Heritage Minister and Liberal MP Pascale St-Onge will be resigning at the end of her term and not seeking re-election, according to a source within the Liberal party.
St-Onge was elected in 2021 and represents the Quebec riding of Brome–Missisquoi.
According to the source, St-Onge is leaving politics to spend more time with her family after having recently had a child.
St-Onge co-currently serves in a formal role with the Tourism and the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec on an interim basis.
The source told Radio-Canada that St-Onge will not be a candidate in the next election but that she intends to carry out her term and will be releasing her proposal to modernize CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate soon.
She was initially thought to have announced changes to the mandate last November.
“I am looking forward to soon announcing important steps that will help modernize CBC/Radio-Canada. This is what we committed to Canadians and what Canadians expect,” reads a statement from early October.
“Like the rest of the news and information sector, the public broadcaster is facing a significant drop in commercial revenue due to the dominant role of foreign tech giants in the ad market. As a government, we are working toward strengthening our independent public broadcaster.”
The source noted that St-Onge hopes to have her mandate enshrined in law soon, including a distinction that programming for Radio-Canada’s French services is independent of CBC.
However, little can be done until Parliament returns, which won’t be until the end of next month at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Jennifer O’Connell, parliamentary secretary to Finance Minister Dominc LeBlanc, also announced she would be stepping away from politics.
O’Connell represents the riding of Pickering-Uxbridge and was elected in 2015.
She cited the “stress and worry” of online attacks impacting her family and staff as being a “major factor” in wanting a return to private life.
“I’ve had to worry about the safety of my staff at times, and I’ve had to make too many phone calls to my family letting them know they might see some concerning things but not to worry I am safe,” reads her statement released Friday.