Prime minister Stephen Harper has announced a significant changing of the guard at the top of the Agriculture Canada bureaucracy that will influence the way farm policy evolves.
On Sept. 17, deputy agriculture minister John Knubley will move to the same position at Industry Canada. He has been at agriculture for three years.
His last act as the chief bureaucrat at Agriculture Canada will be to attend the Sept. 12-14 federal-provincial agriculture ministers’ meeting in Whitehorse where the next five-year farm program that will slash farm income support protection is scheduled to be signed by ministers.
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Knubley has been a key player in negotiating the deal, following federal instructions to cut costs.
Suzanne Vinet, a veteran bureaucrat with extensive Agriculture Canada experience in trade and policy files, will become deputy agriculture minister.
Industry leaders who know Vinet say her experience as head of Agriculture Canada’s trade branch and strategic policy, as well as time as a senior official at Health Canada and Transport Canada position her for the job.
Her introduction to the federal government came more than two decades ago as an aide to former Liberal minister Pierre Blais.
“We’re really looking forward to working with her because she has a strong trade background,” Pulse Canada executive director Gordon Bacon said.
“When it comes to issues like low-level presence (of genetically modified material), she will understand the issue and the impact trade barriers have on the economy.”
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnet said her appointment reinforces the Conservative government emphasis on trade as the core of farm policy.
Vinet first joined Agriculture Canada as an employee in 1984.
Knubley came to Agriculture Canada in 2009 with no background in agriculture but a keen eye on government instruction and how to work with provinces and industry to achieve the goals he had been assigned.
“He was very approachable and he understood that he took his marching orders from his political bosses,” said Bonnett.
“He has been key in orchestrating many of the changes that have been going on.”
Knubley oversaw government plans to end the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly coming Aug. 1, to design a new model for the Canadian Grain Commission, coming in legislation next autumn, and to manage sharp cuts to Agriculture Canada staff and services required by the 2012 deficit-cutting budget.
“John didn’t have a background in agriculture but he was approachable,” said Bacon from Pulse Growers, who worked with Knubley on a committee to design new commodity transportation rules.
“He was a government person but he also listened to what industry needed,” said Bacon.
“His mandate was not to rehash the politics of government decisions but to implement them and he did that well.”
