TORONTO – Premier Kathleen Wynne is set to make a few changes to her cabinet Thursday, including the appointment of a new corrections minister.
David Orazietti resigned last month as community safety and correctional services minister and as MPP for Sault Ste. Marie, saying he was leaving for family reasons.
Wynne had temporarily appointed Labour Minister Kevin Flynn to handle the corrections file, but she is expected to name a permanent replacement.
READ MORE: Ontario corrections minister David Orazietti resigns
Her itinerary for Thursday mentions a swearing-in ceremony for executive council members, suggesting more than one cabinet position will change hands.
A wide cabinet shuffle, however, is not expected.
Wynne will also have to call a byelection for Sault Ste. Marie by the end of the spring.
READ MORE: Kathleen Wynne shuffles Ontario’s Liberal cabinet halfway through mandate
Orazietti was named to the corrections file in June – taking over for former minister Yasir Naqvi as he was promoted to Attorney General – at a time of increasing public scrutiny and anger over solitary confinement practices. He had to answer for the treatment of Adam Capay, an inmate held in segregation for four years in Thunder Bay. Orazietti recently announced he had tapped federal correctional investigator Howard Sapers to lead a provincial review into the use of segregation.
Several of Wynne’s cabinet ministers stepped down last summer when house prorogued.
Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur left politics altogether, while Seniors Minister Mario Sergio, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Ted McMeekin and cabinet chair Jim Bradley resigned from cabinet.