Are you curious about historic federal Cabinet discussions? Did you ever wonder what happened behind those closed doors? Find out more by using our Cabinet Conclusions database.

Here are some examples:

• Discussion of oil prices on November 27, 1973
• Debate on December 21, 1957, on whether the government should hire management consultants to review certain departmental operations
• Decision to terminate the development of the Avro Arrow aircraft on February 17, 1959
• Discussion from December 10, 1952, on how many immigrants to Canada should be allowed in 1953

Cabinet Conclusions is a research tool that provides a record of the discussions that took place at federal Cabinet meetings for the years 1944–1976. Although they are not a verbatim transcript, the Cabinet Conclusions are the only official record of these Cabinet meetings.

For each meeting of Cabinet, the Clerk of the Privy Council prepared a summary of the discussions, a list of the officials who attended the meeting and an agenda. The summary can be very short or can cover several pages. The Cabinet Conclusions database does not include Cabinet Documents.

This research tool has a Search Help section that contains many useful search tips plus helpful background information on Cabinet and their records.

You may notice that the majority of the documents are in English, as this was the primary working language of the federal government at the time. For Cabinet Conclusions from 1944–1969, you can only search using English terms. For Cabinet Conclusions from 1970–1976, you can search using either French or English; however, the documents are usually only available in English.

Did you know?

• The Privy Council Office only began to record Cabinet Conclusions in 1944. Prior to 1944, there were no formal records of Cabinet.
• The Privy Council Office still holds the Cabinet Conclusions from 1977 onwards.

Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you!