‘Manitoba Time’ is too much time

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/11/2011 (5454 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s government runs on a cabinet system.

And in the most general sense, our province is making do without a real cabinet right now. Weeks after the provincial election, several ministers are still holding down key cabinet portfolios on a temporary basis.

For example, Stan Struthers (Dauphin-Roblin) campaigned for re-election as the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives, but he’s also been acting as minister of finance since Oct. 19. Many other ministers are marking time in portfolios they’re almost certain to leave if a post-election shuffle ever happens.

What does this delay tell you about Manitoba’s NDP government in its fourth term? Not much, unless it is part of a larger trend. And it most definitely is.

Compare Manitoba’s lazy pace to other jurisdictions.

In the United Kingdom, the prime minister traditionally starts appointing a new cabinet at daybreak on the morning after polling day.

The pace is a little more easygoing in Ontario, where Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty appointed his new cabinet exactly two weeks after the Oct. 6, 2011 election.

In Newfoundland and Labrador this fall, Premier Kathy Dunderdale’s Progressive Conservatives won re-election on Oct. 11. She had her cabinet appointed and ready for work by Oct. 28.

In Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall was lucky enough to see all of his ministers re-elected on Nov. 7. To promote continuity, Wall announced that his new cabinet would be identical to the pre-election cabinet, at least until the end of the next budget cycle in mid-2012. This decision put Wall’s government back to work just days after ministers were busy pulling votes in their constituencies.

Here in Manitoba, Premier Greg Selinger’s NDP won re-election on Oct. 4 — and there’s still no sign that we’ll have a permanent cabinet appointed anytime soon.

I’ve asked every New Democrat activist I’ve met in recent weeks to explain this government-in-limbo. All are baffled. One rumour pinned blame for the delays on recounts in two Winnipeg seats. But that’s a stretch, especially since the results were both confirmed in October.

Cabinet ministers aren’t all-powerful, but they aren’t powerless either. Staff retention, routine paperwork and budget planning will all suffer in any government where cabinet’s membership remains uncertain. I served as a political staffer in several Ontario ministries over four years.

In each ministry, senior civil servants basically shut their work down at the first whiff of an imminent shuffle.

Manitoba’s NDP is coasting on many other fronts as well. The opposition makes hay of these habitual delays, but government supporters can’t be too pleased either.

Need a few examples?

There’s no shortage. In 2009, the legislature passed a government bill to appoint police boards for Manitoba’s municipal police forces. About 773 days have passed since the law received royal assent, and no one has a clue when the boards will actually appear.

In 2008, the legislature passed Premier Gary Doer’s bill calling for a lobbyist registry, like those found in most other provinces.

About 1,137 days have passed since the bill became law, and still no registry.

Since violent offenders have been “accidentally” released from Manitoba’s jails, Attorney-General Andrew Swan asked for a review of the problem in May of this year.

In October, prisoners were still going free, and the review was still pending. At last check, the report — like everything else on Broadway — was “expected soon.”

The most disturbing example of the trend is the long-promised inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair. In June, 2005, Doer promised the case would be reviewed in a public inquiry, although he insisted it couldn’t begin until related criminal cases were complete. It’s now 2011, and the inquiry is only just starting its work. Witness testimony is scheduled to start in May of next year, nearly six years after Doer first made his commitment.

One of my favorite political stories is the tale of Coke Stevenson, who was elected Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives in the 1930s.

As legend has it, when a brawl broke out on the House floor, observers were shocked to see the future governor simply pull out a pipe, tamp some tobacco and start smoking. Reporters crouched at the dais to ask Stevenson why he wouldn’t bring the House to order. He simply replied, “as long as they’re not passing laws, they’re not hurtin’ anybody.”

That kind of thinking might have been popular in mid-20th century Texas, but the Manitoba NDP is supposedly a party of activist government.

If Selinger doesn’t appoint a real cabinet to get to work on some real timelines soon, the party that bills itself as “Today’s NDP” risks rebranding itself as something closer to “Someday’s NDP.”

» Brian Kelcey is a writer and public policy consultant with experience as a senior political advisor in Winnipeg and Toronto.