Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has welcomed Burnaby North–Seymour MP Terry Beech to the ministry in a cabinet shuffle July 26.
Beech is now Minister of Citizens’ Services, his first cabinet position. He’s Burnaby’s first elected minister, according to a statement by his chief of staff.
Citizens’ Services is a new portfolio for the federal government.
Beech’s most recent role was parliamentary secretary to the deputy prime minister and minister of finance. Before that, he was parliamentary secretary to the minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard; to the minister of economic development and official languages (B.C.); and to the minister of transport; and as parliamentary secretary for science.
“Terry is known as a customer service-oriented MP, and now he can expand his commitment to Canadians on a truly national basis,” said his chief of staff Julie Astley.
Beech began his political career at the age of 18 as a city councillor in Nanaimo, where he served from 1999 to 2002.
He was elected as MP in 2015, when he beat NDP candidate Carol Baird Ellan by 3,401 votes (he garnered 18,938). In the 2019 federal election, he won by 1,585 votes with a total of 17,770, and in 2021, he won by 5,127 votes with a total of 19,445, according to Elections Canada.
Trudeau’s cabinet shakeup saw about three-quarters of cabinet positions switching hands, with seven rookie ministers, including Beech, moving to the front bench.
Jonathan Wilkinson, the Liberal for North Vancouver, will keep his post in cabinet as minister of energy and resources, formerly called natural resources.
– with files from Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press
