Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet will be sworn in on Friday as he prepares to appoint an executive council to his new, larger Progressive Conservative caucus.
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10 am, followed by remarks from the prime minister. Invitations have been sent to the guests, but a high-level government source says that the prime minister has not yet made the calls to the new cabinet ministers to inform them of his new posts.
Ford’s previous cabinet had 28 people, but he now has a much larger caucus to choose from, with 83 Conservatives elected earlier this month.
That leads to some speculation that Ford will increase the size of his cabinet, perhaps by dividing larger ministries into more focused portfolios.
Health and education will be two important jobs for Ford, both as the two largest ministries and with the government planning billions in spending on hospital infrastructure and teacher negotiations on the horizon.
Christine Elliott, who was health minister during the four years of Ford’s first government, decided not to stand for election again. Her retirement leaves a huge void, and some observers have suggested that Sylvia Jones, who recently served as attorney general, could be in line for that promotion.
Under the Progressive Conservatives’ approach to the budget, which was tabled but not passed before the election and remained their platform, the ministries that oversee transport and infrastructure will also be important to the prime minister.
Much of Ford’s plan focused on building hospitals and highways such as Highway 413, proposed for the Greater Toronto Area.
Ford is likely to keep Peter Bethlenfalvy as finance minister. The portfolio is generally one that governments like to project stability, but Bethlenfalvy ended up as Ford’s third finance minister after the dossier caused much confusion. Vic Fedeli was dropped from the portfolio after a much-maligned budget and Rod Phillips resigned after vacationing in the Caribbean during a provincial lockdown.
Fedeli was transferred to Economic Development, Job Creation and Commerce, where he launched an automotive strategy that saw the province attract billions in new investment, including a new electric vehicle battery facility in Windsor, Ontario.
The next Minister of Housing will also have a titanic task ahead of him.
Ford has pledged to build 1.5 million homes over 10 years, a key recommendation from a government-appointed task force earlier this year.
The legislation that was passed shortly before the election called contained measures to speed up approvals and other processes, but lacked bolder steps, such as changing municipal zoning rules to allow the construction of more homes besides single-family homes.
The government blamed a lack of cooperation from municipalities, but the Conservatives promised more action on housing provision.
Reference-www.cbc.ca