Photo: Plan Nord minister leaves Quebec politics

Nathalie Normandeau, Quebec’s deputy minister, minister of natural resources and the minister responsible for Plan Nord, the province’s development scheme for its northern regions, resigned Sept. 6, citing personal reasons, leaving Premier Jean Charest without a second-in-command. Normandeau, 43, shown here with Kativik Regional Government chairperson Maggie Emudluk at a meeting held last year in Kuujjuaq, said at the Sept. 6 news conference in Quebec City that “it is time to pass the torch.” Normandeau also served as municipal affairs minister from 2005 to 2009, where she headed the department which hands out millions of dollars to the KRG, Nunavik municipalities and many municipal programs. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)