Keith Hutchings , is former a Canadian politician in Newfoundland and Labrador. From 2007 until 2019, he represented the district of Ferryland in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly for the Progressive Conservative Party.
Hutchings served as the Minister of Municipal and Intergovernmental Affairs, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Minister of Innovation, Business and Rural Development, the Minister responsible for the Office of Public Engagement and the Deputy House Leader. Before entering cabinet in 2011, Hutchings had served as a Parliamentary Secretary in several government departments.
Early life and career
Hutchings was born the youngest of six children in Mobile, a community on the south coast of the Avalon Peninsula. He attended Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) in St. John's where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in political science and a minor in history. Hutchings also has a Certificate in Public Administration from MUN, and has completed an Occupational Health and Safety Program from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, Ontario.
Hutchings spent 11 years working with the Workplace Health Safety and Compensation Commission. From 1996 to 1998 he served as Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant to Loyola Sullivan, then the Leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Assembly. Prior to entering politics he worked as a consultant. He also owned and operated IMPACC Consulting.
Politics
Government backbencher
On December 29, 2006, Sullivan announced his resignation as Minister of Finance and as member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for Ferryland. Hutchings later announced he would seek the Progressive Conservative nomination in the district. He defeated seven other candidates to win the nomination, taking 1,135 votes out of the 2,902 ballots cast. In the by-election held on February 8, 2007, Hutchings took 75 per cent of the vote to hold the seat for the governing Progressive Conservatives, defeating candidates from both the Liberals and New Democrats. Eight months later he was re-elected in the October 9, 2007, provincial election, winning nearly 84 per cent of the popular vote.
Following his re-election Premier Danny Williams appointed him as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment. Two years later he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and Community Services. Hutchings was challenged by two others for the Progressive Conservative nomination in the lead up to the October 2011, provincial election. He easily secured the PC nomination for the October vote, taking 1,586 of the 2,367 votes cast. Hutchings was re-elected in the provincial election with 72 per cent of the popular vote.
Minister of Innovation, Business and Rural Development (2011-2013) Hutchings was appointed as the minister of the newly formed Department of Innovation, Business and Rural Development on October 28, 2011. The new department was created by merging the Department of Business with the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development.
In March 2012, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) revealed that in an eight-year period the government, through the now defunct Department of Business, had funnelled more than $20 million into grants, loans and the direct costs of business-attraction initiatives, with only moderate returns. A net benefit of fewer than 100 new jobs, a quarter of them seasonal, had been created. In the 2013, provincial budget the government consolidate more than 20 business investment programs under two umbrella funds – a Business Investment Fund and a Regional Development Fund. Hutchings said the move simplified the system for businesses and community groups, with one business advocate agreeing that this would make it easier for companies to get money.