The headline news today, of course, is the cabinet shuffle. But among the new jobs for seven ministers and the elevation of five MPs, the Prime Minister has re-tooled cabinet committee structure. Committees of cabinet are important institutions. It is at committee, for example, that legislation or new initatiatives is hashed around. The new secretaries of state do not normally attend meetings of the full cabinet but they will attend meetings of a cabinet committee.
Prime Minister Martin had a relatively large number of cabinet committees, a function partly of the fact that he had a large cabinet. Prime Minister Harper had a slimmed down cabinet and a slimmed down committee structure with just five cabinet committees. Today, though, with five more ministers, he has added a new cabinet committee, “Environment and Energy Security”, and changed some of the leadership positions on other cabinet committees.
Here are the changes:
- The most powerful committee is the Priorities and Planning Committee, also known by the shorthand — P&P. This is the only committee Harper participates in and he is its chair. Transport Minister and Lawrence Cannon — political minister for Quebec and the man who becomes Prime Minister if Harper falls unconscious — is the vice-chair. This committee “provides strategic direction on government priorities and expenditure management, ratifies committee recommendations and approves appointments.” All the heavy hitters in Cabinet are on this committee. No one who was on the committee before the shuffle is out of this group and there are two new members of this committee: Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Health Minister Tony Clement.
- Clement also finds himself as a new member of cabinet’s second most powerful committee, Operations. Among those who didn’t get a new job, this may be a sign that the PMO is approving of how Clement has handled the Health file. Pundits last session thought otherwise, that Clement’s star was fading. This committee “provides the day-to-day coordination of the government’s agenda, including issues management, legislation and house planning, and communications” and, in addition to Clement, the new members are Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg, and Treasury Board President Vic Toews. Losing their seat on this committee is Environment Minister John Baird — not really a demotion as he has a much heightened profile overall in government and is on P&P. Can’t say the same for Revenue Minister Carol Skelton who loses her seat on this committee and is now on just two cabinet committees instead of three. Jim Prentice chairs this committee and his vice-chair is newly minted Governnment House Leader Peter Van Loan.
- Treasury Board is where the buck stops — the committee that is all about accountability, ethics, financial management and most orders-in-council. Whoever is the President of the Treasury Board is this committee’s chair and so Vic Toews is in and Baird is out. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty remains as vice-chair. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is the only other new member of the TB. Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice is off the Treasury Board although he remains, along with Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor as an alternate
- The biggest changes are at the Social Affairs committee, which considers, as you’d expect, all governnment’s social policy issues in areas like health care, justice, immigration and so on. Tony Clement continues to chair this committee (so, he’s chairing a committee and a member of both P&P and Ops — pretty nice guy to get to know if you want something done) and Diane Finley continues as vice-chair. But the new committee members include Nicholson, Senator Marjory LeBreton, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Rona Ambrose, International Cooperation Minister Josee Verner and Secretary of State Jason Kenney. No long on this committee: Toews and new Government House Leader Peter Van Loan.
- The Economic Affairs committee continues to be chaired by Flaherty and the vice-chair is International Trade Minister David Emerson. Secretarys of State Gerry Ritz and Christian Paradis are new adds here while Ambrose is dropped from this committee. This committee looks after, well, the economic affairs of the country.
- There has been a change of leadership on the Foreign Affairs and National Security (FANS) committee. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is no longer the chair of the committee though he remains a member. The new chair is Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day continues as vice-chair. Sources in the PMO say the MacKay move was made for practical reasons as much of the business coming to this committee is coming from the Foreign Affairs department. So MacKay needs to participate more in these meetings rather than act as their moderator. The only new FANS member, in addition to Nicholson, is Veteran Affairs Minister Greg Thompson. Solberg and Toews lose membership in this committee.
- Then there is the all-new Environment and Energy Security (I propose that rather than use the shorthand, EES, call it EES-y — kinda catchy, don’t you think/). The committee will “consider environment and energy security policy issues and here are its members:
- Chair: Jim Prentice
- Vice-Chair: John Baird
- Gary Lunn
- Loyola Hearn
- Rona Ambrose
- Maxime Bernier
- Lawrence Cannon
- Tony Clement
- Peter Van Loan
So, if you wanted to read the entrails here: Who in cabinet has the most juice? That would be Jim Prentice. Prentice is the only one who chairs two commiteess — Ops and EESy – and sits on Social Affairs and is an alternate to Treasury Board.