Bennett keeps Crown-Indigenous portfolio in Trudeau’s new cabinet

Dan Vandal becomes northern affairs minister and Marc Miller gets Indigenous services

Toronto–St. Paul’s MP Carolyn Bennett will continue to serve as minister of Crown-Indigenous affairs, following her swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa this Nov. 20. (File photo)

By Nunatsiaq News

Toronto–St. Paul’s MP Carolyn Bennett, who’s worked for years with Inuit and northern leaders, will continue to serve as minister of Crown-Indigenous affairs, following her swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa this Nov. 20.

Bennett, 68, is one of 36 cabinet ministers that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has named from the 157-member Liberal caucus that emerged from the Oct. 21 national election.

She has served in that portfolio since 2015, and held on to Crown-Indigenous relations responsibility after the Trudeau government decided to divide the department and create a new department of Indigenous Services and put northern affairs into a separate portfolio.

During the tenure of the last government, Bennett played a key role within the Inuit-Crown partnership committee, the development of the Liberal government’s new Arctic policy framework, and in fostering relations with Indigenous organizations.

Other cabinet ministers likely to play a significant role in relations between the Trudeau government and northern governments and Inuit organizations are:

• Saint Boniface–Saint Vital MP Dan Vandal, who becomes minister of northern affairs, the portfolio that looks after relations between Ottawa and territorial governments, as well as Ottawa’s northern resource development and land management functions.

• Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Sœurs MP Marc Miller, who becomes minister of Indigenous services, the new department that handles services that Ottawa provides directly to Indigenous people.

• Beauséjour MP Dominic LeBlanc, the former northern affairs minister, who becomes president of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.

• South Shore–St. Margaret’s MP Bernadette Jordan, who becomes minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

• Thunder Bay–Superior North MP Patty Hajdu, who becomes minister of health.

• Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna, who becomes minister of infrastructure and communities.

• St. John’s South–Mount Pearl MP Seamus O’Regan, who becomes minister of natural resources.

• North Vancouver MP Jonathan Wilkinson, who becomes minister of environment and climate change.

• Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount MP Marc Garneau, who becomes minister of transport.

• Delta MP Carla Qualtrough, who becomes minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion.

You can find a full list of the new cabinet here.

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(1) Comment:

  1. Posted by brankenstein on

    The nightmare before Christmas.

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