Quebec’s new premier Christine Fréchette unveiled her cabinet Tuesday afternoon, including five new faces and many more familiar from the tenure of François Legault.
The new cabinet comes after she beat out Bernard Drainville in the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leadership race, held after Legault announced his resignation.
Fréchette delivered on her campaign promise to reserve a prominent role for her opponent, appointing Drainville minister of economy, innovation and energy — the portfolio she herself held before becoming premier.
Drainville, who re-entered politics in 2022 under the CAQ banner, won the Lévis seat and became education minister until he was handed the environment portfolio in a cabinet shuffle last September.
Fréchette has named Ian Lafrenière as the deputy premier and he will maintain his position as public security minister.
There are two other changes that jump out: François Bonnardel is making his way back to cabinet and will become the new immigration minister, taking over from Jean-François Roberge who remains in charge of the French language and secularism file.
Bonnardel, who was Quebec’s public security minister under Legault, was kicked out of cabinet by the former premier following the SAAQ-Clic scandal.
In addition to the immigration portfolio, Bonnardel is the new government house leader — a highly strategic role.
Fréchette also appointed a junior minister responsible for the province’s regions — Mathieu Lévesque, a new face in cabinet. Representing the Outaouais region, Lévesque was first elected in 2018 in the Chapleau Riding.
On top of his role as junior minister responsible for the regions, Lévesque will head a new body, described as a sort of regional council, to which 18 MNAs will be appointed to represent the province’s 17 administrative regions.
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Beyond demonstrating she has a new government, Fréchette needed to ensure continuity and stability and therefore key portfolios, such as health, finance, education, justice and the treasury board remain unchanged.
Below is a list of the main returnees:
Key omissions in Fréchette’s new cabinet are Geneviève Guilbault and Caroline Proulx.
More to come.
