Marc Miller, left, and Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa on Monday. Mr. Miller served in multiple cabinet posts under former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney returned Trudeau-era minister Marc Miller to cabinet Monday in a shuffle prompted by the resignation of Steven Guilbeault late last week.
Mr. Miller was widely considered one of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s most capable ministers, but was cut from cabinet by Mr. Carney after he took over as prime minister earlier this year.
Back in cabinet, Mr. Miller will take on Mr. Guilbeault’s duties as minister of Canadian culture and identity as well as minister for official languages. The job of Quebec lieutenant, also held by Mr. Guilbeault, will be taken over by Joël Lightbound, on top of his current role as the minister of government transformation, public works and procurement.
Mr. Miller represents the Montreal riding of Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Soeurs and Mr. Lightbound is the MP for Louis-Hébert in Quebec City.
They were sworn in to their new positions during a brief ceremony at Rideau Hall late Monday afternoon.
Ottawa, Alberta sign energy deal signalling major shift in relationship
Mr. Miller’s role as culture and identity minister – a portfolio formerly known as heritage – will be his fourth cabinet position.
He was first elected in 2015, but had known Mr. Trudeau since the pair went to high school together.
In 2019, Mr. Miller received his first cabinet appointment as minister of Indigenous services; in 2021 he became the minister for Crown-Indigenous relations and then in 2023, he took over the immigration portfolio.
Under Mr. Miller, the Liberal government began to reverse course on immigration policy in response to pressure on housing and social services.
“I think that Marc will do a tremendous job. He’s got a lot of experience and I’m really pleased for him,” Liberal MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor told reporters Monday.
Mr. Lightbound, first elected in 2015, had served in several parliamentary secretary roles in the Trudeau government until he broke with the party over the management of COVID-19 mandates. He stepped down as the Liberals’ Quebec caucus chair in 2022.
He was brought onto the front benches when the Liberals won a minority government in April.
“I think he’s been doing a great job in his current role,” Liberal MP Ben Carr said.
“I think the Prime Minister will be well served by him in terms of the advice and guidance he’ll be seeking in relation to the province of Quebec.”
Mr. Guilbeault, who previously served as environment minister under Mr. Trudeau, left his post in Mr. Carney’s cabinet Thursday over concerns the government was walking away from efforts to combat climate change.
He linked his decision explicitly to a memorandum of understanding signed between Ottawa and Alberta last week.
It suspends clean electricity regulations, eliminates the oil and gas emissions cap and proposes the lifting of the oil tanker ban in support of a new bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast.
Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault resigned from Mr. Carney's cabinet over the government's energy accord with Alberta.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Alberta will also increase its industrial carbon price and both levels of government will forge ahead with a massive carbon capture and storage project to reduce emissions.
Mr. Guilbeault said the provisions in the MOU, as well as other moves by the Carney government to change environmental policies such as ending the consumer carbon price, were a mistake.
“In my view, these measures remain essential to our climate action plan,” he said in a statement upon his resignation.
Mr. Guilbeault grew emotional during an interview that aired Sunday evening with the popular Quebec TV show Tout le monde en parle, saying the price of staying on in cabinet was too high for him.
He also said the MOU means Canada will not hit its 2030 emissions reductions targets.
Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin told members of the House of Commons environment committee earlier Monday she doesn’t agree.
“These are targets that are ambitious. We have to keep on working toward it, and we are determined to keep working toward those targets,” she said, in French.
Ms. Dabrusin told the committee a full emissions reduction plan will be released by the end of the year.
She also attended Monday’s cabinet swearing-in, and has been assigned Mr. Guilbeault’s previous responsibility for the nature portfolio.
She’ll now be referred to as the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature.
Though he was no longer environment minister, Mr. Guilbeault had continued to serve as a symbol of Trudeau-era policies.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith – who was often sharply critical of him – described him as a “hostile and unwilling” partner on Monday – in response to him describing her as not a reliable partner during Sunday night’s interview.
“I think that the fact that he has left is going to be good for Alberta, good for the country, and allow for us to continue working constructively together,” she said during an event for the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors.
Mr. Guilbeault is the second cabinet minister to leave since the Liberals were re-elected with a minority government in April.
Former transport and internal trade minister Chrystia Freeland left cabinet in September to become the Special Representative for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon added the transport file to his job, and internal trade went to Dominic LeBlanc, the intergovernmental affairs minister who is also in charge of Canada-U.S. trade.