Stephen Harper named a new fisheries minister last week, Frederiction MP Keith Ashfield, and it will be up to the prime minister to name a new parliamentary secretary, as well.
Whether that means Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission MP Randy Kamp will get his old job back remains to be seen.
Kamp served the last two terms as parliamentary secretary to former fisheries minister Gail Shea.
“We’re expecting to hear in the next short while,” Kamp said Thursday.
“That decision’s up to the prime minister.”
Ashfield was part of Harper’s new cabinet announced this week following the May 2 federal election, which gave Harper a majority government.
Ashfield is at least the second consecutive minister to come from Atlantic Canada, succeeding Shea, who was from Prince Edward Island.
That could change, next time the cabinet is shuffled, said Kamp.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see someone from the west in the not-too-distant future.”
Only one in about five Ministers of Fisheries and Oceans is from B.C., Kamp said.
He’d like to return as parliamentary secretary to fisheries, for one reason: so he can keep working on the issue of halibut allocations between the commercial and sport fishery.
He’d also like to see a new Fisheries Act, introduced in the previous minority governments, so it can replace the existing one, first written in 1868.
“I enjoyed what I did. I’d like the opportunity to carry on.”
The House of Commons and the new government starts its work June 2.
with the election of speaker followed by the Speech from the Throne on June 3. The budget follows the week after.