Mayer seeks common ground

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This article was published 09/08/2018 (2795 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A week into her new role as minister of Crown Services, first-term Progressive Conservative MLA Colleen Mayer says she wants to find common ground with her counterparts as she navigates through hot button issues such as Manitoba Hydro and the ongoing legal dispute with the Manitoba Métis Federation.

“You can come together; it doesn’t have to always be at odds,” said Mayer, who was elected as the MLA for St. Vital in 2016.

“I think you can always find a way to find a resolution that works out for everybody, so that’s always how I’ve governed myself — to be honest and open with people — and I can’t see that changing who I am.”

Mayer was appointed Crown Services minister last week following a mid-term cabinet shuffle that saw several changes to the heads of top government departments.

She replaces Spruce Woods PC MLA Cliff Cullen, who was promoted as minister of Justice and Attorney General.

Speaking to The Brandon Sun during a sit-down interview on Wednesday, Mayer said she was surprised by the announcement and thankful for the opportunity.

As minister of Crown Services, she will be responsible for overseeing Manitoba Hydro, an organization that has had a tumultuous year in light of a multibillion-dollar debt and the resignation last March of almost its entire board.

Board members cited a lack of communication from Premier Brian Pallister’s part on important financial matters as the reason for their resignations.

Pallister has refuted this claim, saying there was a disagreement over a $67.5-million settlement with the MMF to ensure it did not oppose a Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line.

Pallister ordered Hydro to cancel the deal, which he said led to the resignation of Hydro’s board members. The MMF has since take the province to court over the legality of the agreement.

Mayer said she has spoken to neither the new board members at Hydro nor MMF President David Chartrand, whom she has met on a few occasions but didn’t know well.

“I’m looking forward to starting on the right foot,” she said.

“I’m looking forward to communicating with him on how we can go forward and I think it starts with building a relationship and building trust with each other. We have to get to know each other and that’s the way you start.”

Mayer said she did not know if her own Métis heritage played into the appointment, but she thought it was important to celebrate having another woman in the political ring, and the message it sends to young women and girls that they too can head down the same path — Mayer is one of five women in the premier’s 13-member cabinet.

She also reiterated the government’s commitment to keeping Hydro a public entity and keeping rates low.

“I’ll be looking at it through the lens of how we can make services sustainable. Building relationships, building trust within our citizenry, I think, is really key.”

However, Mayer didn’t have any further details on the progress of an investigative review of Hydro’s operations, which her predecessor, Cullen, recently said would happen in the short term.

“Once I have a chance to be fully briefed on things, we’ll be looking at all the plans and reviewing where things are, where we’ve come from and where we need to go,” Mayer said. “That’s what I’ll be looking at.”

Mayer will also have a part to play in the sale of cannabis once it is legalized this fall, since provincial retailers will be required to buy cannabis from the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corp.

Mayer said she has not been fully briefed on the file, but will evaluate the role that Crown Services will play in cannabis sales. Mayer admitted to trying cannabis when she was young, but hasn’t partaken in more than 20 years.

Looking ahead to the coming challenges the government may face from the opposition parties, Mayer said the government is making headway and finding results, and that Manitobans are seeing it.

“The next election is a couple years away and you always look out to the horizon. But you know what, there’s work today and we’re going to continue that because that’s the right thing to do.”

» mlee@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press

» Twitter: @mtaylorlee