Trudeau is striking a new National Security Council, but what will it do?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the newly-announced National Security Council will be in charge of "overseeing" and setting the "strategic direction" for emerging challenges Canada is "increasingly facing."

Following Wednesday's shuffle, the Prime Minister's Office revealed that alongside coming changes to the makeup of current cabinet committees, they would be striking a new "National Security Council" and announcing its membership "in the coming weeks."

In a statement to media, PMO press secretary Alison Murphy described this council as "a new forum for ministers to deliberate on and address issues of pressing concern to Canada's domestic and international security."

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Asked for more information about why the cabinet-level council was needed, and what exactly the National Security Council's role will be—in contrast to existing government entities who work in this space— the prime minister was scant on details, but pledged more will be revealed once it's struck.

"It is an additional tool on top of the other ones we have, and we're very excited about presenting [it] to Canadians," Trudeau said. "We're working right now, and will be making an announcement in the coming weeks about how it's going to work."

The decision to strike this new panel now comes amid months of scrutiny on the federal government's handling of foreign interference allegations, and a series of stories and learnings at committee about federal security and intelligence organizations facing challenges in keeping up with emerging threats and communicating about them between agencies.

The prime minister indicated this council is a way the government intends to strengthen its capacity to respond to national security concerns, after taking the step of striking the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) in 2017. 

"We know there have been real challenges, increasingly from foreign states who want to destabilize our democracies, from internal actors who are trying to sow chaos," he said.

"One of the big debates we had when we replaced the Conservative government of Stephen Harper was the need to put parliamentarians in charge of overseeing our national security agencies… where parliamentarians from every party get to come together and see everything that our top national security agencies, all our national agencies are doing," Trudeau said.

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However, as NSICOP flagged in its latest annual report, as a key body tasked with performing this important oversight function—now actively reviewing five years on it is still experiencing significant hurdles accessing information from various government departments.

"Some departments selectively refused to provide information even though the information fell within a request for information from the committee," the report states. "In several cases, the committee came across the information later or through other sources, such as subsequent media reporting based on information disclosed by those very departments under the Access to Information Act," read NSICOP's recent report.

The government has also yet to move on a public inquiry into foreign interference, with now-Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions, and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc telling reporters in a post-shuffle scrum that talks are continuing between the Liberals and opposition parties on what a further public process could look like.

"I'm confident that my conversations with opposition counterparts will take an important step forward in strengthening Canada's democracy and democratic institutions, and we'll have more to say about that at the right moment."