Major shake-up among Canada’s most senior officials announced
A major shake-up among Canada’s senior public servants has been announced.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau yesterday released news of six moves and two resignations among the top tiers of the government machinery.
The first senior official to change jobs has been Peter Boehm, who was yesterday promoted from senior associate deputy minister of foreign affairs to deputy minister of international development.
A public servant since 1981, Boehm has held many roles in the international sphere: Having held various positions with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada he has served as ambassador in countries such as the U.S. and Germany, he has been working in the foreign affairs ministry since 2012.
In less than two weeks, there will be two promotions and one side-ways move: On March 14, current associate deputy minister of natural resources Michael Keenan becomes deputy minister of transport, and Diane Jacovella, currently assistant deputy minister, global issues and development, Global Affairs Canada, becomes associate deputy minister of foreign affairs, while Jean-François Tremblay, currently deputy minister of transport, infrastructure and communities, becomes deputy minister of infrastructure.
After working as economist for the Government of British Columbia, Keenan joined the federal government in 1992 as tax policy officer at the Department of Finance, before becoming senior policy analyst at the Privy Council Office (PCO) in 1996. Since then, he has held various senior roles in the public service.
Jacovella’s background is largely focused on international development. Having held various director roles, she worked at the Canadian International Development Agency for seven years before being appointed to her current role in November 2013.
Tremblay held numerous senior roles and moved back and fourth between the PCO and the Department of Health from 2000 to 2010, before being appointed senior assistant deputy minister, policy and strategic direction at Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada where he stayed for three years. Tremblay returned to the PCO in 2013 as deputy secretary to the cabinet (operations), and assumed his current role in July 2015.
Two further changes will take effect on April 4 when current special advisor to the clerk of the Privy Council on the Syrian refugee initiative Malcolm Brown becomes deputy minister of public safety; and Hélène Laurendeau, currently associate deputy minister of indigenous and northern affairs, becomes deputy minister of indigenous and northern affairs.
Brown, who was appointed to his current role in November last year, has held various senior roles in the public service including deputy minister of international development; executive vice-president of Canada’s Border Services Agency, and assistant deputy minister in the Privy Council Office’s reference group of ministers on aboriginal policy.
François Guimont, deputy minister of public safety, and Colleen Swords, deputy minister of indigenous and northern affairs, are retiring from the public service.
Trudeau thanked Guimont and Swords “for their many distinguished accomplishments over the course of their careers and noted their dedication and commitment in serving Canadians.”
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See also:
Interview: Coleen Volk, Government of Canada
New pay system saving Canada’s government $50m a year rolled out today
About Winnie Agbonlahor
Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.
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e-mail with short paragraph preview of article stated “Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau yesterday released news of six moves and two resignations among the top tiers of the government machinery.” – I think of retirement as something other than a ‘resignation’