OTTAWA - Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo will become the first cabinet minister to submit to questioning in the Senate as the upper house adapts to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plan to create a more independent, less partisan chamber.
Senators have been unable to hold their daily question period because Trudeau has not named a government leader in the Senate, the person who would normally respond to queries and shepherd government legislation through the upper house.
The government has offered instead to have cabinet ministers appear before the Senate to answer questions and Tootoo is the first up later today.
Senators chose to invite Tootoo first because his portfolio is of special interest to the four Atlantic provinces, where no opposition MPs were elected who could grill the government in the House of Commons.
Trudeau kicked all senators out of the national Liberal caucus two years ago and has set up an arm's-length advisory board to recommend non-partisan nominees for future Senate appointments.
He intends to eventually choose a "government representative" in the upper house from among the first five senators named through the new "merit-based" process.
