Trudeau taps ex-pension chief as top finance official
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has named Michael Sabia, a former chief executive officer at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, as the top bureaucrat at Canada’s finance department.
The appointment is effective Dec. 14, according to a statement Monday from the prime minister’s office. Sabia’s predecessor in the role announced his decision to retire last week after Trudeau’s government detailed a budget deficit this fiscal year of $381.6 billion, or 17.5 per cent of gross domestic product.
As deputy finance minister, Sabia will be the country’s third-highest ranking policy-maker on economic matters, after the finance minister and Bank of Canada governor.
Maclean’s magazine broke the news of Sabia’s appointment on Sunday night.
Sabia will be tasked with helping put together a post-pandemic stimulus package worth as much as
$100 billion. The funding was promised by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in her first fiscal update since taking the reins from Bill Morneau, who resigned in August after a public rift with Trudeau.
Sabia stepped down as head of the Caisse, Canada’s secondlargest institutional investor, with $333 billion in assets under management as of June 30, this year, before taking over as chair of the state-run Canada Infrastructure Bank in April. He is currently also director at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
He has been an aide on economic policy issues for Trudeau’s government since the COVID-19 pandemic began and was chief executive officer at BCE Inc., the country’s biggest telecommunications company, from 2002 until 2008.
Paul Rochon, the outgoing deputy minister, will become a senior official at the Privy Council Office, Trudeau’s office said.
He previously worked at the Department of Finance and the Privy Council Office before joining the private sector and brings a wealth of corporate experience to the job.