OTTAWA – Canada has a number of newly reassigned cabinet ministers today, including new Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages Minister Josée Verner and new Industry Minister Jim Prentice.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a cabinet shuffle today that saw nine ministries gain new bosses. Click here for the Globe and Mail story on the whole shuffle.
As we reported last week, the two ministers with oversight of the Canadian cable, radio, television and telecom industries were shuffled to new gigs. Now-former Heritage Minister Bev Oda was reassigned and is Minister of International Co-operation while star cabinet minister Maxime Bernier has moved from Industry to the coveted Foreign Affairs post.
Prentice (right) comes to the Industry ministry after spending 18 months as Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians. A lawyer by profession, he has specialized in property rights, focusing on relocations, environmental protection suits and restricted development areas. He also served as a commissioner of the Indian Specific Claims Commission of Canada for 10 years and is recognized by his peers as an expert in land claims negotiations, according to the Government of Canada web site.
With all that Bernier spearheaded in telecom over his whirlwind 18 months, the telecom file – excepting the upcoming advanced wireless spectrum auction – is largely taken care of and set firmly on a deregulation path.
Verner (left) had been minister of International Cooperation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages and is a growing political force in Quebec. In addition to being the chair of the Quebec Caucus for the Conservative Party of Canada, in June of 2004 she was named the spokesperson for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Region of Quebec in Prime Minister Harper’s shadow cabinet, says the government site.
She has spent close to 20 years in the communications and public service fields and worked for former Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa and for the deputy speaker of Quebec’s National Assembly, as well as at the provincial Ministry of Health and Social Services.
It didn’t take long for some in Canada’s cultural community to respond to the new minister, demanding the same changes they have for years.
"Minister Verner must make it clear to the CRTC that private broadcasters must be required to show real Canadian programming on Canadian airwaves. We are being inundated with U.S. production,” said Richard Hardacre, ACTRA National President in a press release from the actors’ union.
ACTRA has constantly called on the CRTC to reverse their 1999 Television Policy changes that ACTRA and others believe has led to fewer Canadian drama programming hours.
"Thanks to the CRTC, the broadcasters have a lucrative monopoly over Canadian airwaves, yet they don’t even attempt to meet the spirit of the Canadian Broadcasting Act,” said Hardacre.
– Greg O’Brien
