By Staff
October 30th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
We had the election no one wanted , at least not the people paying for that event.
Then the Prime Minister gathered together the team he needed to run the country.
The number of people in his Cabinet was a bit of a surprise.
There are 39 of them, each being paid the full salary that a Cabinet Minister gets along with staff and, we believe a car and driver when they have to be transported.
The annual salary is $88,700, with a car allowance.
There are numerous additional tasks for which there is an additional remuneration.
A Caucus Chair for a political party would get an additional $12,800; Parliamentary Secretaries would get an additional $18,100 per session. The list is extensive.
The 2021 Cabinet for the government of Canada – 39 members
Right Hon. Justin Trudeau Prime Minister
Hon. Chrystia Freeland Minister of Finance
Hon. Lawrence MacAulay Minister of Veterans Affairs
Hon. Carolyn Bennett Minister of Mental Health and Addictions
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc Minister of Infrastructure and Communities
Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos Minister of Health
Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Hon. Mélanie Joly Minister of Foreign Affairs
Hon. Diane Lebouthillier Minister of National Revenue
Hon. Harjit S. Sajjan Minister of International Development
Hon. Carla Qualtrough Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion
Hon. Patty Hajdu Minister of Indigenous Services
Hon. François-Philippe Champagne Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.
Hon. Karina Gould Minister of Families, Children and Social Development
Hon. Ahmed Hussen Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion
Hon. Ginette Petitpas Taylor Minister of Official Languages
Hon. Seamus O’Regan Minister of Labour
Hon. Pablo Rodriguez Minister of Canadian Heritage
Hon. Bill Blair President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada
Hon. Mary Ng Minister of Economic Development
Hon. Filomena Tassi Minister of Public Services and Procurement
Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson Minister of Natural Resources
Hon. David Lametti Minister of Justice
Hon. Joyce Murray Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
Hon. Anita Anand Minister of National Defence
Hon. Mona Fortier President of the Treasury Board
Hon. Steven Guilbeault Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Hon. Marco Mendicino Minister of Public Safety
Hon. Marc Miller Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations
Hon. Dan Vandal Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada
Hon. Omar Alghabra Minister of Transport
Hon. Randy Boissonnault Minister of Tourism
Hon. Sean Fraser Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Hon. Mark Holland Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Hon. Gudie Hutchings Minister of Rural Economic Development
Hon. Marci Ien Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth
Hon. Helena Jaczek Minister responsible for Federal Economic Development Agency, Southern ON
Hon. Kamal Khera Minister of Seniors
Hon. Pascale St-Onge Minister of Sport
What I find “so Canadian”, and not in a good way, is the openly expressed view that each region of the country must be represented in cabinet. It was a foregone conclusion that now the Liberals have two Alberta seats, at least one would be in cabinet, no matter his/her competence compared to other elected Liberals. The same goes for the balance of males versus females in cabinet. What if there is a better suited male or female but who will not get the position because of the arbitrary setting of apportionment based upon gender
.
What effective or efficient or successful business promotes or appoints based upon a gender or racial or geographical bias.
Why not have a non-cabinet ministerial position for each province or territory that reports to a cabinet position “Interior Minister”. And what’s more those regional ministerial positions do not need to be filled by a resident of that area. It just needs to be filled by someone ethical and competent that will look out for the interests of the area for which he/she is responsible.
Appoint based solely upon competence and abilities!
Several positions look like they would overlap and the new organization doesn’t always make sense; e.g., there are several “economic development” functions and perhaps the Coast Guard should be included under National Defense rather than with Oceans and Fisheries.
I don’t have a problem with this. Our society today is multi many things, and if you don’t have a Minister, you don’t have anyone, especially staff, enabling the Minister to pay attention and work in your interests. The affected people and issues really do like and need the attention and focal point.
What’s the sense of having ever more back-benchers when there are things needing attention and getting done. And staff like to have the focal point of a Minister, so they can feel they are doing something that might matter.
And the added cost is really peanuts, and even more so in these days of Covid driven deficit spending. The new Ministers get paid anyways as an elected MP.