Quebec’s provincial minister of municipal affairs will again add the agriculture, food and fisheries portfolio to his duties.
Laurent Lessard, the MNA for Frontenac in the province’s Chaudiere-Appalaches region and a former agriculture minister (2007-09), was named Wednesday by Premier Jean Charest to replace the late Claude Bechard in the ag ministry.
Bechard died Tuesday of complications from pancreatic cancer, hours after resigning as agriculture minister, Canadian intergovernmental affairs minister and MNA for health reasons.
Lessard, a lawyer and former mayor of Thetford Mines, was shuffled from the ag file in June 2009. He remains responsible for municipal affairs and also as the minister responsible for the Chaudiere-Appalaches and Centre-du-Quebec regions.
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Deputy Premier Nathalie Normandeau, the MNA for Bonaventure in the Gaspe Peninsula and the province’s natural resources minister since June last year, will take over Bechard’s duties for Canadian intergovernmental affairs and for the Bas-St-Laurent region.
Bechard’s death “left a great void” in Quebec politics, Charest said Wednesday. “But we can count on two experienced ministers to carry on his remarkable work.”
The province has set up a book of condolences for Bechard, to be available at the provincial assembly in Quebec City from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. until Friday (Sept. 10). Condolences can also be posted online.
Details on a funeral for Bechard will be available at a later date, the province said Wednesday.
Christian Lacasse, president of the province’s influential Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), which sparred with the province in recent months over proposed changes to farm income stabilization insurance, recalled Bechard Wednesday as a man passionate about agriculture and willing to defend his position to the end.
“That determination, over these last months, was inspiring by any standard,” Lacasse said in a separate release.
