Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard held steady in the key finance and health portfolios on Thursday as he shuffled his cabinet for the first time since being elected in 2014.

Carlos Leitao will stay on as finance minister and Gaetan Barrette will continue to oversee the Health Department.

One of the big winners in the shuffle was Liberal newcomer Dominique Anglade, a former president of the Coalition for Quebec's Future, who was given the economy portfolio.

Couillard also gave more responsibility to former treasury board minister Martin Coiteux, who will head the municipal affairs and public security departments as well as having to deal with issues pertaining to Montreal.

Pierre Moreau, the former municipal affairs minister, became the third education minister in 20 months.

Couillard said the shuffle will give his government fresh impetus as it heads into its third year in power this spring.

Ex-public security minister Lise Theriault will remain deputy premier after coming back from a sick leave she took last fall amid reports provincial police officers had abused native women in northwestern Quebec.

Theriault was named minister responsible for women's issues and small- and medium-sized businesses.

The Liberals were elected with a majority government in April 2014 and the next election is set for the fall of 2018.

The Opposition Parti Quebecois dismissed the shuffle as a "game of musical chairs" involving ministers who were "already incompetent" in their previous portfolios.

"If they were incompetent sitting in one chair, are they going to become more competent sitting in a different one?" said PQ house leader Bernard Drainville.

He was accompanied by PQ Leader Pierre Karl Peladeau, who addressed recent suggestions he would no longer be in the job come the 2018 election because of reported disenchantment with his leadership.

"I'll be there," he said. "Absolutely."