Quebec Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, will no longer be responsible for the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region.
This function will now be assumed by the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, who is also the minister responsible for Mauricie and Nord-du-Québec.
In a press release, Prime Minister François Legault explains that this change will allow Mathieu Lacombe to: “concentrate more on his other responsibilities, as he wished”. He also thanks Jean Boulet for taking up the torch and specifies that the latter is already responsible for regions: “which present several challenges similar to those of Abitibi-Témiscamingue”.
The Parti Québécois immediately denounced the fact that Abitibi MPs had been ignored for the position.
“That the center of power moves from Gatineau to Trois-Rivières is not better,” commented PQ MP Pascal Bérubé.
Ministers Lacombe and Boulet are due to comment on the news in a press scrum on Thursday morning.
With information from Marie-Michèle Sioui.
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