Nova Scotia MP Sean Fraser was named Canada’s new minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on Tuesday during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet reshuffle.
First elected to Parliament five years ago. A lawyer by profession, Fraser’s last role was as parliamentary secretary to the deputy prime minister and minister of finance and to the minister of middle-class prosperity and associate minister of finance.
Fraser has never had a political role with the IRCC. He replaces Canada’s former immigration minister, Marco Mendicino, who now takes over the country’s leaner public safety department. With former Public Safety Minister Bill Blair’s move to the Queen’s Privy Council and new role as minister of emergency preparedness, that function has been moved from public safety to the department of emergency preparedness.
Mendicino stickhandled Canada’s immigration policy as the country tried to hit the ambitious immigration goal of 401,000 new permanent residents this year during the Covid-19 global pandemic.
Let us all congratulate and wish Minister Sean Fraser all the best in his new role!
