Agri-food groups will be introducing themselves to a lot of new cabinet ministers with whom they have had little contact before now.
While Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay has been a Liberal MP from Prince Edward Island for 26 years and still lists his occupation as farmer, he is new to the agriculture portfolio.
He served as a minister of labour and solicitor general in the government of Jean Chretien.
Former astronaut Marc Garneau is the new transport minister. One of his first challenges will be the release of the report on grain transportation from the Canada Transportation Act review.
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Jane Philpott, a medical doctor from Toronto, is now minister of health. While the future of medicare will be a big issue for her, she’s also responsible for the Pesticide Regulatory Management Agency, which regulates pesticides, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which is in the midst of the transformation of its food inspection activities.
Chrystia Freeland is the new international trade minister. On her plate is the tentative Canada-Europe free trade deal and the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. A final text of the latter has yet to be released. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised a full review of the deal before a final decision is made. Freeland was considered a star candidate when elected in a Toronto byelection last year and has impressed colleagues with her hard work.
There are some other Liberal veterans including Stephane Dion in Foreign Affairs, another of the quick learners, and Ralph Goodale, a former agriculture minister, in Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
John McCallum is another veteran Liberal MP and the new minister of immigrations, citizenship and refugees. MaryAnn Mihychuck will be the minister of employment, workforce development and labour. They will be charged with addressing the vexatious issue of temporary foreign workers. The Liberals were highly critical of the former government for choking off the supply of workers for agriculture and food processing.
Other new ministers include Catherine McKenna in Environment and Climate Change, Navdeep Bains in Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Bill Morneau in the crucial finance portfolio. Their departments could all have significant impacts on the agri-food sector and can hardly be ignored.
The cabinet titles suggest science will matter to this government.
A couple of rural MPs not in cabinet are Wayne Easter and Mark Eyking, the party’s agriculture spokesman for the last two years. The latter could well be the next chairman of the Commons agriculture committee.
