Prime minister Stephen Harper has appointed a new president for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and announced a shuffle of senior Agriculture Canada executives.
Effective July 11, George Da Pont becomes CFIA president, replacing Carole Swan who retired in late June four years into a five-year appointment.
Da Pont, a Saskatchewan native educated at the University of Saskatchewan and a 23-year veteran of the federal public service, was commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard before being appointed CFIA executive vice-president last year.
His appointment had a cascading effect on other senior government executives.
Mary Komarynsky, a former assistant deputy minister at Agriculture Canada who moved to Transport Canada in 2007, is the new CFIA executive vice-president.
Andrea Lyon, currently associate deputy minister at Agriculture Canada, is being moved to the same position at Environment Canada.
And Claude Carriere, the foreign and defence policy adviser to the prime minister in the Privy Council Office, replaces Lyon as associate deputy agriculture minister.
In a statement announcing the senior bureaucratic shuffle, Harper praised Swan and other senior retirees for their “contributions to the public service and dedication to serving Canadians.
