PREMIER GREETS NEW MINISTERS

Premier chats with 's three new cabinet ministers after they were sworn in November 15 in the "Blue Room" of the Legislative Building. Left to right are Highways and Transportation Minister Donald Orchard, Community Services and Corrections Minister George C. Minaker, Premier Lyon and Douglas M. Gourlay, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Minister of Northern Affairs.

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November 15, 1979

GEORGE CLEMENT MINAKER (MLA -- St. James), Minister of Community Services and Corrections

An electrical engineer, George Minaker, 42, was first elected to the Legislature in 1973. He has served since November, 1977, as legislative assistant to the Minister of Finance and the Minister chairing the Manitoba Energy Council.

Mr. Minaker has a long record of civic and community service in St. James, with five years as an alderman in St. James-Assiniboia. He later represented the area on City Council, where he sat on the executive policy committee and chaired the works and operations committee. In the Legislature he served as Opposition critic, prior to the 1977 general election, in the areas of Mines and Natural Resources, Northern Affairs and the Manitoba Development Corporation. A businessman, he is president of Locker Contracting Ltd., a firm dealing in interior renovations for commercial buildings, and secretary-treasurer of Locker Kitchen Centres. Born in Morris, Man., September 17, 1937, he has lived in the St. James area for all but five years. He is a past member of the St. James Library and Recreation boards and a past director of the St. James-Assiniboia Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Minaker received his B.Sc. in electrical engineering from the in 1960 and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Manitoba. In 1957 he was married to the former Olwen Rae Ramsden. Mr. and Mrs. Minaker have three children, a daughter, 21, and two sons, 18 and 16. -30- November 15, 1979

DOUGLAS MACLEOD GOURLAY (MLA -- Swan River), Minister of Municipal Affairs, Minister of Northern Affairs, and Minister responsible for the Communities Economic Development Fund.

Mr. Gourlay, 49, a former mayor of Swan River and agrologist by profession, has been an MLA since October, 1977, and for the past year served as legislative assistant to the Minister of Health and Social Development. He has also chaired the Legislature'sPrivate Bills Committee, and served on the Agricultural and Municipal Committees. Born in Brandon and raised on the family farm at Oak River, Mr. Gourlay was educated there and at Cardale before entering the University of Manitoba, where he was awarded a B.Sc. degree in 1952. He undertook post-graduate work in agrology at the Universities of Arizona and Colorado. For 21 years -- from 1957 to 1977 -- he served as an agricultural repre- sentative with the Manitoba Department of Agriculture, and for 41/2 years prior to that was with the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration. Mr. Gourlay served on the Swan River council for five years, three as a councillor and the last two (1975-77) as mayor. He is a member of the Swan River Rotary Club. Mr. Gourlay and his wife Audrey have two daughters, two sons and two grandchildren.

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DONALD W. ORCHARD (MLA -- Pembina), Minister of Highways and Transportation, Chairman of the Provincial Land Use Committee.

Donald Orchard, 32, a Miami district farmer, has represented Pembina constituency since 1977, and served as legislative assistant to the Minister of Education from November, 1978, until appointed to the Executive Council. He has chaired the Legislature's Economic Development Committee and has served on the Public Accounts and Law Amendments Committees. Born at Miami, Manitoba, where his father farms, Mr. Orchard was educated locally and at the University of Manitoba, graduating with a B.S.A. degree in agricultural economics in 1968. He then served for five years at Regina and Edmonton as area sales manager for Simplot Chemicals. He returned to Miami in 1973, served for six months as consultant for the International Joint Commission Study on the Pembina Dam System, and purchased a farm in the district. While farming he also instructed in farm business management courses. He has been a director of the Miami District Agricultural Board since 1974, and was secretary (1976-77) of the Miami Consumers Co-op Board, where he is still a director. He is also a steward of the Miami United Church Board. Mr. Orchard and his wife Janie have three children: Eric, six; Arlene, three, and Onalee, one.

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