Fred Lum and Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail

By far the largest change is in Finance. Much of Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s job is being hived off to Deputy Premier Deb Matthews, who is also named as the newly-empowered Treasury Board president.

On top of Treasury Board’s traditional duty – approving government expenses day-to-day and pressing ministries to find savings – Ms. Matthews will also be in charge of tough files, such as labour negotiations and Crown corporations. Her central job? Get the budget balanced by 2017-18.

The fact that Ms. Wynne put her second-in-command and closest ally in the role sends a signal across government that she means business. When Ms. Matthews asks a ministry to dial back a spending request, they will know she has the Premier backing her up.

The Liberals know spending is their Achilles heel – they are much better at describing new programs they want to create than explaining how they will pay for existing ones. Making the latter Ms. Matthews’ sole job fills in the gap for them.

Mr. Sousa, meanwhile, will remain in charge of budgeting and longer-term fiscal planning.