June
20, 2005
Reorganization
of Government and the Cabinet Shuffle
On
June 5, 2001, 23 days after the landslide election, an
"Order
in Council" was passed which restructured government,
creating 20 full ministries and 8 ministers without portfolio
($25,000 a year ministers of state). One clause in the
2001 Order said that "The Ministry of Environment,
Lands and Parks is renamed the Ministry of Sustainable
Resource Management." The new cabinet still has 20
full ministers, including the reinstated Ministry of the
Environment, but 5 ministers of state have been eliminated.
The Order in Council that restructured government as of
June 16, 2005, is not yet posted to the government's website,
but when it is it will provide a little more detail than
the "backgrounder"
to the news release that summarizes ministerial responsibilities.
Media
coverage focuses on personalities, who was appointed to
which ministry. The cabinet shuffle not only changed the
players, but it also restructured government. Responsibility
for social housing was transferred from the Minister of
Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services (which has
been taken apart) to the Minister of Forests and Range,
Rich Coleman. In former organizations responsibility for
government's policy on housing went with the minister
whose responsibilities included municipalities since they
are major participants in the construction of social housing.
In the 2005 reorganization the only logic that seems to
justify moving housing to forestry is that some houses
are made of wood. BC
Housing Management Commission, which administers 33,200
units of social housing and includes Independent
Living BC, assisted living, is now part of Coleman's
reorganized Forests and Range Ministry. At the same time
that Rich Coleman takes responsibility for restructuring
BC's forest industry so as to appease the US and takes
responsibility for restructuring the industry and communities
following the beetle kill of the pine forest, he also
takes responsibility for dealing with a major part of
social policy that deals with homelessness. The very least
anyone can say is that it is a strange mix.
The
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has been replaced
by the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, with Minister
Pat Bell (promoted from minister of state for mining).
The new minister is still responsible for commercial fisheries,
fish processing, and aquaculture licensing and regulation
although you wouldn't know it from the title of the ministry.
The big surprise is the Minister of Agriculture is also
responsible for the allocation of Crown land, land use
planning and species at risk coordination. That changes
what was a relatively low key ministry into one of the
most important ministries in government.
The
new Minister of the Environment has responsibility for
fish and wildlife habitat and species protection. If Barry
Penner does his job in the reinstated ministry, watch
for conflict with Pat Bell over fish farms and protection
of wild salmon. Penner also has responsibility, as did
former Ministers of the Environment before 2001, for parks,
wilderness and protected areas, which again could put
him in conflict with Bell who has responsibility for all
crown lands.
Colin
Hansen, former Minister of Finance, is now the Minister
of Economic Development, following in the steps of Glen
Clark who was also once shuffled out of finance and into
a similarly titled ministry. Hansen's responsibilities
include apprenticeship, moved from Advanced Education,
and the BC Olympic Games Secretariat, not to be confused
with full control over the 2010 Olympics which is federally
dominated, although BC is responsible for 100% of any
cost overruns. The BC Federation of Labour has expressed
concerns over changes to apprenticeship training; it would
signal a new beginning if Hansen promptly met with Jim
Sinclair to discuss apprenticeship.
When
Graham Bruce was defeated he held the title of Minister
of Skills Development and Labour. The new Minister of
Labour and Citizens' Services, Mike De Jong, no longer
has responsibility for industry training which is moved
to Hansen. De Jong has picked up responsibility for BC
Stats and various information technology centres which
were once part of the Ministry of Finance, most recently
part of the former Ministry of Management Services.
Many
other subtle changes in ministerial responsibilities make
following the reorganizing similar to working on a moderate-sized
jigsaw puzzle. Advocates for many government programs
need to worry about whether anyone will notice that their
program has been shuffled to a minister who may be too
busy with other business to pay attention to the new responsibility.
Government accounts, and legislative spending authorities,
will have to be changed to reflect the reorganization.
There have been occasions when restructuring is part of
the backroom dealing leading up to who is willing to accept
the appointment to which ministry. If will be interesting
to see if any of the strange mixes revealed in the 2005
shuffle indicate new ministerial champions who wanted
their assignments as opposed to those who simply took
on extra baggage that had to go somewhere.
June
17, 2005
Big
Cabinet Shuffle, No Smaller
In his
first term in office, Premier Gordon Campbell led a cabinet
of 28, 20 full ministers, including himself, and 8 ministers
of state. The June
16th cabinet shuffle produced a new cabinet with 20
full ministers and 3 ministers of state. All the "downsizing"
occurred in the also-rans, those who didn't make it into
the full cabinet.
