{"id":143048,"date":"2025-09-14T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/143048\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T10:00:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T10:00:23","slug":"quebec-premier-shuffles-cabinet-promises-shock-treatment-in-year-before-election-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/143048\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec premier shuffles cabinet, promises \u2018shock treatment\u2019 in year before election – Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois\u00a0Legault, one year away from the general election and deeply unpopular with the electorate, announced a major cabinet shuffle on Wednesday and promised to soon present a new vision for the province\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

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He also pledged to make radical changes to the public service, saying the system needs a \u201cshock treatment\u201d to get out of its lethargy. It\u2019s all part of a plan to revive the fortunes of his party, which according to polls is at risk of disappearing from the electoral map after it won a second mandate three years ago with a decisive majority.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tQuebec Premier Francois Legault, centre poses for a picture with his new cabinet in Quebec City, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. From left, first row sitting, Sonia Belanger, Eric Girard, Christine Frechette, Francois Legault, Lt. Gov. Manon Jeannotte, Sonia Lebel, Christian Dube, Simon Jolin-Barrette; second row; Jean Boulet, Ian Lafreniere, Kateri Champagne Jourdain, Donald Martel, Samuel Poulin, France-Elaine Duranceau, Amelie Dionne, Jean-Francois Simard, Isabelle Charest, Genevieve Guilbault, Bernard Drainville, Martine Biron, Jean-Francois Roberge; third row, Mathieu Lacombe, caucus president Yves Montigny, government whip Francois Jacques, Caroline Proulx, Christopher Skeete, Chantal Rouleau, Pascale Dery, Jonathan Julien, Lionel Carmant, Gilles Belanger and Benoit Charette. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Jacques Boissinot.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

In front of his new cabinet on Wednesday, the premier suggested his planned changes for the next year will not be easy, but are necessary.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt my age, I\u2019m no longer in popularity contests, what motivates me is my love for the people of Quebec,\u201d\u00a0Legault\u00a0told the swearing-in ceremony in Quebec City. He may have been referencing a poll released earlier this week by the Angus Reid Institute indicating that at 22 per cent support, he was the most unpopular premier in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is Quebecers who will judge us in October 2026,\u201d he said of the scheduled election.<\/p>\n

Part of his plan for the next year, he said, is to make major changes to the bureaucracy. \u201cNothing less than breaking out of the current system, breaking out of this straitjacket will do,\u201d he said. \u201cThat means we need to cut deeply into the bureaucracy. We need a shock treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It will be up to France-\u00c9laine Duranceau, the new president of the Treasury Board and minister responsible for government administration and state efficiency, to ensure every department does its part.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tQuebec Premier Francois Legault, centre, poses with his new cabinet after a cabinet shuffle in Quebec City, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Jacques Boissinot.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she will have my full support,\u201d the premier said of Duranceau, who was shuffled out of housing.<\/p>\n

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The cabinet\u00a0Legault\u00a0plans to lead into the final year of his party\u2019s second term is composed of mostly familiar faces moved into new roles, with five members elevated from the party\u2019s backbench. The number of ministers remained unchanged at 29.<\/p>\n

And aside from the shuffle, he laid out his government\u2019s four priorities \u2014 economy, bureaucratic efficiency, security and identity.<\/p>\n

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He said that since 2018, when his Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec took power for the first time, the world has changed, including by the COVID-19 pandemic, cost-of-living crisis, and a protectionist United States president who has launched a trade war with Canada. In response, he said, he plans to reshape Quebec\u2019s economic and energy future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the coming weeks, I will present, with the minister of the economy, a completely new economic vision for Quebec,\u201d he said of Economy Minister Christine Fr\u00e9chette, who will keep her portfolio.<\/p>\n

While not part of his four top priorities,\u00a0Legault\u00a0said the \u201cexplosion\u201d of immigrants to the province will also remain front and centre in his government. \u201cWe have been overwhelmed by an explosion in immigration \u2026 uncontrolled by the federal government,\u201d\u00a0Legault\u00a0said. \u201cI don\u2019t blame the immigrants themselves; these women and men, with their children, who are seeking a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As\u00a0Legault\u00a0has often repeated, immigration to Quebec has consequences for housing, education and health care. The pressure is felt particularly in Montreal and its northern suburb, Laval.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are leading the fight to get the federal government to reduce the number of temporary immigrants in Montreal and Laval by 200,000,\u201d\u00a0Legault\u00a0said. \u201cWe remain confident that we can convince the new federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigration Minister Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Roberge, who was one of several ministers to conserve his spot, told reporters there has been no response thus far from Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s Liberal government, and the clock is ticking.<\/p>\n

In addition to Roberge, some of the other ministers keeping their portfolios included Christian Dub\u00e9 in health, Eric Girard in finance and Simon Jolin-Barrette in justice.<\/p>\n

Others have new roles: Sonia LeBel, formerly at treasury, will move to education; Martine Biron, who held the international relations portfolio, will move to higher education.<\/p>\n

Bernard Drainville, who was at education, moves to environment, where\u00a0Legault\u00a0has tasked him with reducing delays to get projects off the ground.<\/p>\n

Jonatan Julien, who was energy minister, will move to transport, replacing Genevi\u00e8ve Guilbault, who found herself in the limelight recently at a public inquiry into a digitization project at the auto insurance board that incurred cost overruns of $500 million. Guilbault moved to municipal affairs. Her predecessor in transport, Fran\u00e7ois Bonnardel, lost the public security portfolio and was left out of cabinet.<\/p>\n

Five backbenchers were elevated to cabinet on Wednesday, the most prominent of whom are Donald Martel, who will become agriculture minister, and Am\u00e9lie Dionne, who takes over as tourism minister.<\/p>\n

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In addition to Bonnardel, also left out of cabinet was Ma\u00eft\u00e9 Blanchette V\u00e9zina, the province\u2019s former forestry minister. She had difficulty with a bill tabled this spring that aimed to protect communities dependent on the forestry industry. But the legislation led to rising tensions between forestry workers and Indigenous protesters, who say the bill will ruin their way of life.<\/p>\n

Legault\u00a0has one year left to flip the script on his party, which like him, is unpopular among voters. Poll aggregator Qc125.com says if an election were held today, the CAQ would not win a single seat; the party won 90 of 125 in 2022. The Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, meanwhile, is surging and has won a series of recent byelections. It would win a majority if an election were held today, according to Qc125.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2025.<\/p>\n

This is a corrected story. A previous version misspelled the last name of Donald Martel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois\u00a0Legault, one year away from the general election and deeply unpopular with the electorate, announced a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,76703,48,295,63778,714,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-143048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-cabinet-shuffle","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-francois-legault","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}