We’re waiting for the results of the OTHER election this week, of course, but it was just a month ago that Premier Blaine Higgs secured a slim majority government and set up the new Executive Council, his Cabinet.
There are a lot of new faces around that 16 seat table, including five newly-elected members of the legislative assembly, a “record” number of women (6 out of 16), and some veterans.
With two exceptions, all of the Ministers that the Conservation Council checks in with regularly are new to their portfolios.
The exceptions? Hon. Mike Holland (re-elected as MLA for Albert) was re-appointed as Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, and Hon. Dominic Cardy (re-elected as MLA for Hanwell) was re-appointed as Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.
The new faces we look forward to meeting with over the next few weeks include:
- Hon. Gary Crossman (re-elected as MLA for Hampton) is the Minister of Environment and Climate Change;
- Hon. Arlene Dunn (newly-elected MLA for Saint John Harbour) is the new Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, as well as Economic Development and Immigration;
- Hon. Margaret Johnson (newly-elected MLA for Carleton-Victoria) is the new Minister of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries;
- Hon. Daniel Allain, (newly-elected MLA for Moncton East) is Minister of Local Government and Local Government Reform;
- Hon. Jill Green (newly-elected MLA for Fredericton North) is Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure; and,
- Hon. Tammy Scott-Wallace (newly-elected MLA Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins) is Minister of Tourism, Heritage and Culture.
At the September 29th Cabinet swearing-in ceremony Premier Higgs said, “we are at a turning point for our province. We need to re-invent, to renew our economy because doing business in a COVID world will be very different.”
We couldn’t agree more — that’s why, along with our usual congratulatory notes to the new Ministers we included copies of the #BetterThanNormal letter. More than 35 groups and over 1,000 New Brunswick citizens — many of you included — joined us in calling for an economic recovery plan for New Brunswick that ensures our communities are more secure, safe, healthy and resilient in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and as citizens continue to deal with the impacts of climate change and extreme weather.