The Economic Council of Canada (originally the National Productivity Council) is a former Crown corporation that was owned by the Government of Canada and was established in 1963 under the Economic Council of Canada Act. When the Council made recommendations on policy, it did so on the basis of an internal consensus of its membership that the analysis underpinning the policy advice was valid and that the policy prescription followed from this analysis. To this, its role was to conduct a wide range of economic and policy research for the federal government.