Questions linger about duties of incoming national security and intelligence adviser

David Morrison, deputy minister of foreign affairs, appears as a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa, on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA — As Canada’s national security and intelligence adviser prepares to leave her post, there are questions about the exact role her apparent successor will play.

Early this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that David Morrison, currently deputy minister of foreign affairs, would become his senior diplomatic and international affairs adviser and his representative for the G7 and G20 summits.

Carney said Dominic Rochon, now chief information officer of Canada, would be deputy secretary to the cabinet for national security and intelligence.

The national security adviser, Nathalie Drouin, begins her new role as ambassador to France and Monaco on March 23.

It briefly seemed the national security adviser’s post had disappeared in the shuffle, but the Privy Council Office subsequently said Morrison would also take on that job.

But PCO has not yet answered questions about Morrison’s duties — such as whether he will be secretary to the national security council, take the reins on drafting a promised new national security strategy or head up the government’s intelligence priority setting process.

PCO spokesman Pierre-Alain Bujold said Morrison will “ensure close collaboration with international partners.”

Rochon, meanwhile, will be responsible for ensuring Canada’s security and intelligence strategies and processes “are resilient and capable of meeting our security requirements in a changing world,” Bujold said. “He will also be responsible for domestic security issues.”

The appointments reflect the government’s increased focus on issues of national and international security, Bujold added.

He did not immediately say whether mandate letters spelling out Carney’s expectations would be issued to Morrison or Rochon.

In November 2024, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau sent Drouin a letter directing her to develop a renewed national security strategy that sets out a framework for Canada’s security, defence and diplomatic posture.

That new strategy has yet to appear.

The mandate letter said discussions on foreign interference reaffirmed the need for a stronger, more clearly articulated role for the national security adviser.

“Enhancing your role will help ensure the right information and intelligence gets to the right people at the right time, and that decision-makers are given actionable options and advice,” it said.

Trudeau said he also expected Drouin to co-ordinate the national security community, help foster transparency and discussion with Canadians, serve as secretary to the national security council — a key cabinet committee — and lead an annual process to establish Canada’s intelligence priorities.

Wesley Wark, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said if Morrison is indeed the official national security and intelligence adviser, it would be “very useful to have an updated mandate letter to know whether or not the duties of the job remain the same, alongside his other positions.”

Wark said it was “potentially dangerous” to mix the duties of a national security adviser with those of a foreign policy adviser — as the government is doing with Morrison — given the inherent tensions.

“If the intelligence piece doesn’t align with the desired policy with regard to foreign affairs or defence, who is meant to manage potential friction across those files?”

Wark said he is also eager to see how the PCO is going to be reorganized to support the work of Morrison and Rochon.

“The capabilities behind these roles really depend on the sort of expert advice and resources that support them, and we just don’t know anything about that,” he said.

In October 2024, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, a watchdog body composed of security-cleared MPs and senators, said it would review the role of the national security and intelligence adviser, including how it has changed since its inception in 2003.

A public version of the report has not yet been released.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2026.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press