Of the
"election team cabinet", 3 full ministers and
5 ministers of state were defeated. From that team, four,
in addition to the Premier, are reappointed to their previous
positions: Gordon Campbell (Premier), Stan Hagen (Minster
of Children and Family Development), Richard Neufeld (Minster
of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources), Rick Thorpe (Minster
of Small Business and Revenue), and Kevin Falcon (Minister
of Transportation). Actually, Thorpe has a slight promotion
since he picked up responsibility for small business in
addition to his former revenue job. The other 75% of cabinet
changed.
The
biggest loser in the shuffle was former Minister of Agriculture,
food and fisheries, John van Dongen. He was demoted to "Minister
of State for Intergovernmental Relations". A full minister
gets an extra $39,000 per year on top of the base MLA's
pay; a minister of state gets an extra $25,000. John van
Dongen took a pay cut of $14,000 as a result of his demotion
(not including perks), but don't feel too sorry. All government
MLAs got a 10% raise. They rolled back their previous 5%
cut and pay freeze resulting in an increase to their base
pay from $68,500 to $75,400. After his demotion, van Dongen
is $7,100 worse off. Of course, he has lost some of the
perks and he can no longer claim to be the expert on counting
how many salmon have escaped from fish farms, and how many
sea-lice are killing juvenile salmon.
The
honour for counting fish now goes to the new "Minster
of Agriculture and Lands", Pat Bell, MLA for Prince
George-North, and former Minister of State for Mining. We
can all be confident that sea lice are a big problem for
the Minister from Prince George. His courage will be tested
by whether he is willing to regularly appear on Rafe Mair's
600 AM talk show.
As expected,
Campbell brought in some new blood. To no one's surprise,
Wally Oppal was appointed Attorney General. Some expected
the solicitor general's ministry to be re-combined with
the attorney general, as it has been for most of BC's history.
To the surprise of many, John Les, MLA for Chilliwack-Sumas,
was named Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
Those who are less than generous may think that Les got
a full minister's pay for what amounts to a minister of
state's position reporting to the Attorney General.
In addition
to his "star candidates", Taylor and Oppal, Campbell
brought Claude Richmond (former Speaker), Chilliwack-Kent
MLA Berry Penner, and Richmond centre MLA Olga Ilich onto
the 20 member front bench. Richmond takes over the welfare
ministry, renamed from "Ministry of Human Resources"
to "Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance".
Penner becomes the Minister of the Environment, a reinstated
ministry called for by Opposition Leader Carole James. The
ministries of "sustainable resource management"
and "water, land and air protection" are no more
after their brief four year experiment. Likewise, the ministry
of management services has ceased to exist as have previous
provincial secretary ministries. Ilich becomes the minister
for "tourism, sports and the arts", but background
papers to the cabinet shuffle show that the MLA for Richmond
Centre has no responsibility for BC's major tourist draw,
the 2010 Olympics. Only
a third of the new ministries are similar to what existed
prior to the election.
The
government didn't take the opportunity to pass its budget
before it dissolved the legislature. It must call the House
to order before the end of September because by then it
will exhaust its legal authority to spend. If it doesn't
ask the legislature for further authority, it will have
to resort to the special warrants, which Campbell railed
against in opposition. The Ministry of Finance will be busy
over the next few weeks. The "estimates", ministry
by ministry spending requests, will no longer be valid since
over 75% of government has been reorganized. New budget
requests will have to be put before the legislature when
it sits in September. Government ministers will have to
answer questions on spending in their reorganized ministries,
as well as being held to account for previous spending.
It is
expected that the government will put Bill Barisoff's name
forward as nominee for Speaker (the legislature supposedly
elects the Speaker, but the government's nominee is almost
certain to win). The former Minister of Water, Land and
Air Protection was involved in the firing of a civil servant
four hours before his retirement, over the issue of his
defense of the environment for the painted turtles. How
can a former Minister, involved in controversy, if not scandal,
be elected Speaker without tainting that position? Campbell
may want to change the image of his government with a major
cabinet shakeup, but he may lose his gamble if he sticks
with a former minister who is taking heat for the firing
of a whistle blower. Gordon Campbell is getting a second
chance to make a first impression; he may blow it if he
shuffles Barisoff to the Speaker's chair.
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