I think it will represent a dramatically different future for the province. The cabinet will be smaller, it won’t be 30 people — it will be 20 people — and it will reflect merit and it will reflect integrity and it will reflect generational change. — Jim Prentice, before he named his cabinet
It’s the first signal the new premier sent that he could offer leaner, more streamlined government than his predecessor. Out went the associate ministers for matters like wellness, and transparency. The culture and tourism portfolios got merged in rookie minister Maureen Kubinec’s hands. Prentice took over intergovernmental and aboriginal relations himself. (Twenty includes himself.)
It’s a cut, to be sure. But it’s not revolutionary, or new to Torydom. It would have been new if he didn’t start out with a trimmed-down inner circle.
With the last three Alberta premiers, what’s gone down has always come up.
Don Getty, 1992: 25 ministers
Ralph Klein, 1992: 16 ministers. Buh bye, culture and multiculturalism department, and forestry; solicitor general and justice handed to one MLA.
Klein, 2006: 24. Ministers of gaming, children’s services, aboriginal affairs, solicitor general, and revenue (because there was so damn much of it). And an association minister for capital planning.
Ed Stelmach, 2006: 18. No more ministers of revenue, gaming or economic development. The intergovernmental affairs minister can handle aboriginal affairs. Government services is the purview of the new treasury board minister.
Team Ed. Edmonton Journal archive
(Then, Stelmach was ripped in Calgary for giving only three files to the largest city and having no visible minorities on board, and saying he got little credit for slimming cabinet…)
Stelmach, 2011: 23. Aboriginal affairs becomes worth of its own portfolio, after all. So does housing, culture, and infrastructure.
Alison Redford, 2011: 20. Housing minister no more. Aboriginal affairs is once again consolidated into intergovernmental affairs. Human services becomes a superministry that merges children’s services and employment.
Redford, 2014: 29. Associate ministers a-plenty, including special appointments for flood recovery in High River, the southeast and southwest. And wouldn’t you know it? There’s an aboriginal affairs minister. (Hancock didn’t shuffle the deck much, keeping his old advanced education file.)
Prentice, 2014: 19.
Prentice, 2016: We shall see.
