Handicapping old and new ministers
SEAMUS O’REGAN
New portfolio: Indigenous Services
Background: A former journalist, O’Regan was elected in the Newfoundland riding of St. John’s—Mount Pearl in the 2015 election. He joined cabinet in 2017, when he was appointed minister of Veterans Affairs.
Challenges: The government is spending $2 billion in a bid to rid First Nations reserves of drinking water advisories that are sometimes in place for years at a time. Progress has been steady, albeit slow: the government has eliminated 78 longterm advisories (those in place for more than a year) since November 2015, and has 62 to go. The goal is to eliminate them all by March 2021.
O’Regan will also be responsible for upcoming legislation to revamp child welfare for Indigenous communities to transfer authority for these services to First Nations, Inuit and Métis groups. And he will oversee billions of dollars the Liberals have committed to Indigenous housing, health services and infrastructure.
DAVID LAMETTI
New portfolio: Justice/Attorney General of Canada
Background: Lametti taught law at McGill University and co-founded the school’s Centre of Intellectual Property Policy before he was elected Liberal MP in Montreal’s La Salle— Émard—Verdun riding in 2015. In the late 1980s, Lametti worked as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Peter Cory. He has a master of laws degree at Yale and a doctorate in law at Oxford.
Challenges: A number of the government’s major justicerelated promises, such as legalizing marijuana, drafting criminal justice reforms and allowing for physician-assisted deaths, were completed under Lametti’s predecessor.
Lametti could be called to respond to recommendations expected this spring from the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. He also inherits a slew of empty judicial positions that critics have charged the Liberal government is moving too slowly to fill.
BERNADETTE JORDAN
New portfolio: Rural Economic Development
Background: Jordan worked for an organization that raised money for local health care in Nova Scotia before she entered politics. As an MP for South Shore—St. Margaret’s, Jordan was elected chair of the Liberals’ Atlantic Canada caucus and served as parliamentary secretary to the democratic institutions minister.
Challenges: Jordan is taking over a new cabinet portfolio just months before Parliament breaks for the 2019 general election. She will be tasked with creating a new, “rural development strategy” for the Liberal government. This will include action to bring high-speed internet to more rural communities, and work to meet “unique and diverse infrastructure needs,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
JODY WILSON-RAYBOULD
New portfolio: Veterans Affairs
Background: Wilson-Raybould is a former crown prosecutor and served as regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations. She was first elected in 2015 in Vancouver Granville and was named justice minister. A member of the We Wai Kai Nation, she was the first Indigenous woman to hold the portfolio.
Challenges: Veterans Affairs has been a troublesome department for successive governments. Both Conservative and Liberal politicians have struggled to match the complex array of programs and benefits with the evolving needs from a new cohort of veterans who are younger and dealing with the emotional and physical wounds of recent service, notably Afghanistan.
JANE PHILPOTT
New portfolio: President of Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government.
Background: Philpott is a doctor, serving first in Niger and then moving to Stouffville. She was chief of family medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital and associate professor in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. She was elected in 2015 in Markham-Stouffville and named federal health minister. She was later named minister of Indigenous Services.
Challenges: The President of the Treasury Board wields tremendous influence, overseeing government spending, policy initiatives and operations, such as negotiations with unions representing public sector workers. Treasury Board is at the centre of solving ongoing problems with the Phoenix pay system that has seen government workers left without paycheques. As minister of Digital Government, Philpott will continue efforts to enhance the government’s online presence so Canadians can better access government data digitally.