Premier David Eby has begun the earliest stages of crafting his next cabinet, after a week of one-on-one phone calls with MLAs.

It’s not going to be an easy task.

He’s facing 12 vacancies from veterans he’ll have to fill.

Five ministers were defeated in the election — including Education Minister Rachna Singh, Agriculture Minister Pam Alexis, Lands Minister Nathan Cullen and ministers of state Dan Coulter and Andrew Mercier.

Seven ministers retired — Finance Minister Katrine Conroy, Forests Minister Bruce Ralston, Transportation Minister Rob Fleming, Environment Minister George Heyman, Indigenous Relations Minister Murray Rankin, Labour Minister Harry Bains and minister of state Mitzi Dean.

That’s a lot of experience out the door. It equates to almost 43 per cent of the cabinet turning over.

The first step for Eby will be to determine if he even keeps a 28-person cabinet, or if he starts redrawing ministries and creating new ones.

Right now, the full cabinet is actually 43 people, once you include parliamentary secretaries. That’s only a few positions shy of the entire NDP caucus, after it was reduced........

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