Lac La Biche – St. Paul MLA Ray Danyluk will start the fall session in the Alberta Legislature with a new portfolio after being named minister of Transportation last Wednesday.
Danyluk said he is excited to take on the busy portfolio. As former Municipal Affairs minister, he dealt with municipalities frequently and with the new appointment it will give him the opportunity to work with municipalities again, he said.
“The transportation part of it has something to do with every municipality,” he said. “That will give me an opportunity to be connected in all of the communities.”
Danyluk identified traffic in and around Fort McMurray and the Calgary ring road as priorities, but mentioned areas in the County of St. Paul and his home constituency will also receive his attention.
Ranked in order of precedence, the ministry of Transportation comes ahead of both Danyluk’s former responsibilities as Infrastructure minister, most recently, and Municipal Affairs minister. Danyluk also became the chair of the operations committee and will sit on the Finance committee.
“It just goes to show that hard work does pay off,” said Lac La Biche – St. Paul Constituency Association president Don Schultz, crediting Danyluk’s good job on other portfolios. The high voter turnout in the constituency “didn’t hurt,” he added.
MLA for Athabasca – Redwater Jeff Johnson became minister of Infrastructure while former leadership candidate Doug Griffiths took the post with Municipal Affairs.
“This cabinet reflects what change looks like. It’s a team that’s committed to listening to Albertans, and getting to work right away on bringing the change Albertans want and expect,” Premier Alison Redford said in a press release.
Several former ministers were not reappointed to cabinet.
Danyluk praised Redford’s appointments and welcomed new MLAs from different areas to the cabinet.
Wildrose released a statement claiming Redford’s cabinet would result in “red ink.”
“I think Albertans should get ready for the most expensive government we’ve ever had,” said local Wildrose candidate Shayne Saskiw, also the party’s executive director.
“She has made a lot of ambitious promises to a lot of different groups and this cabinet is going to stick Alberta taxpayers with the bill.”
The press release criticized the appointment of Ron Liepert as Finance minister, saying he was responsible for the “unaffordable teacher contract” that caused the funding shortfall in the budget and blamed him for the “mess in health care that exists today.”
Evan Berger is the new minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Frank Oberle is minister of Sustainable Resource Development and George VanderBurg is minister of Seniors. Cal Dallas became the minister of International, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Relations, a new ministry to “better coordinate federal and Aboriginal portfolios,” according to a press release.
Part of the “renewed government structure” is the Human Services ministry, headed by Minister Dave Hancock, which will aim to “bring together programming for children and families in need.”
Thomas Lukaszuk became minister of Education, Diana McQueen is Environment and Water and Jonathan Denis is solicitor general and minister of Public Security. Fred Horne took the ministry for Health and Wellness. Verlyn Olson became minister for Justice and Attorney General and Ted Morton took the Energy ministry. Jack Hayden became minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation, Heather Klimchuk minister of Culture and Community Services and Manmeet Bhullar minister of Service Alberta.
MLA for Bonnyville – Cold Lake Genia Leskiw will chair the Education committee.
Former leadership candidates Doug Horner and Gary Mar have retained high ranking portfolios. Horner kept his position as deputy premier and will be the president of the Treasury Board, while Gary Mar accepted a position as Alberta’s representative to Asia.
“Gary Mar needs to get a real job,” responded NDP leader Brian Mason, in a press release. “Alison Redford has embraced pork-barrel politics with this patronage appointment.”
