Premier Darrell Pasloski made his first changes to the cabinet Tuesday.

Pasloski has invited Jim Kenyon, the MLA for Porter Creek North, to rejoin the cabinet. This makes the cabinet the largest one in the Yukon government's history.

Pasloski has also asked Brad Cathers, the independent MLA for Lake Laberge, to rejoin the Yukon Party caucus.

"I have made a commitment to build and unite this party, and inviting Mr. Kenyon back to cabinet is the right move,” Pasloski told the Star this morning.

Pasloski made mention of Kenyon's success in the past eight years in encouraging potential investments from Asia, thus creating more jobs in the Yukon.

As for why he didn't ask Cathers to rejoin cabinet, Pasloski said the cabinet is "full,” and there will be no more additions nor changes until the upcoming election.

"I extended the invitation to Brad to rejoin the caucus,” Pasloski said. "This is about bringing everyone back together.”

Cathers said this morning he is "pleased” to be officially back in caucus.

He added he appreciates not being asked to take on ministerial duties at this point so he can focus on winning the Lake Laberge seat again in the upcoming election.

In August 2009, Cathers left the Yukon Party caucus and cabinet, accusing then-premier Dennis Fentie of misleading his caucus and the public about negotiations to privatize all or parts of the Yukon Energy Corp.

Kenyon said this morning he is glad to be back to be back in the cabinet.

"We figured at some point this would happen,” Kenyon told the Star.

"I'm glad to be back and I'm glad Brad is back. It's about time things come together. We've had a rough time over the past couple of years.”

Kenyon was fired from the cabinet in early May for publicly criticizing Fentie's leadership style. The MLA for Porter Creek North ran, unsuccessfully, against Pasloski and Rod Taylor in the past spring's leadership race.

Kenyon said that he has "no issues with Darrell,” and believes it will be a smooth transition back into cabinet.

We decided to have a three-way race to "keep people talking,” Kenyon continued. He said he supported Pasloski during the entire campaign.

As for his new ministerial duties, Kenyon believes that it will be a challenge, but one he is looking forward to.

"It's out of my comfort zone, and in a way I think that's a good thing,” he said.

One of his biggest tasks will be to make sure the Mayo B hydro generating project is on schedule and on budget, he said.

"As far as I know, we are ahead of schedule and ahead of budget,” Kenyon said.

Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell believes that having such a large cabinet is not in the public's interest.

"I question the decision-making process that was been used (when inviting Kenyon back to cabinet),” Mitchell said this morning.

"Kenyon was quite upset about his pension when he left cabinet ... if Mr. Kenyon has spoke about the good work the ministries were doing, that would be a different thing. We shouldn't be doing public work worried about what our salary grade is.”

NDP Leader Liz Hanson was unavailable for comment this morning.

Steve Cardiff, the NDP MLA for Mount Lorne, said the government is not in a place where it can be paying more cabinet ministers "large salaries”.

According to Floyd McCormick, the Clerk of Assembly, an MLA gets paid an additional $37,439 a year to take on ministerial duties, bringing the total pay package to more than $100,000 annually.

"It seems ludicrous to be spending this money on cabinet salaries when we can't support the needy in our community,” Cardiff said.

He was referring to the tent city which has been growing on the lawn of the legislature building since the start of June.

Nine years ago, when the governing party was elected, Yukoners didn't have people camped out on the lawn, Cardiff noted.

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