Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet Friday morning.

He moved Lawrence Macaulay from Agriculture to Veterans Affairs Minister and appointed Quebec MP Marie-Claude Bibeau as Canada’s first female Agriculture Minister.

MacAulay, a 30-year vet, had served as Federal Agriculture Minister since 2015.

Marie-Claude Bibeau moves from her previous portfolio as Minister of International Development. She was elected as the Member of Parliament for Compton-Stanstead in October of 2015.

Provincial Agriculture Minister David Marit says he’s looking forward to working with her.

“Obviously, we want to stress to her the importance of Agriculture here in Western Canada, but not just to Western Canada, but the country as a whole and what it means to Canada’s economy. I think we want to talk to her obviously about trade issues. International trade issues are front and center for us here. There’s also transportation issues as well as neonics and strychnine.”

Marit says he also wants to talk about what we’re doing here in Saskatchewan with respect to Agriculture and improving the environment.

Todd Lewis is President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan and was in Ottawa this week for the Canadian Federation of Agriculture Meetings.

”You know it’s one of the advantages of being part of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture this morning (Friday) we spent time around our board table talking with members from Quebec and the UPA and other farm organizations in Quebec. They’re quite satisfied with the appointment and feel that she’s well versed in Agriculture and certainly understands trade.”

Lewis says he looks forward to working with the new minister and hopes that the open relationship between the Federal Ministry and Saskatchewan producers continues.