Prime Minister Carney announces changes in the senior ranks of the public service
Press Release + Noah Note
Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced the following changes in the senior ranks of the public service, to take effect in the coming weeks:
Glenn Purves, Global Head of Macro Research, BlackRock Investment Institute, becomes Deputy Minister of International Trade.
David Morrison, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, becomes Senior Diplomatic and International Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister. Mr. Morrison will also act as Personal Representative of the Prime Minister (Sherpa) for the G7 and G20 Summits, Privy Council Office.
Arun Thangaraj, Deputy Minister of Transport, becomes Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Michael Vandergrift, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, becomes Deputy Minister of Transport.
Ted Gallivan, Interim Deputy National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, becomes Deputy Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar, Deputy Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, becomes President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Paul MacKinnon, President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, becomes Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
Nancy Gardiner, President of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, becomes Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs.
Cynthia (Cindy) Termorshuizen, Deputy Minister for the G7 Summit and Personal Representative of the Prime Minister (Sherpa) for the G7 and G20 Summits, Privy Council Office, becomes Deputy Minister of International Development.
Rob Stewart, Deputy Minister of International Trade, becomes Deputy Minister responsible to lead the creation of the new Financial Crimes Agency.
Kevin Brosseau, Commissioner of Canada’s Fight Against Fentanyl, becomes Senior Associate Deputy Minister of National Defence and, concurrently, Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, and will continue serving as Commissioner in Canada’s Fight Against Fentanyl.
David Angell, Foreign and Defence Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, Privy Council Office, becomes Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Dominic Rochon, Chief Information Officer of Canada, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, becomes Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (National Security and Intelligence), Privy Council Office.
Kaili Levesque, Associate Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, becomes Associate Deputy Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and President of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. Ms. Levesque will continue to support the Secretary of State (Nature).
Talal Dakalbab, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Crime Prevention Branch, Public Safety Canada, becomes Commissioner of Corrections.
Francis Trudel, Associate Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, becomes Associate Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement.
These leadership changes support the strong, effective delivery of priorities and results for Canadians, while positioning the federal government to advance Canada’s interests and respond to the rapidly shifting dynamics of the global landscape.
The Prime Minister congratulated Christopher MacLennan, Deputy Minister of International Development, on his nomination as the next Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean at the World Bank Group. The Prime Minister also congratulated Sandra McCardell, Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, on her nomination as the next Executive Director for Canada, China, Kuwait, South Korea and Türkiye at the African Development Bank.
The Prime Minister recognised the following individuals on their upcoming retirements from the public service. He thanked them for their dedication and service to Canadians throughout their careers and wished them all the best in the future:
Chris Forbes, former Deputy Minister of Finance.
Bob Hamilton, Commissioner of Revenue. A successor will be named shortly.
Anne Kelly, Commissioner of Corrections, becomes Senior Advisor at Correctional Services Canada, pending her upcoming retirement.
Noah Note: Some pretty notable moves from a defence standpoint here. David Angell, Foreign and Defence Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister is out of his position and it seems there won't be a replacement. Similarly Ted Gallivan, Interim Deputy National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister is also out of his position without direct replacement.
Dominic Rochon is being promoted to Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (National Security and Intelligence), while Kevin Brosseau becomes Senior Associate Deputy Minister of National Defence and, concurrently, Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard. He will continue serving as Commissioner in Canada’s Fight Against Fentanyl. He replaces Mario Pelletier as Commissioner of the CCG whom retired in January.
Mr. Brosseau is also the former Deputy National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister as well as the former Associate Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP. Mr. Rochon is coming in from his role as Chief Information Officer but has also served as Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, National and Cyber Security Branch, Public Safety Canada in the past as well as various roles in the CSE.
Obviously some pretty substantial moves here. As noted, David Angell and Ted Gallivan are moving out of their respective advisory roles to the Prime Minister, and right now, those specific roles are staying empty. That doesn't mean gone, just vacant. Instead of keeping the top intelligence flow running directly into the PM through advisors, Dominic Rochon is stepping up as the new Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet for National Security and Intelligence.
Now Ottawa bureaucracy and organization isnt my speciality. I can feel Mr. Lagassé in spirit looking down at me shaking his head as I try to explain this to my best knowledge. I am sorry Mr. Lagassé. An Advisor to the Prime Minister is essentially a direct, personalized line funneling information straight to the PM's desk. A Deputy Secretary is fundamentally different. It is a bureaucratic role that runs a formalized secretariat managing information and policy for the entire Cabinet.
This takes the previous advisory positions and embeds the mandate much deeper into the public service bureaucracy, rather than keeping it as a direct attachment to the PM's office. That is the way that I myself know it, and how I am interpreting the shift myself.
However, the real standout here is the consolidation of power around Kevin Brosseau. Being the Senior Associate Deputy Minister of National Defence while also serving as the Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard is a massive consolidation of power.
With the Coast Guard officially under the DND banner, Brosseau officially becomes both the bureaucratic bridge connecting these two together at the executive level, but also the lead man on what is the Federal governments fundemental restructuring of our security ecosystem.
In that respect the most significant thing is Brosseau keeping his title as Fentanyl Czar on top of everything. When you consider the recent changes to the CCG mandate, you can kinda paint the picture of what's happening here.
Brosseau is now in the reformer position, armed with an establish Defence position, an explicit counter-narcotics mandate, and a new maritime security mandate under his belt. He is the man tasked with taking the Coast Guard and structurally positioning it further and further away from it's traditional role and into a more hardline maritime security agency.
Overall it's a lot. The PM is effectively pulling these critical portfolios out of the immediate advisory bubble and embeding them into the core, bureaucratic machinery. It’s a massive streamlining effort that I guess we gotta wait to see how well it executes. I won't pretend to be at the forefront of this stuff. I am not a child of the Ottawa bureaucracy and it's fine workings.
So for now I leave this to much more smarter, experienced people to tackle the nitty-gritty of the politics behind this.