OTTAWA — Patty Hajdu believes her professional career prior to entering politics has set her up well to take on her new responsibilities as federal health minister.
"In some regards, I've been preparing my whole life," the Thunder Bay-Superior North MP said after she was sworn in Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa.
By most measures, the new assignment gives her responsibilities for things that affect more Canadians more directly than those she was in charge of as minister of employment, workforce development and labour.
Hajdu was scheduled to receive briefings from health ministry bureaucrats starting Thursday morning to be brought up to speed on some of the more urgent files.
She noted that the Liberal party campaigned on universal pharmacare, increasing access to primary care physicians, and addressing the opioid crisis, but the issue of assisted dying is in her sights as well.
A recent Quebec court ruling on assisted dying, Hajdu said, gave suggestions to the government around how to improve the law "so that we continue to protect vulnerable Canadians and ensure that people have access to those services when they're appropriate."
She worked at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit for nine years as a health promotion planner, followed by a few years as the city's drug strategy coordinator.
"Much of my professional career was in and around the area of public health...I feel that I am in a way back home, with files that I am very comfortable with and very passionate about," Hajdu said.
She plans to spend the coming weeks preparing for her new responsibilities.
Hajdu said she'll pick up a "dossier of homework" almost immediately, to help her obtain a deeper understanding of key issues.
