Tuesday’s provincial cabinet shuffle saw Spruce Woods MLA Cliff Cullen moved out of Education into Economic Development, Investment and Trade.

Cullen first elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 2003 moves into his fifth cabinet posting.

“I really appreciate the Premier having confidence in me to give me new assignments. I’m quite excited about the economic development file because I was there several years ago for one of my portfolios. There a lot of potential here in Manitoba and as we work through this covid there’s great opportunity here in Manitoba”

Cliff Cullen spent the past year in education and he called it an interesting year. “Lots of conversations about how do we make education better and obviously people got caught up on the discussion about Bill 64 especially the governance model. New leadership came in and decided to make a change on the governance side. I think Manitobans are still looking forward to making some changes in the education system and want better outcomes.”

The province invests more than $3 billion per year into K to 12 education and Cullen says the government will keep working away at getting the most for Manitoba’s students.

With the addition of Turtle Mountain MLA Doyle Piwniuk Cliff Cullen says the new cabinet has a real strong rural component to it.

In his new portfolio Cullen feels the low unemployment rate is a good starting point.

“We have lots of people working but one of the key challenges is going to be immigration to fill some of the jobs people are looking for in the business community. There’s a lot of jobs there unfilled. We’ll have to focus on the immigration side of it and clearly we’ll be working with the business community to see what we can do to bring additional jobs to Manitoba and make sure we have the capital here to achieve that” said Cullen.

Cullen was pleased to be named Deputy Premier.

“I’m pretty excited about that and we’ll over time see what that entails but I’m just happy to have the opportunity and it sends a strong signal when the deputy premier is also in charge of economic development that we’re serious about creating jobs and wealth and creating opportunities for Mantiobans.”

Cullen says this cabinet shuffle has been in the works for a few months and Premier Heather Stefanson wanted to put her mark on what government looks like.

“There’s a real focus on health care because we have three ministers responsible for health and wellness across Manitoba. There’s a few ministers looking at the economic development file as well so I think she’s really set the tone for this government” said Cliff Cullen.