Privy Council Office Publishes Mandate Letter for National Security and Intelligence Advisor

Ottawa, Ontario, November 25, 2024 – Today, the Privy Council Office published the official Mandate Letter for the National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) to the Prime Minister.

Canada continues to face serious threats to our safety and security, economic interests, and the integrity of our democratic institutions. The role of NSIA to the Prime Minister is critical to achieving the objectives of a better understanding of these threats, and a more coordinated management and response to them.

The NSIA mandate letter comes at time when Canada and the world are facing rising global instability, conflict, and rapidly evolving threat environments. More than ever we need strong and close coordination between our national security and intelligence departments and agencies. The mandate letter serves as an important authority and accountability measure.

While Canada has always had a robust national security and intelligence framework, this mandate letter helps further define the priorities for Canada in this domain.

The letter outlines key priorities for the NSIA, including: leading efforts to deliver a renewed National Security Strategy; continuing engagements with allies and international partners to reinforce Canada’s strengths as an effective and credible partner globally on issues of national security, intelligence, foreign, and defence policy; exploring new, modern, bilateral, and multilateral partnerships to maximize Canada’s influence on the world stage; leading a refreshed annual process to establish Canada’s intelligence priorities and communicating these priorities publicly; and working with the national security community to deepen Canadians’ trust in our democratic institutions and processes all aimed at keeping Canada and Canadians safe and secure.