‘New government, new mandate’: Premier Moe names cabinet after election

Article content

Calling it “a new beginning,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has announced a cabinet with some new faces around the table and several veterans in different portfolios.

“I know every minister is looking forward to taking on their new responsibilities, addressing the opportunities and challenges that face Saskatchewan,” Moe, still fresh off a challenging election campaign, said on Thursday.

Article content

Jim Reiter, the former energy minister and the government’s longest-serving cabinet member, received the biggest promotion and assumes multiple major responsibilities.

Reiter, a cabinet member since 2020, becomes deputy premier, finance minister and minister of labour relations and workplace safety. He is also minister of immigration and career training.

Jeremy Cockrill and Everett Hindley will switch jobs, with Hindley taking over education and Cockrill assuming the health portfolio.

Colleen Young, the former advanced education minister, will be in charge of energy and resources. Tim McLeod takes over as minister of justice, corrections and public safety and attorney general,

Jeremy Harrison, who made headlines before the election after admitting to taking a gun into the legislature a decade earlier, will be responsible for the Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Public Service Commission.

David Marit moves from agriculture to the highways ministry with responsibility for SaskBuilds and procurement.

Saskatchewan Party veteran Ken Cheveldayoff returns to cabinet, taking over advanced education.

Article content

Article content

“This day marks a new beginning,” Moe said, calling it “a new government with a new mandate from Saskatchewan voters, and today we have a new cabinet.”

Moe’s new caucus includes 16 members elected for the first time.

The Saskatchewan Party won a fifth consecutive majority government in last month’s election, but that majority was severely reduced. The Sask. Party currently holds 34 seats while the NDP has 27 — enough to remain in charge but with little room to spare in the 61-seat legislature. No third parties won seats in the chamber.

The vote reflected a stark urban-rural split, with the Saskatchewan Party shut out in Regina and left clinging to one seat in Saskatoon, which is held by Cheveldayoff.

Saskatoon cabinet ministers Bronwyn Eyre and Paul Merriman, along with Regina’s Laura Ross, Christine Tell and Gene Makowsky, went down in defeat.

Stalwarts Donna Harpauer, Don Morgan, Dustin Duncan and Don McMorris did not seek re-election.

“Many people voted to re-elect our government to ensure a strong economy and a bright future, while many others voted for change,” Moe said. “Our new government will deliver both.”

Article content

Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck said she is “deeply troubled” by Moe’s choice for health minister.

“Relations between teachers and the government hit an all-time low when Jeremy Cockrill was the Minister of Education. Saskatchewan already has the worst rates of healthcare worker retention in Canada, and Cockrill’s confrontational style will make a bad situation worse,” Beck said.

“We can’t afford to lose even more doctors and nurses out of the province. Our friends and family already face the longest emergency room and surgical wait times in Canada.”

Beck said her party is set to hold its first in-person caucus meeting on Friday, and will “discuss how we can push this cabinet for real change on healthcare and the cost of living. We’re ready to get to work on what matters most to the people of Saskatchewan.”

During the election campaign, Moe said his first order of business if re-elected would be to ban “biological boys” from using school changing rooms with “biological girls.”

He said he made the promise after learning of a complaint at a southeast Saskatchewan school about two biological boys using a girls change room.

Article content

Last year, Moe came under fire for using the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to enact a law requiring children under 16 to obtain parental consent to change their names or pronouns at school.

He’s also promised broad tax relief and to continue withholding federal carbon levy payments to Ottawa.

— With Regina Leader-Post files

The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe.

With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark leaderpost.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Article content