Prime Minister Mark Carney named Montreal MP Marc Miller as the new minister of Canadian identity and culture on Monday in a small cabinet shuffle to fill holes created when Steven Guilbeault resigned from cabinet last week.
Guilbeault will remain a Liberal MP but submitted his resignation on Thursday after Ottawa signed an energy pact with Alberta that paves the way for a new oil pipeline to the British Columbia coast.
Miller was in former prime minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet between 2019 and 2025 but was not included in Carney's cabinet until now. In addition to culture and identity, he was named minister for official languages.
Government Transformation Minister Joël Lightbound replaces Guilbeault as Carney's Quebec lieutenant, while Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin assumes responsibility for the nature portfolio.
Guilbeault served as environment minister for four years before Carney became prime minister, and was also the heritage minister from 2019 to 2021.
Under the Trudeau government, the heritage ministry was focused in large part on taking on U.S. tech giants with legislation to compel them to make financial contributions to Canadian content and news.
As part of that effort, Guilbeault introduced the Online Streaming Act, which became law under his successor, along with the Online News Act.
Guilbeault was brought back to the ministry — now called Canadian identity and culture — after this spring's federal election. But the ministry's mandate was less clear as Carney's government moved away from tech regulation.
Carney created a separate ministerial portfolio for artificial intelligence, leaving open questions about the division of power in government on issues like copyright and AI. Both the AI minister and the justice minister are expected to introduce new bills dealing in part with online harms; the culture minister is also expected to play a role in tackling the issue.
There was no official media availability set up following the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall Monday afternoon, although Lightbound and Miller stopped to briefly speak to reporters.
When asked whether he would be taking the lead on online harms, Miller said he would "be working with the entire cabinet to deal with that."
"It's something that we want to get through because we know there are people that are being targeted and hurt," he said. "This is because of harms that occur in a way that they didn't when I was growing up, and it's caused people in some extreme cases to take their own lives."
Miller takes on the role as Carney's government faces heavy pressure from the U.S. to eliminate both the Online Streaming Act and Online News Act.
That's prompted cultural and broadcast industry groups to call on the current Liberal government to support the legislation in the context of trade talks with the United States.
Miller said Monday "there's a lot of reasons why we do trade with countries, but we can't compromise our arts and culture."
"Part of that means having a discussion with those countries that feel differently about what we try to preserve, but it's a fluid conversation," he added.
A coalition representing the cultural sector said in a news release Monday the sector has high expectations for the new minister.
"Protecting the cultural exemption in the upcoming CUSMA review, regulating generative artificial intelligence, safeguarding copyright, and fully implementing the Online Streaming Act are among the priorities of CDCE members," the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took aim at Miller's track record in an online post Monday afternoon. Miller previously served as immigration minister and as minister of Crown-Indigenous relations and Indigenous services.
"The Trudeau Immigration Minister who helped ruin the immigration system, double housing costs, inflate food prices, and unleash crime is BACK IN THE LIBERAL CABINET. Same costly, incompetent Liberal gang as the last ten years," Poilievre posted on X.
Lightbound was asked whether the Liberals could lose support in Quebec. Speaking in French, he responded that people he's spoken to understand that the world has changed and there is a need for "economic realism."
He said Carney's government is focused on building a strong economy while respecting values like protecting the environment.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
