Sean Fraser to leave federal cabinet as PMO pushes to add Mark Carney

Housing Minister Sean Fraser will announce on Monday that he will not seek re-election in his Nova Scotia riding and will leave the federal cabinet during the next shuffle, CBC News has learned.

Sources say that cabinet shuffle could happen as soon as Wednesday.

The push to change Justin Trudeau's inner circle before the Christmas holidays comes as the prime minister and his senior advisers mount yet another effort to convince former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney to join the cabinet, according to multiple high-level Liberal sources.

The ongoing attempts to convince Carney to join cabinet were first reported by the Globe and Mail. Liberal sources tell CBC News that Carney has been more open to the idea than in the past, but it is still not a done deal.

But as they try to add Carney, the Prime Minister's Office is also preparing to lose Fraser — widely seen as one of the Liberals' best communicators — who has been handling the politically important housing file.

Sources say Fraser is leaving for family reasons, something he has commented on publicly before. The time and travel required by his portfolio makes it difficult to spend time in his rural Nova Scotia riding with his wife, eight-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.

Fraser's decision is unrelated to the push to add Carney to cabinet, sources say.

WATCH | Poilievre, Fraser trade shots over their housing plans:

Poilievre, Fraser trade shots over their housing plans

2 months ago

Duration 5:44

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Housing Minister Sean Fraser had an increasingly heated exchange in question period Tuesday, which started with Poilievre asking about his own promise to remove the GST on new homes sold for less than $1 million. The two men went on to call each other arrogant and incompetent.

Fraser has represented the riding of Central Nova in the House of Commons since 2015. His departure compounds the need for Trudeau to add new blood to his cabinet.

He already has to replace ministers who do not plan to seek re-election – including Minister of National Revenue Marie-Claude Bibeau; Carla Qualtrough, the minister of sport; Filomena Tassi, the minister responsible for economic development for southern Ontario; and Minister of Northern Affairs Dan Vandal.

Trudeau also has to find a full-time replacement for former Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault, who resigned from cabinet last month amid allegations about his business dealings and criticism of his shifting claims about his Indigenous ancestry.

Since Boissonnault's departure, Ginette Petitpas Taylor has added the employment portfolio to her duties as veterans affairs minister. She joined Anita Anand as a minister with two portfolios. Anand has been pulling double duty as president of the Treasury Board and transport minister ever since Pablo Rodriguez left cabinet and caucus to pursue the Quebec Liberal leadership.

Those openings — and the possibility that even more cabinet ministers may still decide not to seek re-election — provide ample opportunity for Trudeau to add new blood to the cabinet, including the long-courted Carney.

In September, Carney agreed to chair a Liberal Party task force on economic growth ahead of the next federal election. But while Carney's name has been linked to joining Trudeau's cabinet — or even running to succeed the prime minister as Liberal leader — he has to this point rejected those overtures.

There have also been conversations with Carney and other prominent Canadians about establishing a U.S.-Canada council to deal with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.

Although it is not required for a cabinet member to have a seat in Parliament, there have also been conversations with Carney about where he could run if and when needed.

Whether the cabinet includes Carney or not, multiple Liberal sources say there is a push to shake up the departments, with Wednesday as the target date. But the sources all caution that if the pieces don't fall into place, it could be pushed off until early January.

There is an urgency to refresh the cabinet not only to replace the retiring ministers, but also to reorient the focus of the government to respond to the challenges presented by Trump's return to the White House next month.

Trump has caused a political and economic frenzy with his threat of 25 per cent tariffs if Ottawa doesn't take what he considers to be appropriate steps to better secure the Canada-U.S. border against fentanyl and human trafficking.

He says he wants to see meaningful action by his inauguration on Jan. 20. The senior ranks of the Trudeau government acknowledge they need to have their full team in place and prepared by then to confront whatever comes next from the returning Trump administration.

That team won't include Fraser, who will speak publicly about his future on Monday. There has been speculation he might eventually consider a move to provincial politics.

The Nova Scotia Liberal Party was reduced to just two seats and third-party status in the provincial election on Nov. 26. Leader Zach Churchill stepped down after a judicial recount confirmed that he lost his riding in southwest Nova Scotia.