Quebec Premier Marois announces new cabinet

Stressing several times that her government is aiming toachieve Quebec's separation from Canada, new Premier Pauline Marois announced a slate of ministers on Wednesday that includes some Parti Qubcois stalwarts as well as quite a few freshly minted legislators.

"On Sept. 4, Quebecers chose to turn the page, to open a new chapter in Quebec's history," Marois said in Quebec City. "My government is a sovereigntist one. We have the conviction that the future of Quebec is that of a sovereign country.

"To remain a province in Canada constitutes an unacceptable risk for Quebec.... What we'll do in the context of a minority government is to protect eachparcel ofsovereignty in our hands, and strive for more."

The PQ leaderwas sworn in as the province's 30th premier, the first woman to hold the job, in a private mid-afternoon ceremony, and presented her cabinet at around 4:15 p.m. ET.

Her ministers include:

• Nicolas Marceau, a former professor of economics at UQAM, the University of Quebec in Montreal, who becomes finance minister.
• Industry minister is laine Zakab,the former CEOof theFTQ labour-sponsored investment fund.
• Dr. Rjean Hbert, the former dean of medicine at the University of Sherbrooke, becomes health minister.
• Franois Gendron, the dean of Quebec's national assembly with 35 years' service, was named deputy premier and minister for agriculture and fisheries.
• The minister for higher education and research is Pierre Duchesne.
• Martine Ouellet becomes minister of natural resources.
• Agns Maltais was named labour minister.
• Bertrand St-Arnaud is the new justice minister.
• Bernard Drainville, a former Marois rival,gets the portfolio of democratic institutions and citizen participation.
• Marie Malavoy is education minister.

As she introduced each one, she gavethemexplicit policy mandates to carry out the most crowd-pleasing of which was her direction to Duchesne, in charge of universities, to revoke the former Liberal government's crisis-spurring tuition hike. The room burst into applause at that instruction.

Duchesne later said he wasn't sure whether cancelling the tuition hike would be on the agenda at the government's first cabinet meeting on Thursday, but in any case, "we won't wait long."

"We need to get at this soon. We'll meet with everyone," Duchesne promised.

Marois also tasked her ministers with bringing in a fixed-date election law, a new party financing law, a secularism charter, a family doctor for every Quebecer and a new French Language Charter.She said her priority will be integrity implementing the recommendations of the Charbonneau commission into construction industry corruption as soon as they're published, and working with the public service to make it the most efficient possible.

"That means managing Quebecers' money with the utmost rigour," the new premier said.

Lo Bureau-Blouin gets post

While Gendron is the most senior MNA named to cabinet, the youngest to receive a post Wednesday was Lo Bureau-Blouin, namedparliamentary secretary to the premier for youth issues.Bureau-Blouin was a leader of Quebec's student movement and a headline figure in the months-long student strike until June 1, when he completed histerm as president of FECQ, the Quebec federation of college students.

Other nominations that raised a few eyebrows include Sylvain Gaudreault,a first-time minister whotakes overin transport and municipal affairs two domains that will be in thefiring line as the Charbonneaucommissionunfolds.

Daniel Breton, the Quebec Green Party founder who wasnamed environment minister and minister for sustainable development,isa first-time MNA. And he's not the only one. Threeother freshly minted MNAs are getting portfolios: Duchesne in higher education, Zakab in industry and Diane De Courcy, who takes onimmigration as well as the hot-button Bill 101 bailiwick.

Marceau, who has never held a cabinetposition, gets the crucial finance portfolio. His predecessor, Liberal Raymond Bachand, said Wednesday he has respect for the economist but worries that he will be "surrounded by radicals" in cabinet. Bachand has done all but formally announce that he will be running for the Liberal leadership in the wake of Jean Charest's resignation.

Cabinet one-thirdwomen

In all, Marois's new cabinethas 23 ministers apart from the premier, plus two other non-portfolio MNAs who will sit in on meetings as a result of their legislative functions. That'stwo fewer than the cabinet of the outgoing Liberals, but five more thanthe minorityLiberal government of 2007-08.

Eight ofthe 23 ministers are women.

The PQ's minority government has 54 seats in Quebec's national assembly. The Liberals hold 50, the Coalition Avenir Qubechas 19 and Qubec Solidaire won two.

The PQ ousted the Liberals from nine years in power in the Sept. 4 provincial election.

Full list of new Quebec cabinet ministers and their portfolios:

• Pauline Marois: premier and minister for youth.

• Franois Gendron: deputy premier and minister for agriculture and fisheries.

• Stphane Bdard:Treasury Board president.

• Nicolas Marceau: finance.

• Agns Maltais: Labour and status of women.

• Bernard Drainville: democratic institutions and citizenship participation.

• Bertrand St-Arnaud: justice.

• Nicole Lger: families.

• Marie Malavoy: education, leisure and sport.

• Jean-Franois Lise:international relations, Francophonieand trade.

• Sylvain Gaudreault: transport and municipal affairs.

• Martine Ouellet:natural resources.

• Alexandre Cloutier:intergovernmental affairs and sovereigntist governance.

• Rjean Hbert: health, social services and seniors.

• Vronique Hivon: public health andyouth protection.

• Maka Kotto: culture and communications.

• Stphane Bergeron: public security.

• Pierre Duchesne:higher education, research, science and technology.

• Diane De Courcy: immigration, citizenship and the French Language Charter.

• Daniel Breton:environment and sustainable development.

• Pascal Brub: tourism.

• laine Zakab:industry.

• Gatan Lelivre: minister for regions.

• lizabeth Larouche: aboriginal affairs.

Also sitting in on cabinet meetings, but with no portfolios of their own:

• Yves-Franois Blanchet, government whip.

• Marjolain Dufour: caucus chair.

Responbility for Quebec's regions was divvied up between14 of the newcabinet members.A further 11 Parti Qubcois MNAs, including Lo Bureau-Blouin,were named parliamentary secretaries, positions in which they assist ministers with announcements and legislative matters.