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Less than a year after the Liberal caucus decided that senior staffers from the Prime Minister’s Office could not attend confidential weekly meetings, two senior staffers have been invited back at the request of Prime Minister Mark Carney to take notes, say Liberal MPs.
“The decision at the time [June 2025] was simply to make sure that caucus has a healthy space to have that dialogue, and we wanted to make sure that conversations [that] happen within caucus remain in caucus,” a Liberal MP told The Hill Times on a not-for-attribution basis because caucus discussions are confidential.
But the same MP also said, “It’s important to make sure that the prime minister is supported. So, there are a lot of ideas that are discussed in caucus, and we need to make sure that that those are documented. And the prime minister has an opportunity to review and consider those things.”
During then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s 10 years in government, senior PMO staff—including the chief of staff and principal secretary—used to regularly attend caucus meetings. At the time, a number of MPs said they felt that caucus meetings should only be for Members of Parliament, and are a chance for them to have direct access to the prime minister. They were of the view that unelected officials should not attend any of the meetings.
But Trudeau did not change his mind, and senior PMO staff continued attending caucus meetings throughout his tenure as prime minister. The MPs’ main concern was that the senior PMO staff play a key role in high-level decision-making related to MPs’ promotions to the front bench, parliamentary secretary positions, and projects in their ridings, among other things. MPs said that if they were to say anything critical in caucus meetings about the prime minister, his staff, or cabinet ministers’ staff, they worried that it could be held against them.
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After Trudeau’s departure last year, the Liberals elected James Maloney (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont.) as their new national caucus chair. In consultation with Carney (Nepean, Ont.), the caucus decided that staffers would no longer be present in these meetings.
Liberal MP Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre, B.C.), who’s been elected 11 times, told The Hill Times last June that she thought it was a good idea.
“Members are able to speak freely [without PMO staff] because there’s a certain intimidation in staff being there from the PMO. So, people can feel free to say what they have to say [in caucus meetings],” Fry said at the time. The long-time MP, who has been in office since 1993, noted that PMO staffers never attended caucus meetings while then-Liberal prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin were in power.
Following the decision to hold caucus meetings without staff present, Carney took his own notes. After about eight months, he told caucus members through Maloney and other regional caucus chairs that he needed support in note-taking, according to Liberal sources.
Since mid-February, Andrée-Lyne Hallé, deputy chief of staff in the PMO, and director of operations Angad Dhillon have been attending caucus to take notes. Last week, Dhillon was not able to come and Manjeet Vinning, the PMO’s B.C. regional assistant, took notes in his place. All three are well-liked and respected PMO staffers.
Liberal MPs told The Hill Times that having staff support Carney during caucus meetings is needed because MPs from across the country raise a wide range of ideas and issues during these meetings, and the prime minister must be able to follow and process—in real time—what MPs are saying.
“There’s a tremendous amount of volume of work that’s coming his way,” said one MP, referring to Carney. “So, it’s great to have that support. I don’t think there should be anything else further to read into there. … As the work builds, and more and more work files come forward, and it becomes increasingly hard to take all that volume—you need to have that support to make sure things aren’t missed. It’s important. There’s a lot of important ideas that are coming from across the country, from every MP so, that’s very simply, that’s the case. There’s no other real [reason].”
Historically, when staff is not present in caucus meetings, the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister takes notes. While Carney has two parliamentary secretaries—Kody Blois (Kings-Hants, N.S.) and Rachel Bendayan (Outremont, Que.)—he has opted for two staffers to take notes.
Following the March 11 caucus meeting, The Hill Times asked Blois in the West Block why PMO staff are now taking notes during caucus meetings. Blois said, “I’ll leave it up to someone else to decide” who should take notes, before walking away.
The Hill Times asked Bendayan the same question in the West Block, but she walked away without answering.
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon (Gatineau, Que.) declined to comment for this article, saying he does not discuss internal caucus issues.
In a brief telephone interview with The Hill Times, Maloney said: “Whatever happens in caucus is decided by caucus, not by the PMO or anybody else.”
Citing caucus confidentiality, he declined to answer any more questions.
‘What are parliamentary secretaries for?’ ex-MP Wayne Easter
When the House is sitting, party caucuses meet on Wednesday mornings from 10 a.m. until noon behind closed doors. Before the national meetings, regional caucuses meet to discuss issues in their respective provinces.
These meetings allow MPs to share feedback with colleagues from their constituents about party policies, and to co-ordinate legislative and political strategies.
In addition, the national caucuses hold retreats in different regions of the country during the summer and at the beginning of each parliamentary sitting to plot long-term strategy.
For incumbent government caucuses, these retreats include presentations from individual cabinet ministers on their respective departments’ legislative agendas, as well as briefings from party headquarters on fundraising, polling, and election readiness.
The weekly meetings and the regional retreats are always meant to be only for parliamentarians. The Conservatives’ weekly meetings include their affiliated Senators. No other federal party has members in the Red Chamber.
Former eight-term Liberal MP Wayne Easter told The Hill Times last week that it is the responsibility of the prime minister’s parliamentary secretaries to take notes during national caucus meetings, and that staff members should not be performing this task.
“What are parliamentary secretaries for?” Easter said last week. “That’s the parliamentary secretaries’ job. You don’t need PMO staff in the caucus room. That’s a huge mistake. We’re consistently seeing PMOs, [and] opposition leaders’ offices as well, getting more power around themselves. They forget about caucus members. A huge mistake, from my point of view.”
Joe Jordan, former parliamentary secretary to then-prime minister Chrétien, said that it was his responsibility during caucus meetings to take detailed notes. He said that after each meeting, he would meet with then-PMO chief of staff Jean Pelletier to brief him on the key themes emerging from MPs’ concerns, and any specific issues they had raised. Every couple of weeks, he would also follow up with the chief of staff to find out what action had been taken on matters raised by the caucus.
Jordan added that Chrétien used to take attendance of cabinet ministers at these meetings, and if someone was absent, his staff would look into the reason.
“If a cabinet minister wasn’t at caucus, then they were contacted right after. And the question was, why weren’t they there? [Chrétien] was adamant that that’s the most important day of the week,” Jordan said.
arana@hilltimes.com
The Hill Times
