Alberta Premier Jim Prentice has named an associate agriculture and rural development minister to handle the portfolio while provincial Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson takes sick leave.
Grande Prairie-Smoky MLA Everett McDonald, a farmer and former reeve for the County of Grande Prairie, was appointed Tuesday to the associate minister’s post.
Olson, the ag minister since 2012 and the MLA for Wetaskiwin-Camrose since 2008, is “taking a few weeks’ time to recover from some personal health issues,” Prentice said.
Writing Tuesday on Facebook, Olson said he underwent an islet cell transplant Monday at Edmonton’s University of Alberta Hospital.
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In such a procedure, he wrote, insulin-producing islet cells from a donated pancreas are transplanted into the liver of an insulin-dependent recipient with severe Type 1 diabetes.
The process, he said, either eliminates or “greatly” reduces a recipient’s need for insulin injections. Olson added he is “looking forward to feeling better than ever and getting back to work.”
Prentice said McDonald, in his new cabinet role, “brings decades of family farming experience to the table, and an understanding of current issues in rural communities.”
McDonald’s political resume includes service as reeve for Grande Prairie from 2004 until he entered provincial politics in 2012.
During his stint on the county council McDonald sat on committees and boards including the provincial mountain pine beetle advisory committee, Weyerhaeuser and Canfor advisory committees and the board of the Sexsmith Seed Cleaning Co-operative. He also previously chaired the Crystal Creek Conservation Society.
At the provincial legislature, McDonald also previously chaired an MLA implementation team that recently completed a review of recommendations for improvements to Alberta’s retail electricity market.
Prentice on Tuesday also tapped Municipal Affairs Minister Diana McQueen, the MLA for Drayton Valley-Devon, to handle responsibility for Alberta’s action on climate change.
Prentice described the climate change file as one which “will require significant government attention in the months and years ahead.” — AGCanada.com Network
