It's official: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has had her cabinet sworn in.Smith met with the media shortly after the 11 a.m. ceremony Monday, from Government House in Edmonton."What's next is a cabinet meeting because we've done a major reorganization of governments that took a long time, and a lot of hours," Smith told the Western Standard. "We have to make sure that we've got the restructuring of government going on. So, we have to affirm some of those decisions. And then we also have to be working on writing the mandate letters for each of the cabinet ministers."'I'll be consulting with my ministers to see what their priorities are. And then there were also a number of issues that were raised by the leadership candidates during the campaign. So, all of that has to be put into a mandate document, which will probably come up in the next week or two; that will be the next priority," said smithSmith said many of the 375 items that were put on the UCP election platform have already been accomplished."I believe that we've accomplished 300 of them, we have to see which others we can accomplish before we get into the election," Smith said.Smith named a deputy premier — two of them in fact.Smith named a total of 24 UCP MLAs to the cabinet.Travis Toews will keep his job as Finance minister after bringing in the first balanced budget in 10 years.Brian Jean was named minister of Jobs, Economy, and Northern Development.Todd Loewen, a hunting outfitter, gets the job of minister of Forestry, Parks, and Tourism.Airdrie MLA Peter Guthrie is the new minister of Energy.UCP leadership challenger Rebecca Schulz replaces Ric McIver as minister of Municipal Affairs.Leadership challenger Rajan Sawhney becomes minister of Trade, Immigration, and Multiculturalism. Leadership challenger Leela Aheer was not named.Devin Dreeshen returns to cabinet as minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors.Even though Jason Nixon was left out of the cabinet, his brother, Jeremy Nixon, becomes minister of Seniors, Community, and Social Supports. Edmonton MLA Kaycee Madu was named deputy premier and minister of Skilled Trades and Professions.Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf was named deputy premier and minister of Infrastructure.Keeping the same jobs they had under Kenney are Tyler Shandro as minister of Justice, Jason Copping as Health minister, Adriana LaGrange as minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides as minister of Advanced Education, and Rick Wilson as minister of Indigenous Relations.The new position of minister of Public Safety goes to former Calgary police officer Mike Ellis.
It's official: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has had her cabinet sworn in.Smith met with the media shortly after the 11 a.m. ceremony Monday, from Government House in Edmonton."What's next is a cabinet meeting because we've done a major reorganization of governments that took a long time, and a lot of hours," Smith told the Western Standard. "We have to make sure that we've got the restructuring of government going on. So, we have to affirm some of those decisions. And then we also have to be working on writing the mandate letters for each of the cabinet ministers."'I'll be consulting with my ministers to see what their priorities are. And then there were also a number of issues that were raised by the leadership candidates during the campaign. So, all of that has to be put into a mandate document, which will probably come up in the next week or two; that will be the next priority," said smithSmith said many of the 375 items that were put on the UCP election platform have already been accomplished."I believe that we've accomplished 300 of them, we have to see which others we can accomplish before we get into the election," Smith said.Smith named a deputy premier — two of them in fact.Smith named a total of 24 UCP MLAs to the cabinet.Travis Toews will keep his job as Finance minister after bringing in the first balanced budget in 10 years.Brian Jean was named minister of Jobs, Economy, and Northern Development.Todd Loewen, a hunting outfitter, gets the job of minister of Forestry, Parks, and Tourism.Airdrie MLA Peter Guthrie is the new minister of Energy.UCP leadership challenger Rebecca Schulz replaces Ric McIver as minister of Municipal Affairs.Leadership challenger Rajan Sawhney becomes minister of Trade, Immigration, and Multiculturalism. Leadership challenger Leela Aheer was not named.Devin Dreeshen returns to cabinet as minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors.Even though Jason Nixon was left out of the cabinet, his brother, Jeremy Nixon, becomes minister of Seniors, Community, and Social Supports. Edmonton MLA Kaycee Madu was named deputy premier and minister of Skilled Trades and Professions.Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf was named deputy premier and minister of Infrastructure.Keeping the same jobs they had under Kenney are Tyler Shandro as minister of Justice, Jason Copping as Health minister, Adriana LaGrange as minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides as minister of Advanced Education, and Rick Wilson as minister of Indigenous Relations.The new position of minister of Public Safety goes to former Calgary police officer Mike Ellis.