Yukon MP Larry Bagnell expressed his regret Wednesday over losing a northern colleague after Nunavut MP Hunter Tootoo suddenly resigned from the cabinet and left the Liberal party caucus earlier this week.

“It’s unfortunate,” Bagnell told the Star.

“I think it was great to have an Inuit person in cabinet; it was good for Canada. Certainly, my thoughts are with Hunter,” said Bagnell.

Tootoo resigned as minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, and will “seek treatment for addiction issues,” the prime minister said in a statement Tuesday.

Justin Trudeau addressed media in Ottawa on Wednesday, but did not take questions from reporters.

“This was his own choice after a very difficult situation, and we will have nothing further to say on the matter,” he said.

The nature of Tootoo’s addiction issues remains unclear, as does the “difficult situation” that prompted his resignation.

“No one really knows, at least no one that I’ve talked to,” Bagnell said.

“I chatted with him on Saturday in Winnipeg, and he appeared fine to me.”

The Liberals held their biennial national convention in Winnipeg last week. Tootoo sat on a panel with other ministers at the event to discuss sustainable development.

Tootoo’s departure means there is now no northern representation in cabinet.

Still, Bagnell is confident that Dominic LeBlanc, the New Brunswick MP and House Leader who is taking over for Tootoo, will take the North seriously.

“I’ve known him for years, and he’s agreed that if I have any issues for cabinet, he’ll take them for me,” said Bagnell.

Before Tuesday, all three territories had Liberal representation in Ottawa, which meant they presented something of a united front in Parliament.

Every Monday morning, Bagnell said, he, Northwest Territories MP Michael McLeod, Tootoo of Nunavut, and Yvonne Jones, the MP for Labrador, would meet to discuss northern issues. The results of these sessions were then passed on to the western MPs and the national caucus.

“We have a good Arctic position together and a good mechanism for getting that into cabinet,” said Bagnell.

But now, the so-called “Arctic caucus” is missing a voice from Nunavut.

Bagnell said he and his fellow northern MPs won’t forget about the territory, and that he will continue to talk to Tootoo, even though the Nunavut representative now sits as an independent.

“We have a great relationship, so I’m sure that won’t change,” Bagnell said.

Many have come out with words of support for Tootoo.

Jordin Tootoo, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils right-winger and the MP’s cousin, tweeted, “It takes blood sweat and tears to stand up and ask for help from a real man. @HunterTootoo admitting is the 1st step. You got this cuz.”

On behalf of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation in Ontario, Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said on Twitter he was “sending prayers and support to Hunter Tootoo as he seeks healing.”

Canadian Olympic speed skater and cyclist Clara Hughes said she is “Sending strength+encouragement+support to @HunterTootoo” on Twitter.

Tootoo is not the only MP to take time off to confront addiction.

Last January, Seamus O’Regan, the Liberal MP for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl in Newfoundland and Labrador, announced on Twitter that he was entering a rehab program to help him toward “an alcohol free lifestyle.”

O’Regan did not leave the Liberal caucus.

While Trudeau had only terse remarks about Tootoo’s resignation, the prime minister expressed publicly his support for O’Reagan in the winter, tweeting, “My thoughts are with my friend & colleague @SeamusORegan tonight, and he has my full support.”

Losing Tootoo has profound implications beyond the North.

Trudeau’s ministers were selected in an effort to “present a cabinet that looks more like Canada,” the prime minister said when he unveiled his team in November 2015.

It was the first cabinet to have equal numbers of women and men, an indigenous justice minister, a Muslim minister, a minister who was a former refugee, and the first to have a northerner – Tootoo – as Fisheries and Oceans minister.

Considering this, Bagnell said, Tootoo’s exit is unfortunate.

“We have a very diverse cabinet, and this diminishes that a little bit, and that’s sad in a way.”