Freeland promises to cut number of cabinet ministers, PMO staff by half

Chrystia Freeland says that if she becomes the next Liberal leader and prime minister, she will reduce the federal cabinet and the number of staff in the Prime Minister's Office by half.

"Leadership starts at the top, and that's why, to start, we must right-size the cabinet and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO)," Freeland's campaign said in a press release Wednesday. 

Freeland's campaign says she'll reduce the size of cabinet to "no more than 20 ministers" from the current roster of 38. 

The release said Freeland's cabinet "will be more focused and more effective — balancing regional diversity and breadth of experience to ensure ministers are given the space to meaningfully contribute to governing."

Freeland's campaign said a cabinet led by the former deputy prime minister and finance minister would be supported by ministers of state, often referred to as junior ministers. 

Freeland is one of six candidates running to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader. The party will elect Trudeau's successor March 9.

Christopher Cochrane, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, told CBC News that a smaller cabinet can be more focused and effective, but it can also present a prime minister with difficulties. 

"It can make it more challenging, when you have a smaller cabinet, to balance all of the different representational imperatives that prime ministers need to balance … and also have a group that is highly capable," he said.  

Those imperatives include selecting competent ministers who represent the country's regional, linguistic, ethnic and gender diversity.

Junior and senior ministers

Cochrane says that having a smaller cabinet can also make it harder for a prime minister to enforce caucus discipline. 

"It removes a source of possible incentive that a prime minister can use to maintain the loyalty of MPs," he said. 

In the U.K., British prime ministers struggle with caucus discipline because their House of Commons has nearly twice as many members as the Canadian House — leaving fewer seats at the cabinet table to go around.

"In Canada, because the ratio is much higher, there's a reasonable aspiration that MPs have to one day be a part of a cabinet," he said. "As a result, that generates more loyalty to the prime minister."

Previous prime ministers have appointed fewer cabinet ministers, letting junior ministers take the lead on certain files in their ministry.

Cochrane says that this can be a successful strategy to keep cabinet focused, while still allowing junior ministers to get things done on the ground.

The challenge, he says, is that it can lead to a siloing of responsibilities within a given ministry where ministers of state are unaware of what their colleagues in the same ministry are doing.

Freeland's campaign also said by reducing the number of staff in the PMO, she would, as prime minister, be able to empower members of cabinet with more responsibility and end the overreach of PMO staff. 

"These two actions to restore trust and confidence in the government are just the first steps in Chrystia's plan to make government more effective and efficient to deliver services faster and better," Freeland's campaign said Wednesday.