Lightbound joins Carney’s first full cabinet
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
The procession of 28 cabinet ministers and soon-to-be ministers and 10 secretaries of state filing into Rideau Hall in Ottawa to be sworn on May 13 featured a mix of established senior ministers and new faces.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first full cabinet featured Dominic LeBlanc as president of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and minister for Canada-U.S. trade, intergovernmental affairs and one Canadian economy; former foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly as minister of industry and regional economic development for Quebec and Carney’s de facto Quebec lieutenant François-Philippe Champagne as minister of finance and national revenue. Former defence minister Anita Anand received the foreign affairs portfolio, Sean Fraser became justice minister, Da- vid McGuinty was named to national defence and Carney’s one-time Liberal leadership rival Chrystia Freeland was appointed minister of transport and internal trade. Steven Guilbeault was named minister of identity, culture and official languages.
Among the newcomers to Carney’s cabinet was Louis-Hébert MP Joël Lightbound. Lightbound, 37, former secretary of state for emergency preparedness, was shuffled out of Cabinet in 2022 after a public disagreement with then-prime minister Justin Trudeau over pandemic policy. In his first ministerial post, as he himself pointed out, Lightbound will take over responsibility for the government’s oldest ministry (public services and procurement) and one of its newest (governmental transformation).
“I’ve never approached a cabinet shuffle with any kind of expectations, and I’ve always been happy as an MP … but to receive the call was a huge honour,” Lightbound told the QCT.
Lightbound said his brief as minister of governmental transformation was to find “another angle, another im- pulsion, on how we can have a more efficient state” by leveraging new technology, including but not limited to artificial intelligence. His mission includes looking into how best practices from around the world can be implemented in Canada to keep costs from rising. His stated goal is to bring the annual increase in government spending down from an average of nine per cent to two per cent.
On the public transportation front, he said the government planned to deploy a $3-billion nationwide fund for public transit, and “part of that” would be set aside for the federal government’s ongoing contribution to the Quebec City TramCité project. He added that the Quebec government also “needs to prioritize” the project.
Lightbound will be the only minister from the Quebec City region in the Carney cabinet. Neither former health minister Jean-Yves Duclos (Québec-Centre) nor Steeve Lavoie (Beauport-Limoilou), the former head of the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie de Québec, received a cabinet post. In public statements since the April 28 election, both Duclos and Lightbound have emphasized the importance of working as a team – “le trio de Québec” – to move forward on regional priorities. “Teamwork is fundamental, and it was a blessing to have two Liberals in Parliament to advance regional files,” Lightbound said, describing Duclos as a “very classy person” from whom he has learned a lot over the years. Newcomer Lavoie is “one ally more.”
Lightbound said his other major priorities included working to increase housing availability in his riding and maintain federal support for research institutions such as Université Laval. “I want to thank the people of Louis-Hébert for their renewed vote of confidence,” he added.
Other notable newcomers to cabinet included Haitian-born psychologist, former Trudeau chief of staff and first-time MP Marjorie Michel as health minister; Julie Dabrusin as minister of environment and climate change; former Nova Scotia immigration minister Lena Metlege Diab as federal immigration minister; and Trudeau critic Wayne Long as secretary of state for Revenue Canada and the banking sector. Mandy Gull-Masty, MP for Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou and former chief of the Cree Nation Government, was named minister of Indigenous services, the first Indigenous MP to hold that position.