Prior to his resignation this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet before the holiday break, appointing a new President of the Treasury Board and adding a local Ottawa MP to the Cabinet.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor was sworn in as the new President of the Treasury Board in Friday’s Cabinet shuffle, taking the helm from Anita Anand.
Petitpas Taylor has been the MP representing Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe since 2015 and prior to the shuffle was the minister of employment, workforce development and official languages, minister of veterans affairs and associate minister of National Defence. She has previously served as minister of official languages and minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, as minister of health, and as parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance.
As president, Petitpas Taylor will be the head of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the employer of the federal public service. The National Capital Region is home to about approximately 155,505 public servants employed by the Treasury Board, making the federal government the largest employer in Ottawa.
Petitpas Taylor takes over from Anita Anand, who is remaining as the head of transport and adding internal trade to her portfolio. Dartmouth—Cole Harbour MP Darren Fisher was sworn into Cabinet Friday to take on Petitpas Taylor’s previous portfolio of Veterans Affairs and National Defence.
Anand was at the helm of the Treasury Board when federal public servants were mandated back to the office for three days a week this fall. The two-day mandate from 2023 resulted in a strike of 155,000 Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) members across the country.
Petitpas Taylor is inheriting a portfolio rife with controversy, as Anand has accused PSAC of spreading “misleading information” about pension surpluses within the Treasury Board and the back-to-office mandate faces planning and office space struggles. PSAC has also said layoffs are on the table, which Anand denied.
Speaking to reporters at Rideau Hall on Friday, Petitpas Taylor thanked Anand and said she’d be hard at work, starting with the Friday afternoon Cabinet meeting.
“…For the next few weeks ahead, it’s going to be getting briefed up on the file as well, but again, the (Treasury Board) has been left in very good hands with Minister Anand, and I’m going to continue to do the work that has been planned out,” she said.
In the unexpected shuffle Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed eight new ministers to Cabinet and made changes to four existing roles. Ottawa South MP David McGuinty was sworn into Cabinet as Minister of Public Safety.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the shuffle on Thursday, days after Chrystia Freeland resigned from her roles as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on Monday. Dominic LeBlanc was subsequently sworn in as Minister of Finance later on Monday.
Also announced Friday, Gary Anadasangaree, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, is adding the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency to his portfolio. Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon is now also Minister of Employment and Workforce.
Eight other members were appointed to Cabinet in the shuffle: Rachel Bengayan (Minister of Official Languages and Associate Minister of Public Safety); Élisabeth Brière (Minister of National Revenue); Terry Duguid (Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for Prairies
Economic Development Canada); and, Nate Erskine-Smith (Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities). Erskine-Smith is taking over from Sean Fraser, who announced Monday that he will not be seeking re-election.
It’s unclear how much these new ministers will be able to achieve, as Trudeau announced government will be prorogued until the spring and a new Leader of the Liberal Party is chosen.
