TORONTO – A Toronto-area MPP got the nod Monday to take over the province’s infrastructure and energy ministries.
Brad Duguid will replace former deputy premier George Smitherman, who stepped down from the post in November to run for mayor of Toronto.
The Ontario cabinet shuffle announced Monday were the most comprehensive changes to cabinet since Premier Dalton McGuinty first won majority government in 2003. The changes also come come as an attempt to energize the Liberal benches, which have recently been beset by scandal and mounting challenges on other fronts.
The province is facing a $24.7 billion deficit, the largest in history, and is preparing for a new Harmonized Sales Tax on July 1. The tax will add cost to about one in every five items, including hair cuts, gym memberships and gasoline at the pumps.
The government’s credibility, meanwhile, took a serious hit after its eHealth Ontario agency was portrayed as a rogue unit with virtually no oversight in a recent Auditor General’s report.
Four MPPs were elevated to the cabinet table on Monday.
Two rookie MPPs – Hamilton native Sophia Aggelonitis and Eric Hoskins, a Toronto resident – were promoted to the cabinet table. They will take on the consumer services and citizenship and immigration portfolios, respectively.
Carol Mitchell, who becomes agriculture minister, and Linda Jeffrey, who takes natural resources, were both named to cabinet after serving six-and-a-half years as back benchers.
There were several other big changes announced Monday.
McGuinty dumped three current ministers. Donna Cansfield, Ted McMeekin and Aileen Carroll will all return to their former duties as MPPs.
Carroll’s demotion is perhaps the most surprising. A former federal minister, the Barrie MPP was considered a high profile candidate in 2007. Cansfield served as natural resources minister, while McMeekin, who was battling illness, served as minister of government services.
Other changes include: a new education minister, Leona Dombrowsky; a new transportation minister, Kathleen Wynne; a new tourism minister, Michael Chan, who was also named culture minister, and a new minister of municipal affairs and housing, Jim Bradley.
Monique Smith moves to intergovernmental affairs, but remains as House leader and Chris Bentley adds aboriginal affairs to his current duties as Attorney General.
A standalone aboriginal affairs ministry was a key recommendation from a 2007 report from the Ipperwash Inquiry – whose mandate was to investigate the death of Dudley George, who was shot in 1995 during a native protest at Ipperwash Provincial Park.
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