Quebec premier adds energy file to economy minister's portfolio
BNN Bloomberg
Quebec’s center-right leader kept key cabinet ministers in place, despite being spoiled for choice after a landslide election victory in Canada’s second-biggest province.
Premier Francois Legault, whose Coalition Avenir Quebec won 90 of 125 seats in the legislature on Oct. 3, reappointed his top two economic lieutenants on Thursday.
Eric Girard, former treasurer of National Bank of Canada, continues as finance minister, while businessman Pierre Fitzgibbon becomes a so-called economy “super minister,” with the energy portfolio added to his responsibilities.
He will have to manage growing tensions between the government and the head of the province’s state-owned electric utility. Sophie Brochu, president and chief executive officer of Hydro-Quebec, threatened to leave her post if the government pushes too hard to rush through large industrial projects like developing green hydrogen.
