Cabinet's revolving door: A concern for solving public policy problems
Manitoba is suffering from a revolving door of cabinet ministers, and the implications for public policy are concerning.
In the middle of his term, Premier Greg Selinger opted to 'reset' his government through a cabinet shuffle on October 18, 2013. That cabinet shuffle was expected as most governments attempt to revitalize themselves part-way through their mandate to combat mid-term blues and prepare for the next election.
What came next was unexpected. On November 3, 2014, five senior ministers dubbed the 'Gang of Five' resigned their positions amidst claims that their opinions were ignored by the premier. Premier Selinger swiftly replaced the Gang of Five with new ministers, some of whom lack significant experience despite having been assigned major portfolios.
Sharon Blady, similarly, had one year of cabinet experience as the minister of healthy living, Seniors and consumer affairs prior to her appointment of the very challenging and demanding department of health. To what degree these rookie ministers can handle such demanding posts remains to be seen.
Yesterday, Selinger announced another cabinet shuffle in large part to make room for the failed leadership contenders and reward loyal supporters. For the former, Selinger invited Steve Ashton back to cabinet after placing third in the leadership convention. A similar offer was made to Theresa Oswald, who narrowly lost to Selinger, but she declined the position citing the need to consider her future. For the latter, MLA Mohinder Saran was promoted to cabinet and it is speculated that his promotion may, in part, be a reward for delivering delegates to Selinger during the leadership convention.
In the space of 18 months — October 18, 2013 to April 29, 2015 — three cabinet shuffles have occurred. To be sure, there may be concerns about the quality of incoming ministers, particularly related to their experience, but the other concern relates to a 'revolving door of cabinet' where ministers serve with short tenure and this leaves some departments vulnerable.
Let's look at the example of the Department of Housing and Community Development. This department has an important mandate in promoting social inclusion by providing affordable housing and building local communities. Prior to the October 18, 2015 shuffle, Kerri Irvin-Ross was the cabinet minister assigned to this department. In the October 18, 2013 shuffle, Peter Bjornson was named minister followed by Kerri Irvin-Ross (again) on November 3, 2014.
In yesterday's announcement, Mohinder Saran was named minister. Short durations in leadership, quite simply, rarely support the development of large-scale or transformative public policy change. This is understandable: it takes anywhere between six and 12 months for a new minister to become acquainted with the various files and build trusting relationships with stakeholders. Getting up to speed and understanding the complexity of public policy problems takes time, so the ability to invest considerable energy and resources into large-scale public policy change is generally limited.
For anyone interested in how complex problems such as homelessness, poverty or environmental degradation are addressed, short tenures in ministerial leadership should be a concern. What Manitoba needs is stability in ministerial leadership, and yet with the next election set for a year from now, it is unlikely that this need will be met even if the NDP can win the next election.
Karine Levasseur is the associate professor at the department of political studies at the University of Manitoba.