Five Canadian female ministers of state to be full ministers, get raise

Government to promote five female cabinet members, now ministers of state, to status of full ministers-with salary increase to match.

Thestar.com
Nov. 6, 2015
By Joanna Smith

The Liberal government is planning to promote five female cabinet members who are ministers of state to full ministers and give them the accompanying increase in salary, said a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Frankly, the machinery of government just takes a little bit longer to catch up to what the prime minister has done,” Kate Purchase said by phone Friday.

“We decided, as part of the cabinet process, that there would be no levels of cabinet members, that they were all ministers.”

The Liberals had promised gender parity in their cabinet, and, when the names of those in cabinet were revealed at Rideau Hall Wednesday morning, there were 15 men and 15 women who are ministers, plus Trudeau.

They were all sworn in as full ministers, too, but then orders in council adopted during the first meeting of cabinet Wednesday afternoon, as reported by iPolitics Thursday night, told a different story.

Five of the women - and none of the men - were actually assigned to be ministers of state.

This means they would receive an annual salary boost of $60,000 on top of the basic MP salary of $167,400, significantly less than the extra $80,100 given to full ministers.

The five ministers are:

Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan, who would work under Navdeep Bains, the minister for innovation, science and economic development.

Minister of Small Business and Tourism Bardish Chagger, who would also work for Bains.

Status of Woman Minister Patricia Hajdu, who would work under Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly.
Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities Carla Qualtrough, who would also work under Joly.

Marie-Claude Bibeau, the minister for La Francophonie, who would support Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion.

Purchase said Friday these ministers of state are already considered full ministers and the Liberal government would be changing the Treasury Board statute, which needs to go through Parliament, to give them full signing authority and salaries.

“They are all full ministers now. That’s why they were sworn in as ministers at the swearing-in ceremony.

“What needs to change, from a statute perspective is their salaries, so they get the full ministerial salaries, but they have full cabinet privileges around the cabinet table, and they sit on all the cabinet committees as full members of the committee,” Purchase said.

Purchase said the orders in council assigning them as ministers of state had to go through Wednesday so that the cabinet could function.

She said, however, that making these five women full ministers does not mean their portfolios will take on the size of full departments.

“They are serviced by other departments in the same way they always have been, but they have the full standing and authority of any other minister around the table,” said Purchase.

The orders in council brought some other surprises, such as Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, who represents an Edmonton riding, being in charge of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Initiative and the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.

And six economic development portfolios, including the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, grouped under one minister, Bains.

This means Bains, who represents the GTA riding of Mississauga-Malton, is now responsible for the Western Economic Diversification Canada portfolio, which was held by Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel under the Stephen Harper government.