Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has opted for a mix of stability and new faces in her first cabinet.
Travis Toews will return to his previous role as finance minister after narrowly losing to Smith on the sixth ballot in the UCP leadership vote.
Smith has also awarded Kaycee Madu and Nathan Neudorf with the title of deputy premiers. Madu, who is currently the minister of labor and immigration, will lead a new ministry of skilled trades and professions, and Neudorf will be in charge of infrastructure.
“Our team will work every day to earn your trust, make bold changes and continue to build the most innovative, entrepreneurial and welcoming place in the world,” Smith said in a press release.
After being sworn in at a ceremony on Monday, there will be 27 ministers around the cabinet table. This is an increase from the current 20 ministers and five associate ministers.
Smith retains the current ministers of health, education, justice and advanced education.
The appointed are the following:
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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trades and Specialized Professions – Kaycee Madu
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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure – Nathan Neudorf
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Chairman of the Treasury Board and Minister of Finance – Travis Toews
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Minister of Employment, Economy and Northern Development – Brian Jean
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Minister of Justice – Tyler Shandro
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Health Minister: Jason Copping
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Energy Minister – Pete Guthrie
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Minister of Environment and Protected Areas – Sonya Savage
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Minister of Technology and Innovation – Nate Glubish
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Minister of Affordability and Utilities – Matt Jones
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Minister of Municipal Affairs – Rebecca Schulz
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Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors – Devin Dreeshen
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Minister of Public Safety – Mike Ellis
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Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation – Nate Horner
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Minister of Forests, Parks and Tourism – Todd Loewen
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Minister of Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism – Rajan Sawhney
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Minister of Education – Adriana LaGrange
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Minister of Higher Education – Demetrios Nicolaides
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Alberta Service Minister and Red Tape Reduction – Dale Nally
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Minister of Indigenous Relations – Rick Wilson
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Minister for Older People, Communities and Social Services – Jeremy Nixon
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Minister of Children’s Services – Mickey Amery
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Minister for Mental Health and Addictions – Nicholas Milliken
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Minister of Culture: Jason Luan
University of Calgary political science professor Lisa Young says Smith’s election suggests his policies are unlikely to deviate much from those of former premier Jason Kenney’s government.
It also shows he has to make inroads with ministers, the UCP caucus and party members, Young said.
“He’s decided to stick with Kenney’s core people to keep the party together, at least before the next election,” Young said.
Lori Williams, an associate professor of political studies at Mount Royal University, said she was surprised to see Smith retain LaGrange, Shandro and Nicolaides in portfolios where their actions have been controversial.
Savage, who has served as energy minister since 2019, will now move to the reconfigured environment and protected areas ministry while former MP Peter Guthrie takes up his old role.
Putting Guthrie in charge of energy, where she doesn’t have much experience or a high profile, suggests that Smith, herself, “plans to be the de facto energy secretary,” Williams said.
Many of the new and current cabinet ministers are in constituencies where the UCP may be more vulnerable to the opposition NDP in the upcoming provincial election in 2023, Williams said.
New ministries, changes in priorities
Five of Smith’s six leadership contest rivals will be in cabinet, including Jean in the revamped Labour, Economic and Northern Development ministry and Loewen in the new combined Forestry, Parks and Tourism ministry.
Schulz will take over municipal affairs and Sawhney moves to a revamped ministry of trade, immigration and multiculturalism.
Leela Aheer, who came seventh in the leadership contest, was dropped from the cabinet.
Smith has also appointed 11 parliamentary secretaries, including portfolios such as EMS reform, Ukrainian refugee settlement, multiculturalism and the status of women.
The number of women at the cabinet table has dropped from eight to five. Smith has said he wanted a better balance of rural and urban MPs in the cabinet. Almost half of the ministers are still from Calgary.
Young said the moves reveal Smith’s lack of commitment to gender equality.
Critics on Friday decried the removal of jobs and housing as named ministerial portfolios.
In a press release, Alberta Federation of Labor president Gil McGowan said Smith’s move “made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t care about Alberta workers, except as units of production.”
Public Interest Alberta said in a press release that no housing minister shows that Smith is out of touch with the issues of rising homelessness and rising housing prices.
Smith’s press secretary says the Minister for Labour, Economy and Northern Development will be responsible for Labour, and the Seniors, Community and Social Services portfolio will include housing.
Devin Dreeshen, who resigned as Agriculture and Forestry Minister last year after staffers alleged he frequently drank alcohol in the legislature and abused it while intoxicated, is returning to cabinet.
A former employee who raised concerns about Dreeshen is suing the government for wrongful dismissal.
They have disappeared from the cabinet the leader of the House of Government and Minister of Finance Jason Nixon; the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Ric McIver; Transport Minister Prasad Panda; The Minister of Labor and Economy, Tanya Fir; and the Minister of the Environment, Whitney Issik.
In a live webcast with the Western Standard on Friday afternoon, Smith said some people left outside the cabinet were the “former prime minister’s hand” in some of the most problematic files the government of Prime Minister Jason Kenney.
His press secretary said Smith was not doing any other media interviews Friday.
Speaking on the Western Standard webcast, Smith said he wants his cabinet picks to represent “stability but boldness”.
He promised that Savage and Guthrie will make progress in the fight against the blight of abandoned oil and gas sites across the province.
The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m