The Rural Voice, 1988-06, Page 19The office is quiet before 8 a.m.
Fitzgerald puts fresh coffee on to brew
and switches on his computer. There
is an island of desks in the middle of
the office complex where later Bruna
Servello, receptionist and secretary,
Ernesta De Acetis, administrative
advisor, and secretaries Kelly Dyment
and Debbie Cherry work. It proves to
be an island of calm, surrounded by
the swirl of hectic activity from the
people in the offices around the out-
side of the room who have the job of
keeping the minister informed and on
time as the day goes on.
It's about eight when Riddell
There are 1,724
regular full-time
employees and 697
part-time, seasonal,
and casual workers
in the ministry.
arrives. He and his wife Anita keep an
apartment in the College Park Apart-
ments about a block away at Yonge
and College and he walks to work. It
is the one slow, relaxing time of the
day. He sits at his desk and has a
chance to review some paperwork, to
go over his agenda for the day with
Fitzgerald, and to chat about the plays
at the Blyth Festival this summer.
Fitzgerald says Riddell has already
been booked to attend the opening
night in June (a four-page listing of
commitments as far ahead as Decem-
ber is kept updated by the staff).
The minister's office, on the north-
west corner of the 1 l th floor, is the
most comfortable of the offices, more
like a well -decorated living -room than
the standard government -issue offices
of the staff. At 8:30, Jim Wheeler and
John Wiley, liaison officer with the
Economics and Policy Branch, arrive
to brief Riddell before he goes to the
meeting of the Cabinet Committee on
Economic Policy (CCEP) at 9 a.m. in
the Legislature building. They want to
make sure he knows what will be dis-
cussed at the meeting, particularly as it
relates to OMAF. CCEP, with minis-
ters from 16 ministries, is one of ten
cabinet sub -committees that examine
various government priorities before
they go to the whole cabinet. The
ministers meet on alternate Thursdays.
On the other Thursdays, the deputy
ministers of each ministry meet.
Riddell sits on six such committees.
The burden is lighter today when the
government has a huge majority than
it was before the September election,
when he had to sit on more commit-
tees because there were fewer cabinet
ministers.
By now, the pace in the rest of the
office is picking up. Bruce Stewart,
the minister's communications advi-
sor, rushes a draft of Riddell's speech
to the Eastem Canada Farm Writers
Association to policy advisor Lou
D'Onofrio's office for a Last-minute
check. It is, he says, draft number
four of the speech.
Speeches on ministry policies are
provided by speechwriters from the
Communications Branch of the minis-
try. Well in advance of a speaking
engagement, the speechwriter is
briefed on what elements the speech
should contain. The first draft is
circulated to the three assistant deputy
ministers and to directors of programs
that might be affected by the speech.
Today, for instance, there will be
an announcement about Food Systems
2002, a program to reduce pesticide
use in farming, so the director of the
Plant Industry Branch, Ralph Shaw,
will see a draft of the speech. Any
speech with a major announcement
will also go to the Premier's office.
Finally the speech comes to the minis-
ter's staff for approval and to Riddell
himself before it goes back to the
Communications Branch for the final
draft. Copies will be available to all
the farm writers at the luncheon.
At 9:02, Riddell has completed
his briefing and, with a bulging red
file of letters and information from his
constituency offices back in Huron
County, rushes into the office of Nan
Thomson, his constituency advisor.
Thomson is, as she explains later, a
sort of central command for the three
constituency offices, the full-time
offices in Exeter and Wingham, and
the part-time office in Goderich. The
offices in the riding deal with most of
the local problems — larger issues as
well as lost OHIP cards or people
having trouble getting Unemployment
Insurance benefits (the offices often
deal with things that aren't actually
provincial government functions,
Thomson says). There are many
problems solved for constituents that
Riddell won't even hear about.
The most frustrating part of the job
for both her and Riddell is when the
problem constituents want solved is
beyond the scope of the minister but
they won't believe it, she says. People
think the minister should be able to
pressure a bank into giving a loan to
someone it's turned down or solve a
problem that comes under federal
jurisdiction. People seem to think that
the minister is all-powerful and that
The briefing book is
a thick binder of the
latest information
divided into subjects.
It includes suggested
responses to issues.
having a cabinet minister as their MPP
means an instant solution to their
problems, Thomson adds.
A former temporary worker with
various government offices, Thomson
worked for David Peterson running his
Toronto office during an election
campaign and at one time or another
has worked for nearly everyone in the
Liberal caucus. When the Liberals
formed the government in 1985. she
wasn't looking for a full-time job, but
Riddell convinced her to come work
for him after he was named minister.
Thomson expresses admiration for
her boss, saying he leaves her to do
her job and so far they've never dis-
agreed on any action she's taken on
his behalf. "He is probably unique
among ministers," she adds, in that he
is quite willing to make a personal
statement on major issues. On Sunday
shopping, for example, he's said that
he's personally against shopping on
Sundays but the old legislation was
unenforceable and it's hard to justify
some towns in the riding having
Sunday shopping because they are
declared tourist areas while stores in
other towns are closed.
Riddell has rushed out the door to
get to his CCEP meeting, leaving
confusion behind. At first no one is
JUNE 1988 17