New Ministers in Health, Environment and Foreign Affairs
Prime Minister Trudeau has undertaken a significant shuffle of his cabinet following October’s federal election. Of specific interest to our industry, we now have new Ministers in the key portfolios of Health, Environment & Climate Change, and Foreign Affairs. Mary Ng, who was first elected to Parliament in a recent by-election from the cosmetic industry hub of Markham, Ontario, will continue as Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade.
Our new Ministers are:
- Health – Patty Hajdu from Thunder Bay-Superior North in Ontario was formerly Minister of Labour and Status of Women. She has a long history of working in various aspects of social services in her home-town of Thunder Bay including running that city’s largest homeless shelter before her election in 2015. She also has a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Victoria.
- Environment & Climate Change – Jonathon Wilkinson from North Vancouver was formerly the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Before his election in 2015 he spent 20+ years as a senior business leader and executive in the energy and environmental technology sectors. A Rhodes Scholar, Jonathan holds Masters Degrees from Oxford University and McGill University. Early in his career, he worked as a constitutional negotiator and a federal-provincial relations specialist.
- Foreign Affairs – Francois-Phillippe Champagne from Saint-Maurice – Champlain in Quebec has formerly served as Minister of International Trade and more recently as Infrastructure Minister. He is a lawyer by profession including serving as VP and senior counsel of the ABB Group and later strategic development director of Amec PLC where he was designated in 2008 as a “young global leader” by the World Economic Forum. He studied law at both the Universite de Monteal and Case Western Reserve University.
Chrystia Freeland, who was so very instrumental in the re-negotiation of NAFTA, has been moved from Foreign Affairs to become Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs – key positions in managing the federal government’s relationships with the provinces which is likely to dominate the political agenda in the days ahead. Catherine McKenna has been moved from Environment and Climate Change to Infrastructure, while former Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor becomes the Deputy Government Whip. Cosmetics Alliance Canada would like to thank all three of these Ministers and their staff for their efforts and cooperative working relationships with our association during their tenure in these offices, as well as to wish them well with their new challenges.
The complete list of the new cabinet is as follows:
- Chrystia Freeland becomes Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
- Anita Anand becomes Minister of Public Services and Procurement
- Navdeep Bains becomes Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
- Carolyn Bennett remains Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations
- Marie-Claude Bibeau remains Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
- Bill Blair becomes Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
- Bardish Chagger becomes Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth
- François-Philippe Champagne becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Jean-Yves Duclos becomes President of the Treasury Board
- Mona Fortier becomes Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance
- Marc Garneau remains Minister of Transport
- Karina Gould becomes Minister of International Development
- Steven Guilbeault becomes Minister of Canadian Heritage
- Patty Hajdu becomes Minister of Health
- Ahmed Hussen becomes Minister of Families, Children and Social Development
- Mélanie Joly becomes Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages
- Bernadette Jordan becomes Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
- David Lametti remains Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
- Dominic LeBlanc becomes President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada
- Diane Lebouthillier remains Minister of National Revenue
- Lawrence MacAulay remains Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence
- Catherine McKenna becomes Minister of Infrastructure and Communities
- Marco E. L. Mendicino becomes Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
- Marc Miller becomes Minister of Indigenous Services
- Maryam Monsef becomes Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development
- Bill Morneau remains Minister of Finance
- Joyce Murray becomes Minister of Digital Government
- Mary Ng becomes Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade
- Seamus O’Regan becomes Minister of Natural Resources
- Carla Qualtrough becomes Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion
- Pablo Rodriguez becomes Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
- Harjit Sajjan remains Minister of National Defence
- Deb Schulte becomes Minister of Seniors
- Filomena Tassi becomes Minister of Labour
- Dan Vandal becomes Minister of Northern Affairs
- Jonathan Wilkinson becomes Minister of Environment and Climate Change
The Prime Minister has asked Jim Carr to serve as his special representative for the Prairies.
Pablo Rodriguez will be assuming the responsibility of Quebec Lieutenant.
Under the leadership of Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez, the following team will work with all parties to make progress on the priorities that matter most to Canadians:
- Kirsty Duncan will serve as Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
- Mark Holland will serve as Chief Government Whip
- Ginette Petitpas Taylor will serve as Deputy Government Whip
- Kevin Lamoureux will serve as Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
