Cabinet ministers Pat Dunn and Steve Craig won't seek re-election

Fisheries Minister Steve Craig and his cabinet colleague Pat Dunn are making it easier for Premier Tim Houston to bring new blood into his cabinet when he shuffles it Thursday.

Both men have informed the premier they will not be seeking re-election but will serve out their terms.

Dunn, who has represented Pictou Centre for 12 years, told CBC News he has decided to retire from politics for one main reason.

"I came to the decision because of my age, because my family commitments," said Dunn on his way into a caucus meeting Wednesday. "I have six adult kids that are waiting for the day where I can be free to go when I want to visit them."

The 73-year-old, who was first elected in 2006, staged a political comeback in 2013 after being defeated in the 2009 general election.

He has been minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage and responsible for African Nova Scotian Affairs since the Progressive Conservatives took power in the fall of 2021. He also served briefly as minister of Health Promotion and Protection in Rodney MacDonald's cabinet in 2009, before that government was defeated.

Serving out terms

Dunn paid tribute to those he has worked with during his time as a cabinet minister.

"They're just great people to work with," he said. "I just can't find one complaint."

Craig, who spent almost a decade as a municipal councillor in Halifax, said when he made the leap to provincial politics he made the same promise to his wife and the premier.

"I made one commitment to both of them that I would run and if I won, I would run one more time and that would be it," Craig told CBC News. "So I've lived up to that commitment."

He said he would continue to serve out his term, even from the back benches, if he's shuffled out of cabinet to make room for a caucus colleague planning to stick around for the next election.

"The good people of Sackville-Cobequid elected me," he said. "So I'm serving them and they reelected me and I'm serving them now until the end of the mandate."

"It's always a privilege to be in cabinet, however that's one position of many positions that it takes to run government and I'm very pleased with what I've done in this role and I'll continue to be the MLA for Sackville-Cobequid."

Premier denied cabinet shuffle imminent

Houston could make history Thursday by bringing rookie PC MLA Twila Grosse into cabinet. The retired airport executive, who won a byelection in Preston on Aug. 8, could become the first Black woman to ever sit in cabinet. 

Although the province issued a news release Wednesday announcing changes coming to cabinet, just hours earlier Houston denied he was even contemplating a shuffle.

"I don't know that a cabinet shuffle is imminent," said Houston outside the PC caucus office, just before 1 p.m. "It's not something that I've talked about."

A note to editors issued by Communications Nova Scotia at 4 p.m. said "Premier Tim Houston will announce changes to the executive council (cabinet) on Thursday Sept. 14."