Rookie Premier Greg Selinger announced his new cabinet on Tuesday. The new ministers appointed to cabinet will be responsible from everything to building roads in the province to the education and justice systems. As a result, the make-up of the new cabinet ultimately impacts all Manitobans in one way or another.
Despite the difficult economic times that Canada is still facing, Premier Selinger decided to increase the size of his cabinet from that of his predecessor, Gary Doer. The increase in the number of cabinet ministers bucks the trend of other provinces of trying to reduce the costs of government.
By adding a new cabinet minister, Mr. Selinger is adding the cost of a minister’s wage, government vehicle, staff and department operating costs.
Mr. Selinger also choose to not remove anybody from the previous cabinet of Mr. Doer and instead simply added people to fill new and vacant spots and reward those who supported him during his leadership campaign. The decision to grow the size of cabinet and to leave those who had served previously in their position shows that Mr. Selinger is not interested in fiscal restraint and is not willing to make the difficult decisions.
Many local residents may be concerned that the new Minister of Agriculture is Stan Struthers. Mr. Struthers previously served as the Minister responsible for Conservation. During that time he introduced legislation and regulations that have made farming increasingly more difficult in the province. As well, after he brought forward legislation that put a moratorium on pork production in certain areas of the province, he ignored the pleas of farmers and environmental experts who suggested the legislation should be changed. Those experiences will leave many farmers understandably concerned about whether Mr. Struthers will be the strong voice for agriculture that our farmers and our province needs in government. His track record indicates that he won’t be.
The new Minister of Justice is Andrew Swan, who briefly ran for leadership for the NDP. Mr. Swan becomes the 3rd Minister of Justice in the NDP government and follows Dave Chomiak who was Minister when gangs and drugs increased significantly in the province.
Under the previous two Ministers of Justice, the NDP government continuously took a soft on crime approach to criminals in Manitoba all the while trying to shift responsibility to Ottawa. While every Manitoban will have reason to hope that Mr. Swan represents a new approach to Justice, the NDP track record when it comes to crime doesn’t leave much hope.
With the crafting of his first cabinet, Premier Selinger missed an opportunity to show renewal and failed to make tough decisions and exercise fiscal restraint. While all Manitobans will be hoping Mr. Selinger and his cabinet perform well, they are off to a concerning start.
