OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is turning to two provincial civil servants to fill Senate seats for New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

Legal and constitutional expert Judith Keating fills a vacancy in the upper chamber for New Brunswick.

Keating is a 30-year veteran of New Brunswick’s public service and was the first woman to be that province’s deputy minister of justice.

Legal ethics expert Brent Cotter will fill a seat for Saskatchewan.

Cotter, a former deputy minister of intergovernmental and Indigenous affairs in that province, was one of the first professors in the field of legal ethics in Canada.

Trudeau has now named 52 independent senators since 2016.

Senate appointments are officially made by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister. Since 2016, Trudeau has selected senators from recommendations made by an independent advisory board. People interested in becoming senators submit applications via the advisory board.

The Senate has 105 seats. After these two appointments, there are five vacancies.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2020.