In 2015, Catherine McKenna was elected the first female Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre and appointed Minister of Environment and Climate Change. She was re-elected in 2019 and serves as Minister of Infrastructure and Communities. She announced that she will be stepping down from this position in October 2023.

As the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, McKenna is responsible for overseeing the historic Investing in Canada Plan designed to create economic growth, support a low-carbon, green economy and build inclusive communities. Her mandate includes leveraging private sector capital to build infrastructure in the public interest, whether that’s by working with the Canada Infrastructure Bank or addressing our country’s long-term infrastructure needs and priorities.

As the former Minister of Environment and Climate Change, McKenna helped negotiate the Paris Climate Agreement, negotiated Canada's first comprehensive climate plan with a national price on pollution, announced a ban on single-use plastics by 2021, expanded parks and protected areas across Canada, and brought in the Impact Assessment Act to better protect the environment and build a stronger economy. As Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, she is working with communities across Canada to build thousands of projects, creating jobs across the country, and building a cleaner, stronger, and more inclusive country.

McKenna previously worked as a lawyer in Canada and Indonesia, was a negotiator with the UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor, taught at the Munk School of Global Affairs and co-founded the charitable organization Level Justice. She earned degrees from the University of Toronto, the London School of Economics, and McGill Law and is called to the Ontario and New York bars. Catherine is a long-time resident of Ottawa Centre, is a mother of three, and is an avid swimmer and canoeist.

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