Rumours that the NDP government was shuffling its senior staffers appears to be true. Sources confirm that three ministerial Chiefs of Staff have been shuffled into different offices and two new Chiefs of Staff have been hired.
Chief of Staff Bill Moore-Kilgannon will move from the Office of the Minister of Health and Seniors to the Office of the Minister of Human Services, Scott Harris will move from the Office of the Minister of Agriculture to the Office of the Minister of Minister of Health and Seniors, and Tony Clark will move from the Office of Human Services to the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.
It was also noted that Andrew Tarver has been hired to succeed Jessica Bowering as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Justice and Aboriginal Relations, and Miriam Rycroft was hired to succeed Robin Steudel as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure. Ms. Rycroft previously served as a Ministerial Assistant in the same office.
It is unclear why the three senior political staffers were shuffled, though there is a chance it could simply be a human resources decision.
Tory lobby firm hires more Tories
In the world of lobbyists, the Tory-connected Canadian Strategy Group announced today that former Progressive Conservative MLA Rick Orman and former Conservative MP Brian Storseth would join its payroll. Located in Ottawa, Mr. Storseth served in the government backbenches as the MP for Westlock-St. Paul from 2006 to 2015, when he resigned and later sought the PC nomination in Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills (he was defeated in the nomination). Mr. Orman was the MLA for Calgary-Montrose from 1986 to 1993 and ran for the PC Party leadership in 2011.
2 replies on “#InsiderBaseball: NDP government shuffles ministerial Chiefs of Staff”
Hey Dave, sorry to digress topic here, some of us find it reprehensible that conservative opposition parties here are piling on Rachel Notley’s government for increasing the ethics commissioner and privacy commissioners budgets. They fail to realize that the NDP is only reinstating the checks and balance of a responsible, and healthy democracy, stripped away by the PC’s before the frantic shred gate, post election. Conservatives are spiritually lost in this regard, on Sundays they may rejoice in talking about the truth, but in reality, they hate when ethics and auditors go looking for the truth, for some reason, they hate justice, truth, reconciliation and balance in our society. Perhaps some of these folks need a good dressing down by Pope Francis and another dressing down by the Alberta voters. I am happy to see checks and balances get increased budgets to police gov’t work and politicians. Alberta needs a much and further needed strengthening of our democracy, as it stands, it is a demockery.
Actually, @centrist, the opposition are piling on to the NDP caucus for a decision by a Legislature committee on which they hold a majority but which has no Government, i.e. Cabinet, members, to raise the ethics and privacy commissioners’ personal salaries, not their offices’ budgets. However, the committee chair quickly reversed course and announced the committee would be called back to reconsider.
Whether this rethink came about because they truly felt they had made a mistake, or because of pressure from the government as happened under the PCs when Mr Prentice essentially “ordered” the same committee (albeit with different membership) to reverse a decision it had made, remains uncertain.