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REGINA — Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, fresh off a challenging election campaign, announced his new cabinet recently with some new faces around the table and many veterans in different portfolios.

“This day marks a new beginning,” Moe said as the 16-member cabinet was sworn in.

Jim Reiter, the former energy minister and the government’s longest-serving cabinet member, received the biggest promotion and assumes multiple major responsibilities.

Reiter, a cabinet member since 2020, becomes deputy premier, finance minister and minister of labour relations and workplace safety. He is also minister of immigration and career training.

Jeremy Cockrill and Everett Hindley will switch jobs, with Hindley taking over education and Cockrill assuming the health portfolio.

Colleen Young, the former advanced education minister, will be in charge of energy and resources.

Tim McLeod takes over as minister of justice, corrections and public safety and attorney general, Jeremy Harrison, who made headlines before the election after admitting to taking a gun into the legislature a decade earlier, will be responsible for the Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Public Service Commission.

David Marit moves from agriculture to the highways ministry with responsibility for SaskBuilds and procurement.

Saskatchewan Party veteran Ken Cheveldayoff returns to cabinet, taking over advanced education.

The party won a fifth consecutive majority government in last month’s election, but its seat count was severely reduced.

Moe’s governing caucus was cut to 34 from 42 — enough to remain in charge but with little room to spare in the 61-seat legislature.

The vote reflected a stark urban-rural split, with the Saskatchewan Party shut out in Regina and left clinging to one seat in Saskatoon, which is held by Cheveldayoff.

Moe said Saskatchewan residents voted for a strong economy and bright future but also for some degree of change. 

The province, he said, is not divided but united around a brighter future. He said his team will govern on behalf of all.

Many familiar faces are no longer in the legislature.

Saskatoon cabinet ministers Bronwyn Eyre and Paul Merriman along with Regina’s Laura Ross, Christine Tell and Gene Makowsky went down in defeat.

Stalwarts Donna Harpauer, Don Morgan, Dustin Duncan and Don McMorris did not seek re-election.

Moe’s new caucus includes 16 members elected for the first time.

During the election campaign, Moe said his first order of business if re-elected would be to ban “biological boys” from using school changing rooms with “biological girls.”

He said he made the promise after learning of a complaint at a southeast Saskatchewan school about two biological boys using a girls change room.

Last year, Moe came under fire for using the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to enact a law requiring children under 16 to obtain parental consent to change their names or pronouns at school.

He’s also promised broad tax relief and to continue withholding federal carbon levy payments to Ottawa.

Moe faces a larger Opposition under NDP Leader Carla Beck.

The NDP took the remaining 27 seats in the election. No third parties won seats in the chamber.

©2024 The Canadian Press