Familiar Faces in New Places – Assembling Alberta’s New Cabinet
On the morning of June 9th, the Cabinet for the 31st Legislature was sworn-in at Government House in downtown Edmonton. There will be no new MLAs around the decision-making table to start off the term; however, some could find themselves in junior minister or parliamentary secretary roles in short order. This Cabinet will also represent half of the government caucus.
Premier and Intergovernmental Relations – Danielle Smith
Deputy Premier and Public Safety and Emergency Services – Mike Ellis
Advanced Education – Rajan Sawhney
Affordability and Utilities and Vice-chair of Treasury Board – Nathan Neudorf
Agriculture and Irrigation – RJ Sigurdson
Arts, Culture and Status of Women – Tanya Fir
Children and Family Services – Searle Turton
Education – Demetrios Nicolaides
Energy and Minerals – Brian Jean
Environment and Protected Areas – Rebecca Schulz
Forestry and Parks – Todd Loewen
Health – Adriana LaGrange
Immigration and Multiculturalism – Muhammad Yaseen
Indigenous Relations – Rick Wilson
Infrastructure – Pete Guthrie
Jobs, Economy and Trade – Matt Jones
Justice – Mickey Amery
Mental Health and Addiction – Dan Williams
Municipal Affairs – Ric McIver
Seniors, Community and Social Services – Jason Nixon
Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction – Dale Nally
Technology and Innovation – Nate Glubish
Tourism and Sport – Joseph Schow
Transportation and Economic Corridors – Devin Dreeshen
Treasury Board and Finance – Nate Horner
Shane Getson will be promoted to the Caucus Leadership team as the new Chief Whip while Joseph Schow will retain his position as Government House Leader.
There will also be four Cabinet policy committees – Alberta First (Garth Rowswell), Building Communities (Martin Long), Economic Diversification (Jackie Lovely), and Public Safety and Wellness (Scott Sinclair). These committees signal the policy priorities of this government and their chairs will have some influence on the development of new and amended legislation.
The ministerial composition breakdown looks something like this:
· 16 Rural/Small Urban MLAs
· 9 Calgary MLAs
· 5 Female MLAs
· 0 New MLAs
Although there were no new faces appointed to ministerial positions, that does not mean there is a shortage of interesting appointments to be aware of. The appointment of Mike Ellis as the new Deputy Premier is one that is at the top of mind. When Danielle Smith first took over as Premier, she had announced that she would have two deputies – Kaycee Madu and Nathan Neudorf. Those two appointments were in key ridings the UCP hoped to retain after the election, but we did see Ellis with Smith at many major campaign events and announcements throughout the elections, so this appointment reaffirms Smith’s trust in Ellis and his standing among his colleagues.
MLA for Calgary-Hays Ric McIver once again finds himself around the cabinet table. He has served as a minister for every Conservative Premier in Alberta since Alison Redford in 2012 and will return as the Minister of Municipal Affairs. Although he did not start Smith’s tenure as a Minister, he was hand-picked by her to lead the discussions on the Calgary arena deal.
Nate Horner has been given a significant promotion to start the new term. He will take over as the President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance following the political retirement of former MLA Travis Toews. He is also not the first Horner to hold the position, following in the footsteps of Doug Horner who served in the role under former Premier Ralph Klein. While is was vehemently qualified to hold his previous position as Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, he will be thrust into the spotlight in what is arguably one of the most important positions in the provincial government. He was instrumental in supporting the Alberta Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit and has served as the Associate Minister of Rural Economic Development and on the Economy and Affordability Cabinet Policy Committee.
Speaking of important ministries, former Education Minister Adriana LaGrange will move into Health – Alberta’s largest ministry with the largest budget to go along with it. Minster LaGrange served as the back up to former Health Minister Tyler Shandro during the COVID-19 pandemic, so she does bring some hands-on experience to the portfolio.
In her appointment, some had raised questions about her past experience as the former president of the Red Deer Pro-Life and Alberta Pro-Life groups with respect to abortion legislation. Danielle Smith confirmed that her government will not be changing abortion laws and defended her decision. “Everyone also knows that Adriana LaGrange is one of our most competent ministers, she’s done a tremendous job in education, and we have an enormous task ahead of us in health care to implement our agenda.”
Brian Jean will take over the energy portfolio which has been rebranded as “Energy and Minerals” going forward. Many had speculated that Jean could find himself as the next Minister of Justice; however, appointing a Fort McMurray MLA that has a long history of advocating for the oil and gas industry both domestically and internationally makes sense from a cabinet and political perspective.
The justice portfolio has been given to Mickey Amery, the former Children’s Services minster. He is the son of former MLA Moe Amery and will be the first Justice Minister of Muslim faith in Alberta’s history. His legal practice mainly focused on Indigenous and consumer law.
During the media availability held after the Cabinet swearing-in ceremony, Smith addressed the concern that there were no UCP MLAs from Edmonton elected so there will be no Edmonton representation in Cabinet.
“Look, we have three excellent Cabinet ministers from the Edmonton area: Searle Turton (Children and Family Services), Dale Nally (Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction) and Nate Glubish (Technology and Innovation). They’re going to be spearheading my outreach into Edmonton.”
On the subject of the announcement of parliamentary secretaries, that announcement will be coming sometime in the future.
“We will have parliamentary secretaries. I just need a little bit more time to consult with my cabinet ministers on what their needs are. Parliamentary secretaries offer support to a minister in their area and often have a very defined purpose. But I don’t want to prejudge what that is going to be - I want to consult with my ministers first.”
A full list of newly appointed deputy ministers can also be found of the Government of Alberta’s website. Of note on this front is the return of Larry Laumeyer to the public service. He will serve as the Deputy Minister of Energy and Minerals under Brian Jean. He had resigned his position in Jason Kenney’s Premier’s Office in the summer of 2021 to become the CEO of Ducks Unlimited shortly after his involvement in the controversial “Sky Palace” dinner during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As usual, readers can expect to see movement in Cabinet throughout the upcoming term. The list of parliamentary secretaries can sometimes be insightful into learning who is being groomed for a future cabinet appointment and where this government has specific focuses in certain ministries. It will also be important for readers to pay attention to who will be given certain critic portfolios on the opposition side of the house, but we will save that discussion for another issue of The NEWS.
