Belanger Embraces Portfolio Change

Belanger Embraces Portfolio Change

Monday, February 06, 2006 at 15:18

 

 

A provincial cabinet minister from the North is welcoming the new challenge he’s taking on in the NDP government.

 

Former Northern Affairs minister Buckley Belanger was named the new minister of Community Resources in this past Friday’s cabinet shuffle.

 

Belanger says the premier told him he wanted him in the former Social Services department to help make sure it wasn’t leaving Aboriginal people behind.

 

Belanger says the move wasn’t his call, but he supports it.

 

Fellow northerner Joan Beatty is now in charge of Northern Affairs.

 

Belanger says when he heard Beatty would replace him at Northern Affairs, it was easy for him to endorse his departure from that department.

 

He’s predicting Beatty will be a better Northern Affairs minister than he was.

 

Belanger had the Northern Affairs portfolio for the last three years.