McGuinty Shuffles Cabinet

Luring business to Ontario in the face of a sagging economy and a manufacturing sector that’s bleeding jobs was Premier Dalton McGuinty’s stated aim Thursday as he shuffled his cabinet, created a new portfolio, and charged two ministers with attracting investment.

The creation of a new Ministry of International Trade and Investment and the refocusing of the Economic Development Ministry comes just days before the legislature was to begin its fall session.

It’s a case of two heads being better than one on the economic development front, said McGuinty.

“Both the challenges and the opportunities are now so great that it’s virtually impossible for one individual alone to cope with demands here at home and to spend significant time and energy on the road,” he said.

“In a global economy, there are simply too many opportunities out there.”

Windsor veteran Sandra Pupatello (top left) was named to the new international trade portfolio and said she would concentrate on getting companies around the world to invest in Ontario.

At the same time, former aboriginal affairs minister Michael Bryant takes over Pupatello’s old portfolio at Economic Development with a new focus on attracting more businesses investment from within Canada.

The always colourful Bryant summed up the new jobs he and Pupatello will be doing.

“I’m looking forward to working with our economic secretary of state; I’ll be homeland security,” he quipped.

After more than two years as the economic development minister, Pupatello said she agreed with the need for two ministers focusing on the essentially the same file.

“Half of the companies we deal with on a regular basis are multinationals,” she said.

“The investment opportunities are outside of Ontario, coming into the province, so we have to be in those international marketplaces to follow up on those things, whether that’s Dearborn, Michigan, or Tokyo.”

The opposition parties have been severely critical of the Liberal government for failing to stem the loss of more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs during the past few years, and accused McGuinty of failing to have a real economic plan.

“No one would disagree that we should be very focused on international trade, but what we need from this government is a plan of action, some tax relief,” said Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.

“A cabinet shuffle does not represent any kind of action to represent job losses, training needs, public sector restraint, any of the things that should be done right now.”

The New Democrats said the cabinet shuffle is “dealing working families a bad hand” and won’t address the job losses in Ontario.

“You can shuffle the deck, but you still have the same bunch of jokers around the cabinet table,” NDP Leader Howard Hampton said in a release.

McGuinty agreed that some workers who have lost their jobs and “who are anxious about the economy, may look for more than this.”

“But the purpose of this is to make ourselves stronger, to better utilize the talent that we have as a government so we can better serve Ontario families and Ontario businesses.”

McGuinty made a few other key moves in his second cabinet shuffle since June, shifting former labour minister Brad Duguid into Bryant’s old job at Aboriginal Affairs, although Bryant will retain his post as government house leader.

Grand Chief Stan Beardy of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation said the change came as a complete shock to him, just one day after he had a meeting with Bryant.

“With Bryant we had to educate him, bring him up to speed, and we did pretty good building a positive relationship with him — and now we have to start all over again from scratch,” he said.

“Looking at the new aboriginal minister’s background, it’s mainly downtown Toronto … so it will set us back somewhat.”

McGuinty was quick to defend the change in ministers and said First Nations leaders should view it as a positive, given that the province now has an economic development minister who is well versed in aboriginal issues.

In other changes announced by McGuinty, Toronto’s Peter Fonseca goes from tourism to labour to replace Duguid, while North Bay’s Monique Smith will take over tourism.

Smith’s former job of revenue minister will return to the Ministry of Finance under Dwight Duncan.

During McGuinty’s last shuffle, George Smitherman was promoted to head a combined new energy and infrastructure “super ministry” while David Caplan moved from Infrastructure to take over the health portfolio.

Who’s gone where? Here’s the list of the new McGunity cabinet.

New Minister of International Trade, Sandra Pupatello

New Minister of Economic Development, Michael Bryant

New Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Brad Duguid

New Minister of Labour, Peter Fonseca

New Minister of Tourism, Monique Smith

Community Safety and Correctional Services, Rick Bartolucci

Attorney General, Chris Bentley

Health Promotion, Margarett Best

Transportation, Jim Bradley

Natural Resources, Donna Cansfield

Health and Long-Term Care, David Caplan

Culture, Aileen Carroll

Citizenship and Immigration, Michael Chan

Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Leona Dombrowsky

Finance and Revenue, Dwight Duncan

Environment, John Gerretsen

Northern Development and Mines, Michael Gravelle

Government and Consumer Services, Ted McMeekin

Children and Youth Services and Minister Responsible for Womens Issues, Deb Matthews

Community and Social Services and Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs, Madeleine Meilleur

Training, Colleges and Universities, John Milloy

Minister without portfolio and chairman of Cabinet, Gerry Phillips

Energy and Public Infrastructure Renewal, George Smitherman

Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Harinder Takhar

Municipal Affairs and Housing, Jim Watson

Research and Innovation, John Wilkinson

Education, Kathleen Wynne