Bjørn Arild Gram

Bjørn Arild Gram (born 7 May 1972 in Steinkjer) is a Norwegian politician currently serving as minister of defence since 2022.

A member of the Centre Party, he previously served as minister of local government from 2021 to 2022.

Gram started his political career as a deputy representative to the Storting from Nord-Trøndelag, and went on to serve in said position on two more occasions.

He studied at Nord-Trøndelag University College from 1991 to 1997 and took the siv.øk. degree at Bodø University College in 2000.

He served as a deputy representative to the Storting from Nord-Trøndelag from 1993–1997, 2001–2009 and 2013–2021.

He was a member of Nord-Trøndelag county council from 1995 to 2019, and has chaired the county party chapter.

From 1996 to 1998 he chaired the Centre Youth, the youth wing of the Centre Party.

He was employed in Telenor Mobil from 2000 to 2005.

He also attended the recruit school in Steinkjer, and later became troop leader and was stationed along the Russian border.

He was also a sergeant in the Norwegian Home Guard.

He served as a state secretary in the Ministry of Finance from 2005 to 2007, when he became mayor of Steinkjer.

From 2005 to 2007 Gram was a member of Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet as State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

On the local level Gram served as the mayor of Steinkjer from 2007 to 2020, having formerly been a member of the county council from 1991 to 2000.

In 2013, as Marit Arnstad from Nord-Trøndelag was a member of the outgoing Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet, Gram met as a regular representative during the two weeks before the cabinet change.

Gram was appointed minister of local government in Jonas Gahr Støre's cabinet on 14 October 2021.

Gram told NRK that he would facilitate so that local democracy can take a position on the future of its county.

He further said it would take a decision from the Storting to reverse county mergers.

He didn't give an estimate to what reversal of the mergers would cost, but emphasised that the government would have dialog with the counties in question about what would be necessary to go through with the process of reversal.

Following questions from members of the Storting regarding Telenor continuing construction of the 5G network with Huawei equipment in Bergen, Gram answered with a written statement that seemed similar to former Minister of Districts and Digitalisation Linda Hofstad Helleland's response about the same case a few weeks earlier.

Gram later revealed that the similar answers are due to the fact that the authorities' policy is fixed, even after the change of government.

On 29 October, Gram issued a letter where he and the government approved the dissolution of Troms og Finnmark county.

After the government approved for municipalities who were merged by force, to dissolve themselves, Gram expressed that he had faith in local democracy and confidence in the municipalities to listen to there inhabitants in an appropriate way.

He further stated that he didn't want to speculate in local outcomes against forced mergers.

On 13 December, in a Storting question time, Liberal Party representative André N. Skjelstad asked Gram about which tasks would be transferred from the county governor to the county municipality.

Gram didn't answer the question directly, but stated that the government would get back to the Storting with a proposal of which tasks should be transferred.

He also emphasized that for many years there had been a sneak centralisation of government jobs and this must be taken into account.

In a press release on 19 December, Gram announced that the housing benefits would rise through January to March 2022.

He also stressed that people should apply to get the benefits by 31 December, and those who already had it didn't have to apply again for the given period.

In early January 2022, the government announced that small houses will still be built with chimneys, in effect meaning that they would not go in to remove the requirement for single-family homes to have a chimney in accordance with building regulations.

Gram stressed the importance of chimneys, stating: "It is important that people can keep warm if there is a natural disaster or other major event. By keeping the requirement for a chimney, we make it easier for more people to burn firewood".

Gram stated that he could not promise municipalities who wants to change counties after mergers where reversed the right to do so.

He stressed the factors of changes to the county those municipalities would leave and the ones they would be entering, in addition to constituency changes for the Storting.

He added that the decision would be left to the Storting.

In March, Gram sent a proposal for an amendment to the Inheritance Act to the Storting that would ensure that family members of the recently deceased would be able to file paperwork digitally and make said process shorter and "less bureaucratic".

In his statement, he said: "Today, the process after death is complicated and paper-based. We are now working on a digital death estate solution that will solve some of the bureaucratic tangles. But for it to be legal to share data digitally via a digital death estate solution, the Inheritance Act must be changed".

In April, Gram announced that notable changes to the electoral law would be made, that previously were exclusively made for the 2021 election during the COVID-19 pandemic; could be permanently implemented.

In 2016, during his time as mayor, Gram was among ten participants at a cabin in Sweden when a text message saying "We want your pussy" was sent to former party leader Liv Signe Navarsete.

Like the nine other participants, he denied to have sent the message.

He stepped down as mayor in 2020 when he was appointed chair of the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, a position he held until his ministerial appointment in 2021.

In February 2020, he was appointed the new chair of the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, and stepped down as mayor the next month.