Prime Minister Mark Carney will unveil a postelection cabinet Tuesday with two layers: a core group of fewer than 30 ministers, with up to 10 additional junior ministers who will be called secretaries of state, according to a senior government official in his office.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not confirm the names of any new cabinet ministers Monday, even as speculation swirled in Ottawa. But the official added that about half of the team Mr. Carney will announce will be made up of new faces who are not in the current cabinet.
That means that several well-known ministers will find themselves outside of cabinet following the ceremony at Rideau Hall.
The Globe and Mail is not identifying the official so that they could speak candidly about Tuesday’s announcement.
Mr. Carney’s new team will be counted on to act quickly on campaign pledges to remove internal trade barriers by Canada Day, manage trade tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump and launch nation-building projects that will diversify Canada’s export markets.
The Prime Minister laid out the parameters of his approach to cabinet during a May 2 news conference.
“I committed to an efficient cabinet, a focused cabinet, a cabinet with parity, gender parity, and we’ll work toward it,” he said at the time.
The senior government official said the secretaries of state - a position that is also sometimes referred to as a minister of state - will have much smaller staffing budgets than the core group of cabinet ministers. They will be asked to attend cabinet meetings that relate to their portfolios but will not attend all cabinet meetings.
Meetings that are attended by all ministers and all secretaries of state are expected to be very rare.
Mr. Carney is not the first prime minister to have two tiers within his cabinet. The role of ministers of state has been used in various ways by the previous four prime ministers: Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper, Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien.
In a 2011 guide for ministers and ministers of state, the Harper government described the position as people “chosen by the Prime Minister to provide support to Ministers and to the government as a whole,” but who don’t have statutory powers or duties or preside over departments.
They are distinct positions from parliamentary secretaries, whose work is directed more by the ministers they are assigned to and includes standing in for them in the House of Commons and other portfolio-related duties.
Ministers of state are sworn in as privy councillors, while parliamentary secretaries are not.
The Liberal Party picked up another seat on the weekend after a judicial recount showed Mr. Carney’s party won the Quebec riding of Terrebonne by a single vote, unseating the Bloc Québécois incumbent.
That result brings the Liberals to 170 seats, two seats shy of a majority government.
Elections Canada said Monday afternoon that it is gathering information following a Radio-Canada report that a woman in the riding who voted for the Bloc said she sent in her ballot by mail in a pre-printed envelope and it was returned to her.
Elections Canada spokesperson Matthew McKenna said the address printed on this elector’s return envelope appears to have used the wrong postal code.
“We are still working to gather all the facts,” he said.
There are still three more recounts to come, but two of the three currently have the Liberals in front, meaning there is no path to forming a majority government through recount results.
A majority government typically lasts for four years, while the length of a minority Parliament varies. The minority government in place prior to this year’s election was unusually long, lasting about 3½ years.
As is usually the case ahead of a cabinet shuffle, rumours swirled Monday as to which MPs may be in or out.
With the House of Commons not sitting until May 26, even the appearance of a Liberal MP in Ottawa could fuel speculation that they are on their way into cabinet.
Journalists who staked out the Ottawa airport saw several MPs arriving from out of town, but many said they were there to attend orientation meetings unrelated to cabinet.
“If I am [in cabinet], it’s news to me,” said Winnipeg West MP Doug Eyolfson, laughing and adding the orientation sessions were scheduled a while ago.
He said that he thinks it’s important that Manitoba, and all of Canada’s regions, are represented at the cabinet table.
Jill McKnight, who represents the British Columbia riding of Delta, told reporters she was in town to do orientation, but declined to speak further. Before being elected, she was the executive director of the Delta Chamber of Commerce.
Fredericton-Oromocto MP David Myles, who is a well-known singer-songwriter, indicated the same.
“I’m coming here for my orientation. It just happens to be very well timed — unless someone’s just waiting to tell me,” he said in jest. “But no, I’m not.”
David Rodier, a managing director at the public-relations firm Edelman who worked at the Liberal campaign headquarters this year as an adviser, said Mr. Carney will have a free hand in choosing his cabinet.
“The campaign was really centered on him and he met the moment,” Mr. Rodier said in an interview Monday. “He doesn’t really owe too many people.”
One of the key portfolios to watch is who will serve as Mr. Carney’s finance minister. The position is currently held by Quebec MP François-Philippe Champagne.
Mr. Rodier said that regardless of who serves as finance minister, Mr. Carney will have a heavy influence over that portfolio given his background in central banking and global economics.
“Whoever takes that up is going to have to work closely with him, so it’s going to be someone trusted. But I think he‘ll lead finance and probably be the de facto finance minister,” he said in reference to Mr. Carney.