The Redford Team

Smoky Signal Article No. 193 (October 19, 2011)

Whispering in the Wind

The Redford Team –
Last week Premier Redford announced her cabinet team and an interesting team it is! The two people that I thought deserved seats at the cabinet table made the cut – Jeff Johnson is now Minister of Infrastructure and Doug Griffiths is the new Minister of Municipal Affairs; both are important, well deserved appointments. If there were any surprises in the cabinet appointments, I have got to mention Ted Morton (now the Minister of Energy) and Ron Liepert (now the Minister of Finance); both received very senior cabinet posts and for me, it demonstrates Premier Redford’s intention to see her cabinet become a “big tent” cabinet that reflects a full range of views in the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party movement – others have suggested it proves a Sun-tzu adage: “keep you friends close and your enemies closer.” A further point regarding the cabinet appointments; Premier Redford offered the names of her cabinet members in an “order of precedence” which is a ranking of the appointments, some call it a political pecking order – if you identify Premier Redford as number 1 in the 21 seat cabinet and Deputy Premier, Doug Horner number 2; Ted Morton is number 4; Ron Liepert (7); Ray Danyluk (15); Jeff Johnson (16); Doug Griffiths (17) – some say that the ranking is irrelevant and is nothing more than some sort of honor role – to me it means that people like Jeff Johnson and Doug Griffiths have to be a little bit more cautious when preparing and presenting ideas in the cabinet room – said another way, the rookies in cabinet (like Jeff Johnson and Doug Griffiths) will have to earn their stripes in what is possibly the most exclusive club in Alison Redford’s government.

Congratulations to Jeff Johnson –
I can’t let this week’s column go by without offering congratulations to Athabasca-Redwater MLA, Jeff Johnson and his appointment to Premier Redford’s cabinet as Minister of Infrastructure. So what does it mean being the Minister of Infrastructure? Simply put and taken from a government web-page: “Alberta Infrastructure is responsible for infrastructure planning, and building and managing government-owned infrastructure. [The] ministry works with other ministries to ensure Albertans have schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure necessary to meet the needs of a growing economy and population.” If that isn’t enough, Jeff Johnson has some added responsibilities: Jeff Johnson is now responsible for the Oil Sands Secretariat; Jeff Johnson is Vice-Chair of Treasury Board; Jeff Johnson is Political Minister for Northern Alberta on the government’s Operations Committee; and Jeff Johnson is a member of the government’s Finance Committee. As a rookie cabinet minister, Jeff Johnson has an awesome set of responsibilities and he will face many, many significant challenges – you know what, I think Jeff Johnson is up to it. Nevertheless, he is going to need the support and patience from all of us in the Athabasca-Redwater constituency and if we give him the support he needs, Smoky Lake, the Athabasca-Redwater constituency and Alberta will benefit from Jeff Johnson’s work, commitment and dedication – congratulations and good luck to you Jeff!

Alison Redford, You’ve Got Six Months –
Along with announcing a new set of cabinet responsibilities, Premier Redford also announced a new committee structure, a new way of doing the government’s business. Premier Redford said: “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.” In my view it is all well and good to have change of faces in the cabinet room and a committee structure that is different from past administrations, but I think Albertans want to see action on at least four priority areas: a more affordable, caring public healthcare system; a more efficient public education system; a meaningful economic development and diversification strategy; and a government that protects its citizens from too much government. To address these monumental issues, it is going to take some time and a lot of patience, something not available to the new Redford government – my sense is that the PC Alberta government has got about a year before the next election and that means that Alison Redford and her new cabinet have about six to eight months to show what “change” is all about.