Minister of Industry (Canada)


The minister of industry is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet responsible for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and several other agencies. The incumbent also serves as the registrar general of Canada
Mélanie Joly has been the minister of industry since May 13, 2025.

Portfolio organizations

In addition to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the minister of industry is responsible for:

First century of Canada

The office of the registrar general of Canada has traditionally been associated with the responsibility of overseeing corporate affairs, by virtue of its function in registering all letters patent. From Confederation to 1966, the secretary of state for Canada was the registrar general. Between 1966 and 1995, the office was held by the minister of consumer and corporate affairs.
The National Research Council of Canada was established in 1916, under the pressure of World War I, to advise the government on matters of science and industrial research. In 1932, laboratories were built on Sussex Drive in Ottawa.
The economic development function of the portfolio can be traced from the office of the minister of trade and commerce, which was created in 1892. The post of minister of industry briefly existed, between 1963 and 1969, as a successor to the post of minister of defence production. It was merged with the trade and commerce portfolio in 1969. The post of minister of industry, trade and commerce existed between 1969 and 1983. During that time, separate posts of minister of regional economic expansion and minister of regional industrial expansion also existed. In 1990, the post of minister of industry, science and technology was created.
University funding was a problem for the government of Canada over the first three-quarters of the 20th century. In 1967 the passage of the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act replaced the policy of direct federal grants to the universities with a system of transfers to the provincial governments to support the operating costs of universities, which are a provincial responsibility under the 1867 British North America Act.
Over the course of seven years, from 1970, the so-called Lamontagne Report on A Science Policy for Canada detailed the work of the Senate Special Committee on Science Policy. Several avenues were investigated by the Canadian Cabinet, including the nomination of the Royal Society of Canada as the exclusive distributor of federal "governmental science and technology contract services" funds for post-secondary education, in a "national academy of science" type arrangement but this avenue was rejected because of the provincial responsibility factor.

1977 GOSA Act

In 1977 the funding of university research in Canada was formally separated from the NRC, under the Established Programs Financing Act and the Government Organization Act, 1976. Several legally-distinct bodies were created to disburse federal government monies: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the National Research Council, the Defence Research Board, the Medical Research Council and the National Library of Canada each nurture the related trade. Of these bodies, the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth report to the minister of innovation. The government provides subsidy and the scientists look after the details. The first, third and sixth bodies are sometimes collectively referred to as the "Tri-Council" or "Tri-Agency". The effect of the GOSA Act was dramatic, as reported by Rogers and McLean: "since 1979-80, federal support for self-initiated, non-contractual research in education has increased from C$126,000 to more than C$1.7 million" in 1986.
The present system grants directly to faculty members for research projects under such policies as the Canada Research Chair programme, and provides capital funds on a "shared-cost basis" for large infrastructure projects, such as buildings or laboratories. Fisher and Rubenson write that "both types of funding are disbursed by federal granting agencies on a competitive basis and awarded in accordance with federal criteria, which includes merit and national interests", observance of human rights and the general direction of state. "Furthermore, these policy decisions are set within a science and technology policy that emerged from competing definitions of science, utility, and the "public good". At the policy level, the interests of capital are privileged under the guise of serving the national interest."
From 1993 to 1995, a single minister was styled as minister of industry while concurrently holding the posts of industry, science and technology, and of consumer and corporate affairs, pending a government restructuring. The post of minister of industry was formally created in 1995 under the direction of John Manley.

Since 2000

On 4 November 2015 the office was renamed in the 29th Canadian Ministry of Justin Trudeau. The name of the office was changed back with the swearing-in of the cabinet of Mark Carney on 13 May 2025 after the 2025 Canadian federal election.

List of ministers

Preceding offices

Economic development, industry, science
Corporate affairs
;Key

Critics