Prime Minister Mark Carney retooled an advisory committee on Canada-U.S. trade on Tuesday, adding a former Conservative leader and the former high commissioner to the United Kingdom to the team.
The committee replaces the Council on Canada-U.S. Relations that was established by former prime minister Justin Trudeau in January 2025. Carney has renamed it the Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations and has added several high-profile names.
They include former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole, former Liberal cabinet minister and high commissioner to the U.K. Ralph Goodale, former Conservative cabinet minister Lisa Raitt and former Nunavut premier P.J. Akeeagok.
Among the names retained from the original Trudeau committee are former Quebec premier Jean Charest, Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association president Flavio Volpe and Unifor president Lana Payne.
"It's a diverse group — leaders in the union movement, experts in industry, CEOs in finance and across the economy," Carney said in a brief statement as he arrived on Parliament Hill Tuesday.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, will chair the new committee.
"It's very much focused on businesses that have important relations with American customers, American business partners. I'm looking forward to the first meeting next week," LeBlanc said on his way into a cabinet meeting Tuesday.
"I have spoken to a number of these people over the last number of days. This will be a forum for the government of Canada to hear directly from business leaders, elected union leaders and community leaders."
Carney said the council will advise him, LeBlanc and the rest of the negotiating team as Canada prepares for the review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on trade this June.
Raitt said she's looking forward to working with Janice Charette, Canada's chief trade negotiator with the U.S., and is optimistic about the government taking the committee's advice.
"When you're asked to sit on a committee like this, you often wonder, 'Are they really going to take my advice?' or, 'Are they're really going to hear it?' I have no control about whether or not my advice is taken, but I do think that they're going listen and I think that's a really good sign," she said in an interview.
The Stephen Harper-era cabinet minister, who is now a CIBC investment executive, said she only learned of the other names on the committee when they were announced publicly Tuesday morning.
Raitt said the business leaders on the committee are well positioned to explain the on-the-ground effects of American tariffs on the Canadian economy.
Carney released a video Sunday morning in which he pledged to "never sugar-coat" the challenges Canada faces in its relationship with U.S., and argued that connection has become a source of "weakness."
Raitt said that while she will leave politics to the politicians, she still wants to see a positive relationship with the United States.
"'I'm very much on the page of co-operating with the United States and maintaining a positive relationship, because I think it's important for our country," she said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters Tuesday that Canada should head into the trade talks by pushing to create a strategic mineral and oil reserve to pressure the U.S. to maintain tariff-free market access.
"That is the leverage we have, and frankly, something that Prime Minister Carney should have been doing a year ago is making that point," Poilievre said.
"But in fact, he has squandered our leverage. All the leverage he had going in, he squandered by backing down on everything while getting nothing in return."
Poilievre criticized Carney for not yet approving a new oil pipeline, for failing to end government policies he said stifle energy investment, and for not speeding up mining project approvals.
Carney's revamped committee has more top-level business executives than the previous version.
The new group includes presidents and CEOs of major Canadian energy, resource, forestry and transportation companies. They include the heads of CN Rail, the Bank of Montreal, Nutrien, TC Energy, Canfor and Teck Resources, among others.
The list covers major Canadian industries exposed to U.S. tariffs.
Candace Laing, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and Tabitha Bull, CEO of the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business, have been appointed to the committee as representatives of broader business groups.
Cameron Bailey, CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival, has been added as a representative of Canada's cultural sector.
Some names from Trudeau's committee that have been dropped include former Alberta premier Rachel Notley and "Dragon's Den" fixtures Arlene Dickinson and Wes Hall.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Stephen MacGillivray
