Ontario Premier Doug Ford has named a new cabinet with many familiar faces, though he has shuffled his housing, education and environment ministers.
Paul Calandra moves from housing to become the education minister, taking over from Jill Dunlop who moves to emergency preparedness. Former minister of agriculture Rob Flack is being appointed minister of housing.
Todd McCarthy is taking on the role of environment minister, a higher-profile role than his previous job as minister of public and business service delivery.
Ford also moved former environment minister Andrea Khanjin to red tape reduction. Graham McGregor is taking on the role of minister of citizenship and multiculturalism, a post previously held by Michael Ford, the premier’s nephew, who did not run again the February snap election.
Lt.-Gov. Edith Dumont swore in the premier and his executive council in a ceremony Wednesday at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Ford has kept the cabinet the same size, which he had increased since he was first elected in 2018, and his last cabinet grew to 37 people in August after he brought new associate ministers on board.
Many of the prominent ministers remain in their previous roles, including Doug Downey as attorney general and Michael Kerzner as solicitor general, and Caroline Mulroney as President of the Treasury Board and francophone affairs minister.
Former housing minister Steve Clark, who resigned in the wake of the Greenbelt land-grab scandal, remains as government house leader, though it’s not a cabinet position.
Sylvia Jones is returning as minister of health and deputy premier. Peter Bethlenfalvy will continue as minister of finance, as will Prabmeet Sarkaria as minister of transportation.
Vic Fedeli and Stephen Lecce will continue in their respective appointments as minister of economic development and minister of energy. Kinga Surma will also return as minister of infrastructure.
George Pirie is out as mining minister and is moving to become minister of northern economic development and growth. Lecce is adding mining to his responsibilities, while labour minister David Piccini retains the same position.
Ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony, conservative strategists said they were not expecting any dramatic changes to the cabinet and expected many of the premier’s key ministers to return to their portfolios.
The premier’s PCs won their third successive majority government on Feb. 27 — making Ford the first Ontario premier since 1959 to win three consecutive majorities.
Ontario’s MPPs could receive a pay bump for the first time in more than 15 years. As CBC’s Lorenda Reddekopp reports, both federal MPs and Toronto city councillors currently earn more.
When he triggered the $189-million election in January, Ford asked for the “largest mandate in Ontario’s history” to fight against economic threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.
But the PCs are returning to Queen’s Park with roughly the same number of seats. With two ridings yet to declare results, the PCs are on track for 80 seats, which is just one more than when the legislature dissolved in January and three fewer than the party picked up in the 2022 election.
The Ontario legislature is set to resume on April 14.
‘More of the same,’ Official Opposition leader says
NDP Leader Marit Stiles, who was sworn in as leader of the Official Opposition earlier Wednesday, released a statement congratulating the premier and cabinet, but wrote the appointments were “more of the same.”
“This cabinet includes the same Minister of Transportation who couldn’t open a transit line, the same Minister of Health who downplayed the doctor shortage, and the same Minister of Infrastructure who spent weeks dodging basic questions,” the statement said.
Stiles added that the Official Opposition shadow cabinet will be announced in the coming days.
Speaking before the ceremony, federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland said she had a coffee with Ford at his house on Tuesday.
“We talked about interprovincial trade. For Prime Minister Carney, that is a huge priority,” she said.
“I never thought I would say this phrase, but I think interprovincial trade has become sexy in Canada right now.”
