Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will unveil on Oct. 26 the roster of cupboard ministers who will shepherd his authorities into a 3rd mandate targeted on ending the struggle towards COVID-19 and rebuilding the pandemic-ravaged financial system.
His ministers will then have a couple of month to settle into their jobs earlier than Parliament is recalled on Nov. 22 — simply over two months after the Sept. 20 election returned Trudeau’s Liberals with a second consecutive minority.
In a written assertion, Trudeau’s workplace says the prime minister plans to speak by telephone with opposition leaders early subsequent week to debate Canadians’ priorities and the way the Home of Commons ought to resume operations because the fourth wave of the pandemic continues to rage.
Among the many first orders of enterprise, the assertion says, will probably be working with opposition leaders to make sure all members of Parliament are absolutely vaccinated earlier than setting foot within the Commons — a problem on which the Liberals, Bloc Québécois and NDP are in settlement.
Nevertheless it creates a possible battle with Conservative Chief Erin OToole, who has refused up to now to reveal what number of of his MPs have had two pictures and who continues to defend the correct of people to make their very own private well being selections.
On the similar time, the Conservatives need the Commons to renew regular, in-person operations and are adamantly against any continuation of the hybrid mannequin — with solely a small variety of MPs bodily within the chamber and the remainder collaborating nearly — used throughout the earlier waves of the pandemic.
Necessary vaccination was a central pillar of the Liberals’ election marketing campaign and, for the reason that Sept. 20 vote, Trudeau has moved rapidly to ship on his promise to require proof of vaccination for federal workers and anybody planning to board a airplane or prepare.
His workplace says requiring MPs within the Commons to be absolutely vaccinated is a matter of displaying management.
“Canadians count on their elected representatives to steer by instance within the struggle towards this virus, and the Prime Minister will probably be elevating this with different leaders,” the assertion says.
As soon as Parliament is again, the assertion means that extending pandemic help advantages will probably be excessive on the agenda.
“One of many instant areas of focus for the subsequent Parliament would be the COVID-19 help advantages that many Canadians and companies nonetheless depend on, and the federal government will work collaboratively with different parliamentarians to proceed to have Canadians’ backs,” it says.
Emergency hire and wage subsidy applications are set to finish later this month however might be prolonged to the tip of November. New laws can be required to increase them past that.
Different “early priorities” embody reintroducing laws to ban conversion remedy, the follow of forcing people to bear remedy geared toward altering their sexual orientation or gender identification. A invoice to criminalize the follow was handed by the Commons in June however didn’t make it to a vote within the Senate earlier than the summer season break and finally died when Trudeau referred to as the election.
The assertion says the federal government will even transfer rapidly on the promise of 10-day paid sick go away for federally regulated staff and work with the remaining provinces and territories that haven’t but signed onto the federal plan to create $10-a-day little one care throughout the nation.
Only one week after the election, Trudeau introduced that Chrystia Freeland will retain her essential twin roles as deputy prime minister and finance minister.
However whether or not he’ll choose to go away most different ministers of their present portfolios or conduct a serious shakeup stays to be seen. He’s below strain to at the very least shuffle Harjit Sajjan out of the Defence portfolio, the place he’s been extensively criticized for his dealing with of serial sexual misconduct allegations among the many senior ranks of the army.
Trudeau has mentioned gender parity would be the “base place to begin” for any regionally balanced cupboard he places collectively.
Trudeau misplaced three feminine ministers within the election — Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan, Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef and Seniors Minister Deb Schulte. A fourth, Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna, didn’t search re-election.
Whereas solely Trudeau and a handful of his closest advisers know who the prime minister will select to fill these vacancies, hypothesis has centred on rookie Halifax West MP Lena Metlege Diab, a former provincial justice minister, to fill Jordan’s Nova Scotia slot.
McKenna’s Ottawa slot may very well be stuffed by Orleans MP Marie-France Lalonde, a former Ontario cupboard minister, or newly elected Kanata-Carleton MP Jenna Sudds, a former deputy mayor of Ottawa.
Different girls who may very well be promoted into cupboard embody newly elected London West MP Arielle Kayabaga, a refugee from Burundi and former metropolis councillor; Harvard-educated businesswoman Leah Taylor Roy, newly elected in Ontario’s Aurora-Oak-Ridges-Richmond Hills; and Pascale St-Onge, a former union chief in Quebec’s cultural sector who eked out a slim victory over the Bloc in Brome-Missisquoi.
Trudeau may additionally select to advertise extra skilled, re-elected feminine MPs who’ve already confirmed themselves to be robust performers, together with Pickering-Uxbridge MP Jennifer O’Connell, Brampton North MP Ruby Sahota and Toronto Centre MP Marci Ien.
Randy Boissonnault, elected in Edmonton Centre in 2015, defeated in 2019 and re-elected final month, would appear a shoo-in for cupboard as certainly one of solely two Liberals from Alberta.
The second Albertan, Calgary Skyview MP George Chahal, was additionally initially thought of a lock for cupboard. However his ambitions could also be thwarted by the truth that he was caught on a doorbell digicam eradicating a marketing campaign brochure left by his Conservative rival, who has requested the elections commissioner to analyze.