These are the Carney cabinet picks that business leaders will be watching

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Tim Hodgson as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

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A new face to cabinet is Tim Hodgson, who was elected for the first time last month as a member of parliament in the Markham-Thornhill riding. Hodgson takes on the energy file at a time when the oil and gas sector has asked Ottawa for a reset to the relationship. Carney has promised to keep the industrial emissions cap, a decision that has angered Alberta and stirred separatist sentiment in the province. Prior to entering politics, Hodgson was chair of Hydro One Limited and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization. Hodgson previously worked as a senior advisor to Carney at the Bank of Canada and was the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Canada from 2005 to 2010. One key priority will be to build a national electricity grid. Carney has promised to prioritize big energy projects and to move them forward in a timely way, but it remains unclear how the new prime minister will balance his government’s climate priorities with the Canadian oil and gas sector’s priorities.

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Melanie Joly as Minister of Industry

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Joly has been moved out of her role as minister of foreign affairs and will take on the industry file, a cabinet post previously held by her colleague Champagne. Joly was first elected in 2015 under Trudeau’s majority government and held a number of cabinet posts including Canadian heritage, economic development, tourism and official languages. Joly’s priorities will probably differ from her predecessor’s, who focused mainly on attracting investments from carmakers around the world to build electric vehicle battery and assembly plants in Canada. Despite these major announcements, one of them hit pause on Tuesday, with Honda announcing a two-year delay on its $15 billion EV investment in Alliston, Ont., which was announced last April. Canada’s investment landscape is expected to take a hit this year, as trade headwinds with the U.S. have many businesses pulling back amid the uncertainty. The trade wars will make Joly’s job more difficult, as Carney’s election platform included a promise to attract more business investment to Canada.

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Maninder Sidhu as Minister of International Trade

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While Sidhu has held more junior positions in cabinet, this is his first appointment as a senior cabinet minister. First elected in 2019, Sidhu has previously served as parliamentary secretary for international development, foreign affairs and international trade. Given the changed trading relationship with the U.S., Carney has promised to diversify Canada’s export markets elsewhere. In addition to CUSMA, Canada holds free trade agreements with countries in Asia and the European Union, but has not struck deals with India, the United Kingdom or the Latin American bloc known as Mercosur, all thought to be potential avenues for trade growth.

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Chrystia Freeland as Minister of Transport and Internal Trade

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Freeland was an important member of Trudeau’s previous cabinets, having previously held positions as minister of foreign affairs, finance and stick-handled the Canada-U.S. trade relationship during the last round of CUSMA negotiations in 2017. This time around, Freeland, a long-time friend of Carney’s, will focus on domestic issues including internal trade. This has become a key policy priority, as a way of countering the impact of U.S. tariffs on Canada’s economy.

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