Agriculture Canada has a new senior manager with deep ties to the finance department and the centre of government control but no background in agriculture.
Prime minister Stephen Harper has announced that Timothy Sargent, acting deputy secretary to the cabinet for operations in the Privy Council Office, becomes associate deputy agriculture minister April 29.
He worked as an increasingly senior economist at the finance department from 1994 to 2008 before moving to the Privy Council, the prime minister’s central government bureaucracy.
His specialty there has been economic and regional development.
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Harper also announced that former Canadian Food Inspection Agency president Richard Fadden, now director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, will become deputy minister of national defence next month.
He also announced that former Conservative MP Deborah Grey, who was the first Reform party MP and elected largely on a platform of opposing Ottawa elites, has been appointed a member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee that oversees CSIS.
The former northern Alberta MP has been sworn into the Privy Council to deal with the privileged information available to SIRC members.
She was an Alberta MP for 15 years before stepping down and served as interim leader of the official opposition in Parliament before Harper was elected leader.
Harper also used his appointments announcement to acknowledge the retirement of Brian Evans, longtime chief veterinary officer for Canada, vice-president of CFIA, the face of the agency during the BSE crisis and Canada’s first chief food safety officer.
Evans, who began his career as a rural Ontario vet, officially retired from the public service this month after 31 years.
At his retirement send-off April 18, Evans was feted by current agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and former Liberal minister Lyle Vanclief as well as many food industry leaders and international food safety officials by video.
Many industry leaders told him if he wants a job in his retirement, just call.
