OTTAWA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc was appointed as the new finance minister on Monday in a swearing-in ceremony held at the Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

The new finance minister said after the ceremony that his top priority will be lowering the cost of living for Canadians and strengthening ties with the United States.

LeBlanc, a personal friend of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau since childhood, joined Trudeau for dinner with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort recently.

The 57-year-old New Brunswick MP, first elected in 2000, is the son of former governor-general Roméo LeBlanc.

LeBlanc said he will keep the post of minister of inter-governmental affairs.

Chrystia Freeland abruptly resigned as the finance minister on Monday morning in a letter to Trudeau, saying they were at odds about the best path forward for the country.

The Liberal government's economic update was released Monday afternoon, revealing that the deficit was much larger than the target for the fiscal year that ended March 31. The update put the figure at 61.9 billion Canadian dollars (43.5 billion U.S. dollars) against the target of 40.1 billion Canadian dollars (28.2 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem

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