian International Development Agency -- Minister for International Cooperation

§       Health Canada -- Minister of Health

o         Public Health Agency of Canada -- Minister of State (Public Health)       

§       Human Resources and Skills Development Canada -- Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development

o         Labour Program & Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation -- Minister of Labour and Housing

o         Office of the Minister of State (Human Resources Development) -- Minister of State (Human Resources Development)

§       Indian and Northern Affairs Canada -- Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

o         Office of the Minister of State (Northern Development) -- Minister of State (Northern Development)

§       Industry Canada -- Minister of Industry

o         Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario -- Minister of State (Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario)

o         Infrastructure Canada -- Minister of State (Infrastructure and Communities)

§       International Trade Canada -- Minister of International Trade

§       Department of Justice -- Minister of Justice

§       Department of National Defence -- Minister of National Defence

§       Natural Resources Canada -- Minister of Natural Resources

§       Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada -- Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

§       Public Works and Government Services Canada -- Minister of Public Works and Government Services

§       Social Development Canada -- Minister of Social Development

o         Office of the Minister of State (Caregivers and Families) -- Minister of State (Caregivers and Families)

§       Transport Canada -- Minister of Transport

§       Veterans Affairs Canada -- Minister of Veterans Affairs

Central Agencies:

§       Privy Council Office -- Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister & President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada

o         Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat -- Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.

§       Department of Finance Canada -- Minister of Finance

§       Treasury Board Secretariat -- President of the Treasury Board

Other Agencies with Cabinet Representation:

§       Canada Revenue Agency -- Minister of National Revenue

§       Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency -- Minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

§       Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec -- Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec

§       Western Economic Diversification Canada -- Minister of Western Economic Diversification

§       a Office of the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons -- Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Office of the Leader of the Government in the Senate -- Leader of the Government in the Senate