‘Historic’ N.S. cabinet shuffle brings in first Black female cabinet minister, first female Speaker

New faces will occupy new spaces when the Nova Scotia legislature reconvenes next month.

Three new cabinet ministers will take their seats in the front rows of the government side of the House and a new person is assured to sit in the Speaker’s chair.

All this came about in a modest cabinet shuffle announced Thursday by Premier Tim Houston.

“This is an historic day for the province of Nova Scotia and it’s certainly an historic day for women in Nova Scotia, the first African Nova Scotia woman cabinet minister in Twila Grosse and the first female Speaker of the House in Karla MacFarlane,” Houston said in announcing the changes.

Twila Grosse, elected MLA for Preston on Aug. 8, will forego the training grounds of the backbenches and join cabinet immediately as African Nova Scotia Affairs minister and Karla MacFarlane, MLA for Pictou West and current minister of Community Services and minister responsible for L’nu Affairs, will be nominated as the first female House Speaker when the legislature resumes sitting on Oct. 12.

First-term MLAs Trevor Boudreau (Richmond) and Kent Smith (Eastern Shore), will ascend to cabinet posts, with Boudreau taking over MacFarlane’s ministerial portfolios while Smith becomes minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

Keith Bain, the four-term MLA for Victoria-The Lakes in Cape Breton, will resign his Speaker post on the first day of the upcoming session to make way for MacFarlane. 

Pat Dunn, the MLA for Pictou Centre and the most recent minister of African Affairs, and Steve Craig, the Sackville-Cobequid MLA who had been in charge of fisheries and aquaculture since the 2021 PC majority election victory, have both made it known that they won’t seek re-election in the next provincial vote.

‘A privilege’

“What an opportunity, what a privilege, what an honour to be given this task,” Grosse, a longtime community activist in Preston and a retired business planning manager, said of her appointment.

“I’ve worked hard in the community, so I just feel I’m ready for this,” she said. “I am sort of in awe, it is very humbling, I’m very grateful.”

Grosse said she hasn’t given a lot of thought to being the first female African Nova Scotian cabinet minister.

“It means a lot and of course, with it, sometimes being the first in something, people always think of sort of the glamour but on the other side, there is a lot of responsibility that comes with being first,” Grosse said.

“Nova Scotia continues to advance and to move forward and the fact is that there are opportunities in this province.”

MacFarlane, first elected in 2013, said she always aspired to but did not covet an opportunity to be the province’s first female Speaker.

“It certainly has been an aspiration,” MacFarlane said. “Whenever you come into politics, most individuals have goals and aspirations to be able to advance further. Having eight years in opposition, it was wonderful, I really learned a lot. … I feel very blessed and grateful that I was given an opportunity to be a minister of a department that I had great interest in.”

‘No secret’

MacFarlane said it was no secret to her colleagues and friends that she would someday work toward being the first female Speaker.

MacFarlane said she doesn’t consider the transition from piloting a government department to the Speaker’s chair as either a step up or a lateral move.

“All jobs have serious responsibilities,” MacFarlane said. “Again, I think that this role will take on new challenges for me. … I have definitely copious amounts of ideas for the Speaker role and advancing some things.”

Instead, MacFarlane said the announcements Thursday extend the progressive component of the Progressive Conservatives’ legacy.

“It’s time to recognize that it was the PC party that elected the first female MLA, it was the PC party that elected (appointed) the first female minister in Nova Scotia, it was the PC party that put legislation in for gay marriage, that created the (Nova Scotia) Human Rights Commission, that allowed the first female House leader,” MacFarlane said.

“Now, if this all works out, the PC party will have elected, with the opposition hopefully, the first female Speaker, and I will put money on it that it will be the PC party of Nova Scotia that will someday elect the first female premier.”

Allan MacMaster will add the role of minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage to his existing responsibilities as deputy minister, minister of Finance and Treasury Board, minister of Labour Relations and minister of Gaelic Affairs.

Barbara Adams will become minister responsible for Military Relations along with her duties as minister of Seniors and Long-Term Care and Jill Balser assumes responsibility for the Advisory Council on the Status of Women while retaining the Labour, Skills and Immigration portfolio.

“I’m so proud of these firsts for our province and for our party,” Houston said.  The only question that Nova Scotians will ask is what took the province so long. It has taken the province over 175 years to have an African Nova Scotian woman at the decision-making table and over 175 years to have a woman nominated as the Speaker of the House. It’s surprising that it’s taken that long, but we are going to make up for it now.”

Houston also announced changes to the senior ranks of the public service, including the creation of an executive deputy team to tackle the province’s most pressing challenges. 

The executive team of Kelliann Dean, Paul LaFleche, Tracey Taweel and Dana MacKenzie will report to Laura Lee Langley, head of the public service.

LaFleche and Taweel, former deputy ministers, will be dedicated to the executive deputy team full-time. 

A host of new deputy ministers and associate deputy ministers were also appointed.