Canada. Ministry of State for Economic Development : In November, 1978, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced the establishment of a Board of Economic Development Ministers with a budget of several hundred million dollars. (The legal basis for the Ministry came from Proclamation PC 1978-3803 under the Ministries and Ministers of State Act (RSC 1985, cM-8)) The President, the Honourable Robert Andras, was given broad powers and functions in resource allocation and coordination. Andras was to lead the board and the new Ministry of State for Economic Development (MSED), with MSED essentially serving as the secretariat for the new board. The Ministers of Industry, Trade and Commerce; Employment and Immigration; Regional Economic Expansion; Energy, Mines and Resources (and Science and Technology); Labour and Small Business and Tourism were also members of the Board.
MSED also served as a policy secretariat (and the Minister served as the Chair) for the Cabinet Committee on Economic Development. In this role, MSED, in coalition with the Privy Council Office and various economic development departments, assisted in the preparation and organization of economic development priorities. The department was also responsible for reviewing and reporting regularly on the status of the economic development budget so that the Committee of Ministers would be informed of the resources available to support and promote Canadian economic development priorities. The committee members included (but were not limited to) the following departmental ministers: Energy, Mines and Resources; Finance; Transport; Indian and Northern Affairs; Industry, Trade and Commerce; Agriculture; Consumer and Corporate Affairs; Fisheries and Oceans; Regional Economic Expansion; Canadian Wheat Board; Labour; Treasury Board; Small Business and Tourism; Employment and Immigration and the Leader of the Government in the Senate.
In 1979, the Federal Government adopted two fundamental reforms with regards to expenditure management - the preparation and publication of a longer-term fiscal plan encompassing government revenues and expenditures over a five-year period and the establishment of specific expenditure limits for policy sectors and assignment of the responsibility for managing a particular policy sector's resources within the established limits to the appropriate policy committee of Cabinet. Each policy committee was responsible for the allocation of resources within its policy area (or `envelope'), subject to the limit established and providing the allocations were in keeping with established general objectives and priorities. The goal of this change was to fully integrate into a single process the separate functions of setting government priorities, establishing spending limits and making specific expenditure decisions. However, the most significant effect was to allow Ministers working in the same policy area to collectively consider policy initiatives, trade-offs and the spending implications of their decisions. The economic development envelope (for which MSED was a key player because of its role in the Cabinet Committee on Economic Development) consisted of the expenditure budgets, for all programs, of: the Department of Agriculture (including Canadian Dairy Commission, Canadian Livestock Feed Board and the Farm Credit Corporation); Department of Communications (including Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission); Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs; Ministry of State for Economic Development (including Northern Pipeline Agency); Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (including Atomic Energy Control Board, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, National Energy Board and Petro-Canada); Department of Fisheries and Oceans; Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce (including Canadian Commercial Corporation, Export Development Corporation, Federal Business Development Bank, Foreign Investment Review Agency and the Standards Council of Canada); Department of Labour; Department of Regional Economic Expansion (including Cape Breton Development Corporation); Ministry of State for Science and Technology (including National Research Council of Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Science Council of Canada) and the Department of Transport (including Air Canada, Canadian National Railways and the Canadian Transport Commission). Selected programs of the Department of Employment and Immigration (activities of the Canada Employment and Immigration Commission relating to job creation and employment services); Department of the Environment (Forestry); Department of Public Works (Public Works Land Co Ltd); Department of Supply and Services (unsolicited R&D proposals) and Treasury Board (Special Employment Programs) were also included in the envelope.
The mandate of MSED was to: formulate, develop, evaluate and coordinate new and comprehensive policies in relation to the programs and activities of the government that directly support Canadian economic development; promote cooperative relationships with provinces, business and labour and other public and private organizations for the development of the economy; advise on the allocation of financial, personnel and other resources to federal programs that directly support economic development and develop mechanisms to improve and to integrate the delivery of economic development programs at the local or regional level.
Within this mandate, MSED performed functions other than the previously mentioned Committee/Board work, including participation in a special ad hoc Committee which prepared a strategic framework entitled "Economic Development for Canada in the 1980s". This document was made public in November, 1981. The Ministry also frequently communicated with other levels of government and private industry on various matters of interest.
Leadership of the Ministry changed regularly with Senator Robert de Cotret appointed Minister on 4 June, 1979, Senator HA (Bud) Olson appointed on 3 March, 1980 and Donald J Johnston appointed on 30 September 1982.
Reporting to the Minister of State for Economic Development was a Secretary who lead the Ministry and who served as the chair of the Committee of Economic Development Deputy Ministers (this committee considered issues which were under preparation for consideration by Ministers). The organization of the department varied slightly over its history, although branches responsible for Policy, Operations and Communications were the norm.
In January, 1982, Trudeau re-organized the government in an effort to increase the regional sensitivity of the Federal economic development policy-making and program delivery. The name of the Ministry was changed to Ministry of State for Economic and Regional Development (MSERD) following the proclamation of the Government Organization Act, 1983, in December 1983.
