FINANCE BOSS STEPS DOWN
NO SUCCESSOR NAMED AS DEPUTY MINISTER ROCHON FOLLOWS MORNEAU OUT THE DOOR
One day after the Trudeau government published its fall economic update, the deputy minister of Finance Canada has announced that he is vacating the job within the next two weeks, National Post has learned.
Paul Rochon, Finance Canada’s highest-ranking bureaucrat for the past six and a half years, announced internally on Tuesday that he would be stepping down from the job effective Dec. 14.
Rochon’s retirement from the public service comes less than four months after the sudden resignation of former finance minister Bill Morneau, whom Prime Minister Justin Trudeau replaced with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Rochon’s departure means that the Liberals will have changed both their finance minister and the head of the finance department in the span of a few months, all the while navigating the worst economic crisis in modern Canadian history caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a resignation note sent to staff Tuesday, Rochon says that it has been an “honour” to work as head of Finance Canada “over a period that has been as challenging as it has been fascinating.”
The letter does not detail why he is stepping down from Finance Canada’s top job.
“Throughout this period, you have provided sound and innovative responses to the array of policy issues that faces the government and the Minister of Finance,” Rochon wrote to his departmental colleagues.
In his note, the deputy minister highlights the department’s work that he says allowed Canada to “escape the ravages” of the 2008 financial crisis, enter the COVID-19 pandemic “in a strong fiscal position,” have a highly regarded public pension system, and put in place policies “that lessened the buildup in household indebtedness, thereby avoiding potentially devastating impacts on households.”
The deputy minister also thanked a long list of finance department officials for their work. On the other hand, there is a conspicuous lack of acknowledgment of the work of any political staff or Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Freeland.
“Paul has served Canada and has distinguished himself as a great Deputy Minister of Finance — through this current crisis and over the past six years. The sterling reputation and credibility of Canada’s finances is owed to Paul, and to people like him, who have dedicated themselves to serving the public good,” Freeland said in a statement.
Rochon’s announcement comes on the heels of the Trudeau government’s fall economic statement, which foresees a $380-billion deficit in 2020, all the while planning for up to $100 billion in additional spending to help navigate the country through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am deeply grateful to Paul for ensuring my smooth transition into the Finance portfolio and for his tremendously hard work on the Fall Economic Statement. His counsel has been invaluable to me in these recent months,” Freeland’s statement reads.
But his resignation did not come as a surprise to some sources on Tuesday, who pointed to a September National Post report on speculation that Freeland might replace Rochon with Carolyn Wilkins, then senior deputy governor at the Bank of Canada.
Wilkins has since announced that she would be stepping down from her role at the bank effective Dec. 9.
“I expect the government will be announcing your new Deputy Minister shortly. I know that you will provide the new DM the very high quality support and advice that is your trademark,” Rochon noted in his memo. “I hope that you are proud of what you have achieved.”
But two sources with knowledge of the inner workings at Finance Canada said that two other people are now part of the job speculation.
The first is Louise Levonian, currently the International Monetary Fund’s executive director for Canada and a former federal bureaucrat.
The second is Chris Forbes, a former associate deputy minister of finance and current deputy minister at Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.
Both sources were granted anonymity so as to speak freely.
“I’m not going to comment on new DM. That will be announced in due course,” responded Freeland’s director of communications, Alex Lawrence.
Rochon is a veteran at Finance Canada, having occupied various important roles for over 20 years. He also served briefly as deputy minister of International Development between 2013 and 2014.
“Rochon is an excellent public servant. He was an island of fiscal sanity within this government,” Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre wrote on social media after news of the resignation broke.
Former longtime federal bureaucrat Margaret Mccuaig- Johnston, who worked alongside Rochon at Finance Canada between 1999 and 2004, said the department was “lucky” to have had him at its head.
“He is one of the finest, most principled public servants in the government of Canada,” she wrote on Twitter.
Parliamentary Budget Office Yves Giroux echoed her comments.
“The department of Finance was lucky to have him as Deputy Minister,” Giroux responded to Mccuaig-johnston.