Quebec's Education Minister Michelle Courchesne and International Relations Minister Monique Gagnon-Tremblay have announced they will not seek re-election once their current mandates are over.

"Miss Courchesne announced today that she would be leaving," said Quebec Premier Jean Charest. "She is a strong minister."

"Michelle Courchesne will be deeply missed," he added.

Courchesne was named president of the Treasury Board in 2010 and Minister of Education after Line Beauchamp's resignation in the heat of the student conflict.

Opposing parties have been criticizing Courchesne's integrity and have requested her resignation after interim Auditor General Michel Samson criticized her in a report for the way she managed a sports infrastructure program. He claimed she picked projects arbitrarily.

This was the second time fingers were pointed at Courchesne in less than a year. In November, Auditor General Renaud Lachance issued a report stating there was important work missing in the attribution of places in daycares. This dates back to when Courchesne was Quebec's family minister.

A long career

Monique Gagnon-Tremblay was elected for the first time in Saint-François in 1985.

She became Minister of International Relations in August 2010.

"She has been a personal friend for well over 28 years," said Charest. "She's a woman who has left a big mark on Quebec politics. She created solid policies in every department she worked in."

Recently, Gagnon-Tremblay was under fire for things she told UN representatives who were concerned about Bill 78, the law put in place to end the student crisis.

She brought forward the first agreement in 11 years between the Charest government and a group representing 475,000 employees of the public and parapublic sectors.

These two resignations come only a few weeks after Transport Minister Norman MacMillan and Yvon Vallières, minister responsible for Canadian intergovernmental affairs, announced they would be leaving politics.

Charest said on Monday that the loses suffered by his party are similar to those seen within the Parti Quebecois. He said people leaving their positions is a normal part of the political world.

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• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  Scores of Quebec students were baring it all -- or close to it -- for the cause of cheap tuition. A few took to the streets of Montreal wearing nothing but their underwear May 3, 2012, in the latest protest against fee hikes. (Photo Paul Chiasson, La Presse Canadienne)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  One Facebook group cited several reasons for the unique protest. They included: catching the government's attention; the mayor not wanting protesters to wear masks; distracting police officers; and also because it's spring, they said. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  However, with a low of 14°C, it wasn't exactly balmy spring weather in Montreal. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  Protest organizers asked students to arrive at a downtown park fully clothed but carrying backpacks. From there, they planned to disrobe and march across the Plateau neighbourhood. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  They encouraged students to carry signs and wear body paint, but insisted that full-frontal nudity would "NOT be tolerated." (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  Public nakedness is illegal - something the Montreal police force felt compelled to warn people on its Twitter feed. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  "It is forbidden to walk naked in the streets of Montreal, given Article 174 of the Criminal Code," the police tweet said. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  Meanwhile, the student protesters didn't just lose clothes Thursday. They also lost a few supporters. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  Students at CEGEP de Sherbrooke voted narrowly to end their nine-week strike. There are still 150,000 striking students - which still represents nearly one-third of Quebec post-secondary students but is significantly less than at the height of the classroom walkouts. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  That said, the protest leaders are sticking to their belief that the Charest government must scrap fee hikes. The government has shown no inclination of doing so. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

• Quebec Underwear Protest May 3

  There are now fears that the current semester might have to be cancelled. (Photo by Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)