Khanjin relinquishes environment minister duties while on parental leave

Editor's note: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.

Ontario's Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Andrea Khanjin has taken parental leave, turning her ministerial duties over to another member of Premier Doug Ford's cabinet.

Todd McCarthy, minister of public and business service delivery and procurement minister, has taken them over for the meantime, a spokesperson for the environment minister's office confirmed to The Trillium on Wednesday.

Khanjin, 36, said in July that she was expecting her second child.

She was first elected MPP for Barrie–Innisfil in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022. Over Ford's Progressive Conservatives' first mandate, she'd been parliamentary assistant to the environment minister. After the last election, Ford appointed her parliamentary assistant to the minister of intergovernmental affairs, a cabinet role he holds along with being premier. Ford named Khanjin to his cabinet, making her environment minister, on Sept. 22, 2023.

She'd worked in politics for Conservative MPs in former prime minister Stephen Harper's government and with Ontario's PC Party before putting her own name forward.

McCarthy, 61, became Durham's MPP in the June 2, 2022 election. Shortly after, Ford appointed him parliamentary assistant to the president of the Treasury Board. McCarthy first joined Ford's cabinet on Sept. 4, 2023, when the premier made him associate minister of transportation — which he'd only serve for a few weeks.

Ford appointed McCarthy as public and business service delivery minister on Sept. 22, 2023, a few days after the previous minister resigned from Ford's cabinet and the PC caucus after admitting to providing Ontario's integrity commissioner incorrect information about a Las Vegas trip involving a Greenbelt developer, as was first reported by The Trillium.

Before running for the PCs, McCarthy worked as a lawyer.

Ontario's environment minister is responsible for various provincial laws meant to preserve the quality of the province's natural characteristics, including water sources, to protect endangered species, and more.

Clarification: This story was updated at 2:13 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 2 to clarify that Minister Andrea Khanjin said in July she was expecting her second child.