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Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton leaving government for private sector

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government has lost another cabinet member.

Labour Minister Monte McNaughton is leaving government for the private sector, Ford said in a statement Friday.

“He made this decision based on what is best for him and his family at this point in his life and career,” Ford said.

McNaughton has been a legislator for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex since 2011.

He has been a key ally to Ford by drumming up support from private sector unions in the construction industry.

“Monte helped build a coalition of private-sector union support that has never existed in the history of the Ontario PC Party,” Ford said.

“He introduced groundbreaking measures to protect workers’ rights and ensure that more workers are in the driver’s seat of their own careers.”

McNaughton has served as labour minister since 2019 and was infrastructure minister the year before.

The news comes a day after Ford pledged to return protected Greenbelt lands his government had selected to be removed in order to build housing.

Two cabinet ministers resigned in the wake of a pair of scathing reports into the government’s handling of those land swaps.