Former Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Sandra Jansen is the new minister in charge of infrastructure in Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP cabinet.
Jansen takes over the portfolio from Brian Mason, who remains minister of transportation.
Mason had been handling both duties for the last two years. He is also government house leader.
Jansen, who represents Calgary North West, left the Progressive Conservatives almost a year ago to sit with Notley’s NDP. Jansen said at the time that her former party was moving to the extreme right on social issues and that the abuse she endured for her views had become intolerable.
“Today we’re sharpening our focus on infrastructure,” Notley said Tuesday after Jansen was sworn in. “Putting Albertans to work today while building the infrastructure our economy will need for tomorrow is a key pillar of our economic plan.”
READ MORE: Former PC MLA Sandra Jansen joins Alberta NDP
Notley said that plan is showing results and the Alberta economy is looking up after several bust years due to low oil prices. But she added there is still work to do, “especially in Calgary where too many people are still looking for work.”
“And that’s why I’m appointing an experienced and well-known champion for Calgary as our new minister of infrastructure.”
Jansen is in her second term. She inherits a multibillion-dollar portfolio with key projects on the go in her home city, including a new cancer centre and new light-rail transit.
READ MORE: Notley releases design plans for new Calgary cancer centre
She has been at the cabinet table before. She served for about a year in the PC government as an associate minister for family and community safety and addressed issues such as bullying and violence against women.
Jansen has since become a galvanizing figure in the public discussion on abuse and treatment of women in public life.
Jansen dropped out of the PC leadership race last November, saying the online and personal torment she endured for her progressive social views made the situation intolerable.
Days later, she crossed over to Notley’s New Democrats. She said the NDP’s social values aligned more closely with hers and those of her constituents.
Soon after, she gave a speech on the abuse women endure in public life and cited in explicit detail the epithets she had been exposed to on social media.
For a while after she crossed the floor, she was granted a security detail because of death threats.
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READ MORE: Alberta MLA Sandra Jansen given security detail after threats
Notley also elevated two backbenchers to parliamentary secretary positions to help government ministers, but they will not sit in cabinet or get cabinet pay.
Jessica Littlewood is the new parliamentary secretary for economic development, while Annie McKitrick will hold the same title in education.
READ MORE: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley shuffles cabinet, splits Human Services ministry
Littlewood, member of the legislature for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville, will assist minister Deron Bilous in meetings with stakeholders.
McKitrick, who represents Sherwood Park, will focus on school construction for minister David Eggen.
The changes bring Notley’s cabinet to 21 members.
When she became premier in May 2015, Notley originally had a 12-person cabinet with some ministers managing multiple portfolios. She made two more cabinet changes in the following year, including adding six new cabinet ministers in in February 2016.
READ MORE: A look at Rachel Notley’s 2 years as Alberta premier
With files from Global News.
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