4 Punjabis in British Columbia Cabinet

Re-elected British Columbia Premier John Horgan on Thursday included four Punjabi Indo-Canadian MLAs out of total nine, who won the Assembly polls in Canada.

Two MLAs Harry Bains and Ravi Kahlon have been made Ministers while Rachna Singh and Niki Sharma have been made Parliamentary Secretary.

Harry Bains has been reappointed as the Minister of Labour in British Columbia. He has been the NDP MLA for Surrey-Newton since 2005.

Delta North MLA Ravi Kahlon has been appointed as the Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation. Kahlon in his first term as an MLA served as the Parliamentary Secretary for Sports and Multiculturalism and then for Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.

Another Punjabi who will feature in the government will be Rachna Singh, who has been named the Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-racism Initiatives.

Meanwhile, Indian-origin NDP MLA Niki Sharma has been named the Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development and Non-profits. She is lawyer by profession and has been elected as MLA from Vancouver-Hastings.

However, veteran Jinny Sims, who had been a Cabinet minister when the first Horgan government was formed, has been dropped.