Whitehorse Daily Star

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Pictured Above: LARRY BAGNELL

Shuffle ushers in new Indigenous Services minister

With just under 10 months left until Canadians hit the polls,

By Palak Mangat on January 14, 2019

With just under 10 months left until Canadians hit the polls, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a slew of changes to his inner circle today – including Indigenous Services.

They also come complete with a new rural economic development portfolio headed by a Nova Scotia MP.

The cabinet shuffle comes after MP Scott Brison announced he would be stepping down last week and won’t run for re-election in his Nova Scotia riding.

Among the other changes that can affect the Yukon going forward are in the Indigenous Services department, which will bid farewell to Jane Philpott and welcome Seamus O’Regan.

Philpott is to now head the Treasury Board, a role left vacant after Brison’s departure.

It’s a move that Yukon MP Larry Bagnell called a good one this morning, and one which could yield good results for the territory.

“In Treasury Board, they’re always trying to be very careful where spending goes,” Bagnell told the Star.

Philpott taking that Indigenous Services background to a department that deals in part with financials can have a positive impact for line items on issues involving Indigenous people, he added.

“Now that she has an understanding and has worked in the field of Aboriginal services, she realized there’s a big need there,” Bagnell added.

Assessing Philpott, who moved to Indigenous Services in 2017 from Health (where she served after the governing Liberals assumed power in late 2015), he said “she did a great job there.

“That department was so big, we really needed two departments to concentrate on the plethora of issues that they had,” he said in reference to the splitting of the Crown-Indigenous Relations (held by Toronto’s Carolyn Bennett) and Northern Affairs portfolio (which has New Brunswick’s Dominic LeBlanc at the helm). That change was announced during the summer of 2018.

Among other things, Philpott was tasked with reducing the number of long-term drinking water advisories on reserves. With the feds committing to removing all advisories on public systems by March of 2021, her most recent update earlier this month showed they were lifted in areas of Saskatchewan, Ontario, B.C. and Alberta.

About 62 advisories remain in effect, a figure that sat at 105 in November 2015 – and Bagnell noted the country is “well on target to have them all removed” by that 2021 date.

The MP also explained that the addition of O’Regan, who hails from Newfoundland and Labrador, into the inner circle as Indigenous Services minister means there will be an additional rural voice at the table.

“It can be a big help in understanding the challenges that First Nations people have in rural areas.”

But that is perhaps best felt by the addition of Nova Scotia’s Bernadette Jordan and the creation of the new Rural Economic Development portfolio – a topic Bagnell said Jordan has spoken in the past about “very vocally and very convincingly.

“It’s been something we’ve been lobbying for for a long time,” he said, noting many rural Liberal MPs are excited about the new position.

“From today forward, any cabinet decision that is made will have that person representing rural parts” of the country at weekly cabinet meetings.

Jordan comes into the role with a résumé complete with time as a parliamentary secretary to the minister of democratic institutions (held by Ontario’s Karina Gould).

The move also makes Jordan the first-ever Nova Scotia female minister to represent the province in the federal cabinet.

“Now we have a direct link to cabinet (through that position),” Bagnell said, noting that rural access to the Internet that many big cities enjoy is an example of what Jordan will be tasked with.

Taking over for Jody Wilson-Raybould as justice minister will be David Lametti, who hails from Quebec, as Wilson-Raybould moves to Veterans Affairs.

Some observers are wondering if stripping Wilson-Raybould of justice is a demotion for the one-time provincial Crown prosecutor and member of the We Wai Kai Nation in B.C. Bagnell said he doesn’t see that as the case.

“I would outline how important Veteran Affairs is,” he said.

Having someone of Lametti’s expertise in the Justice department should also instill confidence, he added.

Quebec’s Lametti is a one-time law professor at McGill University in Montreal. He served as the parliamentary secretary to Navdeep Bains, who holds the Innovation, Science and Economic Development portfolio.

Lametti was also a law clerk to a Supreme Court of Canada justice at one point, and specializes in intellectual property, private and property law.

Assessing Wilson-Raybould, Bagnell admired how quickly her department worked, and its commitment to diversity.

“I think those are very important; Jody did a really good job of getting our judge replacement quickly,” Bagnell said of the appointment of Suzanne Duncan to the Yukon Supreme Court in late November 2018.

One-time Kwanlin Dün First Nation legal counsel, Duncan replaced the late justice Leigh Gower after his passing in late October.

“They also added a judge to the territory to help reduce our backlog, which was great,” Bagnell said, adding he hopes Lametti can continue “that type of positive representation in the Yukon.”

According to a release announcing Duncan’s appointment, Wilson-Raybould’s time in office was marked with making more than 230 judicial appointments.

More than half were women, eight were Indigenous and 20 identified as visible minorities.

Meanwhile, the cabinet changes today come about six months after a July 2018 shuffle and just over nine months before the federal election – currently set for around Oct. 21.

That will see incumbent Bagnell square off against longtime Tory Jonas Smith for the sole Yukon MP position.

The NDP candidate has yet to be finalized, though, as the Star reported Friday, longtime Yukoner Justin Lemphers is seeking the nomination.

See related story.

Comments (6)

Up 22 Down 2

Groucho d'North on Jan 16, 2019 at 12:58 pm

I am reminded of that line about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Up 16 Down 6

not voting on Jan 16, 2019 at 8:49 am

Well, I don't think I'll be voting in the next election. I like Larry for the Yukon but will not give a vote to the clown he represents. Jonas is already alienating us all with his advertising (which makes me think that he doesn't know budgeting priorities) and I'd never vote NDP.

Up 23 Down 6

Joe on Jan 15, 2019 at 4:50 pm

Why would we ever have an indigenous services minister?

Up 30 Down 10

My Opinion on Jan 14, 2019 at 9:02 pm

“In Treasury Board, they’re always trying to be very careful where spending goes,”
Larry! Really? Careful where spending goes, and Liberal, is an oxymoron.

Please let's get to that election.

Up 4 Down 16

Wilf Carter on Jan 14, 2019 at 4:34 pm

Folks I have pushed for this type of department of rural economic development for 25 years now let's see what they do to support economic growth in rural communities. In the Yukon there has been upgrades in the internet system over the years and Northwestel has worked with communities, Federal Yukon and local communities to improve band width. Good move if set up right.
All the development agencies need to develop partnership at levels of government, including First Nations and Municipalities. Need to rework the system of economics so more resources can go into programs to support rural. The issue is government does not have development education or experience in economic development but community development which is not the same process. In fact, community development is part of economic development. It is hard to watch processes that do not fit into what is needed to do economic development in the Yukon.

Up 27 Down 10

Nathan on Jan 14, 2019 at 3:57 pm

The headline should read, ‘With just under 10 months left until the Trudeau government gets voted out.’

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