An ex-journalist, a former PQ minister and a pandemic mainstay — who’s who in Quebec’s new cabinet
Drainville #Drainville
Premier François Legault has freshened up his cabinet as his Coalition Avenir Québec government prepares for four more years in power.
The 30-person cabinet, announced Thursday, is a blend of experienced ministers and political neophytes.
Here’s a look at 10 of the people who’ll be sitting around the cabinet table.
A former senior National Bank executive, Éric Girard keeps the finance portfolio he has held since the CAQ took power in 2018. Amid global economic turmoil and a cost-of-living crisis, Legault wanted a steady hand on the province’s purse strings.
But, in a surprise move, Legault also entrusted him with responsibility for relations with English-speaking Quebecers.
Giving a senior minister responsibility for anglophone issues may be a sign Legault wants to mend fences with Quebec’s English-speaking community after clashing over language, school boards and secularism legislation that was widely unpopular among anglophones.
Pierre Fitzgibbon, already the economy and innovation minister, was given three additional assignments — energy, regional economic development, and responsibility for the Montreal region.
Fitzgibbon was reportedly given responsibility for energy matters because Legault wants to focus on boosting electricity production in a bid to attract energy-intensive industrial projects.
That doesn’t sit well with Hydro-Québec CEO Sophie Brochu, who wants to focus on energy projects that help decarbonize the economy.
In an apparent bid to avoid such a confrontation, Legault announced the creation of a committee that will look at the economy and energy transition. Several ministers, including Fitzgibbon, will sit on the committee, as will Brochu. In 2021, Fitzgibbon briefly stepped down from cabinet after Quebec’s ethics commissioner issued a fourth report chiding him for violating the National Assembly’s code of ethics.
The first Indigenous woman elected to the National Assembly, Kateri Champagne Jourdain immediately joined the cabinet as employment minister.
Born in Uashat mak Mani-Utenam in Northern Quebec, she delivered her oath in French and Innu when she was sworn in this week.
Champagne Jourdain is a former administrator at the Chambre de commerce de Sept-Îles and community relations director for a wind energy project. She was the first Indigenous person to sit on the Desjardins Group’s board of directors.
A labour lawyer, Jean Boulet lost the immigration portfolio but hung on to labour issues.
Legault had said Boulet disqualified himself from immigration issues after sparking outrage during the election campaign when he said “80 per cent of immigrants go to Montreal, do not work, do not speak French or do not adhere to the values of Quebec society.”
At the time, Legault stood by Boulet. “He’s so sad about what he said. He doesn’t believe what he said,” Legault said, adding Boulet is “a bright guy and he did a good job for the last few years. Everyone who knows Jean Boulet knows that’s not him, what he said in that debate.”
Legault himself also was tripped by immigration during the campaign. He apologized for equating immigration with extremism and violence but later stood by his use of the word “suicidal” to describe the potential impact on Quebec’s French majority if immigration were increased.
Taking over the delicate immigration portfolio, Christine Fréchette is the former president of the Chambre de Commerce de l’Est de Montréal, though she ran in a South Shore riding where the CAQ had more support.
A former Parti Québécois stalwart , she served as Jean-François Lisée’s deputy chief of staff in the Pauline Marois government.
Fréchette, a first-time MNA who speaks French, English and Spanish, faces a difficult job in immigration.
Apart from recovering from CAQ campaign controversies, she must contend with pressure from business leaders to increase immigration amid a severe labour shortage and an aging population, even as the CAQ worries non-French-speaking immigrants are a threat to Quebec’s dominant language.
A hardline sovereignist and former Parti Québécois minister, Bernard Drainville was responsible for the PQ’s “charter of values,” which proposed a ban on religious symbols in the public sector.
Now the education minister, the former radio host was recruited by the CAQ in June as a star candidate in the Quebec City region.
At the time, PQ MNA Pascal Bérubé, who sat in cabinet with Drainville, said he was not surprised by the move, accusing Drainville of being soft on Legault’s government in his political analysis on his radio show but merciless with opposition parties.
As Quebec’s education minister for the past four years, Jean-François Roberge, a former teacher, was unpopular with some teachers, unions and parents, in part over lack of action to improve air quality in schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roberge was also the minister behind Bill 40, which aimed to turn elected school boards into government service centres. English school boards succeeded in obtaining a temporary injunction against Bill 40, allowing them to continue to exist for now.
In his new role, Roberge will be responsible for the French language, secularism and relations with the rest of Canada.
The new junior health minister for seniors, Sonia Bélanger is the former head of the Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal regional health authority.
In that role, she was a high-profile spokesperson amid the pandemic, often taking part in press conferences with Montreal public health director Dr. Mylène Drouin.
Bélanger takes over a portfolio previously held by Marguerite Blais, who did not seek re-election.
Formerly the Parliamentary Assistant to the premier for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, Christopher Skeete was named junior economic minister and minister responsible for the fight against racism.
During the CAQ’s first mandate, Skeete, who attended school in English but whose mother tongue is French, oversaw the province’s secretariat for anglophone affairs.
In 2019, the Quebec Community Groups Network, which represents English-language community organizations, accused the Legault government of using the secretariat to surreptitiously destabilize anglophone groups and “undermine the legitimate leadership of the community.”
On Thursday, Skeete was the only minister who took his oath in both French and English.
Now responsible for three portfolios — international relations, the Francophonie and the status of women — Martine Biron was, until this summer, a Radio-Canada journalist covering the CAQ government in Quebec City.
In her first press conference as a CAQ candidate, Biron defended her decision to move from one side of the microphone to the other. “I built my career on ethics. I am ethical, I have always been ethical and I still will be. I am not the first journalist and probably not the last journalist to run for an election,” she said.
ariga@postmedia.com