The federal government has appointed former Mountie Kevin Brosseau as Canada's new "fentanyl czar," a role created as part of a last-minute deal to avert a major trade war with the United States.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced that former RCMP deputy commissioner Kevin Brosseau will be taking on the job of working with Canada’s law enforcement agencies and their U.S. counterparts to eradicate the “scourge of fentanyl.”