Hawkins is now Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour. Prior to the shuffle he led Transportation and Works.
Hawkins told The Advertiser he was “honoured to be able to be selected by the premier to move into a new portfolio [as] that’s always encouraging.”
However, leaving his former role is, in his words, somewhat bittersweet.
“Over the last 20 months it’s been very interesting and challenging,” Hawkins said. “When the move came on Monday morning I was somewhat sad to have to leave because we’ve done a significant amount of work. As minister, with support from the premier, we tried to take the politics out of roadwork.
“For the first time in the history of the province, we’ve put together a five-year plan based on evidence and . . . went through a series of criteria to determine that,” he said, adding that a five-year plan was also set for marine infrastructure.
Even though he’s no longer leading that department, Hawkins says he expects to see some significant improvements around transportation in the future.
He expects the province to remain committed to doing work based on evidence of need, rather than politics.
“We’re moving in that direction [and] I certainly encourage the minister that’s taking over for me to continue to do [so],” he said.
Hawkins told The Advertiser he is looking forward to addressing the challenges and issues that will come with the new portfolio.
In the coming days he will be briefed on active files.
“None of this would have been possible without the support of the great people in the Grand Falls-Windsor – Buchans district,” Hawkins added.
“It’s important that I recognize them; it’s because of them that I have been given this opportunity.”
