Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS

BuzzFeed Canada: Tell me exactly, what is it you will be doing in this new advisory role? What is your mandate?

Randy Boissonnault: The role breaks down to three components for me. The first is a coordination role across all different ministries in the government. So we're talking National Defence, we're talking Public Security, Justice, Health, just to name a few.

The second role is to be a focal point for the community. As issues come up, it's important for the community to know who to contact and how to get information.

Thirdly, my role will be to shine light and attention on important issues, and then serve as a spokesperson for government.

BuzzFeed: There's some questions around ensuring that your role is not just symbolic, that there's actually action behind intent. So what would your message be to community members who really want to see change and action?

Boissonnault: I'm not in government to run a process that doesn't lead anywhere. I'm here to get results. The prime minister has asked me to help the government respond in a clear and substantive way.

We raised the pride flag on the Hill for the first time. And for a lot of people that was an important symbol, but other people also see that as substantive change.

We're going to be doing both. Symbols matter, people notice, the trans community noticed that we had the pride flag and trans flag up there with the Canadian flags. That's change. Do we need to move on all the other substantive issues? Absolutely. So I want to see gender markers on official government documents? Yes. But if you think about all the different pathways that have to go through government before we can actually get that information, it's not as simple as it seems when you see it as a line item on a bullet on a recommendation.