Latest news with #MichaelSabia
CTV News
10-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Former justice minister David Lametti confirms start date as adviser to PM Carney
Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives for a swearing in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday, March 14, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA — Former Liberal justice minister David Lametti starts his new job in Mark Carney's Prime Minister's Office on Monday. Lametti posted on LinkedIn to confirm his start date as Carney's principal secretary, a top political aide position. Carney's new chief of staff, former UN ambassador Marc-André Blanchard, started in his role at the beginning of the week. Lametti, Blanchard and Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia are the key hires in Carney's inner circle. Sabia is a former deputy minister of finance and was president and CEO of Hydro-Quebec before he was tapped to take over as the head of the civil service. He sent a letter to the public service on Monday, warning that some internal government processes have become too complicated and telling public servants they must focus on the government's priorities. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2025.
CTV News
02-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Claudine Bouchard named new CEO of Hydro-Quebec
The Quebec government has announced Claudine Bouchard as the new president and CEO of Hydro-Quebec. Bouchard, who started working at Hydro-Quebec more than 25 years ago in the call centre, replaces Michael Sabia, who is stepping down from the role to lead Prime Minister Mark Carney's Privy Council Office in Ottawa. Sabia had only been the Quebec Crown corporation's head boss since 2023. A Hydro-Quebec veteran, Bouchard has been the executive vice-president and Chief Operating and Infrastructure Officer since 2023 and oversees the Société d'énergie de la Baie James, a subsidiary that offers services in generation and transmission plant engineering, project management and construction. She takes on her new role as CEO on July 5 after the board of directors recommended her as Sabia's successor. In a press release, the provincial government described her as a 'visionary and strategic leader' who helped steer the modernization of the power utility for several years. Economy Minister Christine Frechette welcomed the news, highlighting how she helped spearhead a plan that led to a reduction of power outages by 50 per cent last year. Je suis très fière d'annoncer la nomination de Mme Claudine Bouchard à titre de présidente-directrice générale d'@hydroquebec. Mme Bouchard a débuté son parcours chez Hydro-Québec il y a 25 ans. Arrivée comme guide au départ, elle a contribué au fil des ans à de nombreux projets… — Christine Fréchette (@CFrechette) July 2, 2025 Citing new wind power projects throughout Quebec and the 'historic' energy agreement with Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier François Legault said Hydro-Quebec needs 'strong leadership that is capable of delivering results.' 'Claudine Bouchard knows the Crown corporation very well. She has demonstrated that she knows how to get things done, bring teams together and lead concrete transformations. I am convinced that she has everything it takes to lead Hydro-Québec in this new phase of its development,' Legault said in a statement. Bouchard also said she was 'honoured' to be appointed. 'It is a great privilege to lead this company, which has had such a profound impact on Quebec's history and will play a key role in its development in the coming decades,' she said.
Globe and Mail
28-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
How Michael Sabia can make Ottawa move fast and build things
Michael Sabia is being asked to reverse, in a matter of months, an inertia that has taken hold in the nation's capital over decades. Since Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the erstwhile chief executive officer of Hydro-Québec will serve as Clerk of the Privy Council – the country's top bureaucrat – Ottawa has been rife with speculation about how Mr. Sabia will try to light a fire under a federal public service accustomed to moving more slowly and cautiously than is demanded by the current moment. But while much of the chatter following Mr. Sabia's June 11 appointment has been about personnel changes to the bureaucracy's highest ranks – through an expansive shuffle of deputy ministers, the most senior civil servants in each ministry, expected this summer – that only scratches the surface of what's needed to get things rolling. Hanging in the balance is an agenda, put forward by Mr. Carney to assert Canada's economic sovereignty, that's at odds with the government's implementation capacity to date. It includes fast-tracking energy and infrastructure projects, scaling homegrown technologies, diversifying exports, building housing, reorienting immigration, developing self-reliant supply chains and leveraging industrial gains from increased defence spending. Opinion: Michael Sabia faces an uphill climb in reforming Canada's civil service The scale of the challenge – and what sorts of structural, cultural and personnel changes could be required – were conveyed to The Globe and Mail in recent interviews with two dozen people closely familiar with the bureaucracy's workings, including current and former deputy ministers and senior political officials. Although there was recognition that some departments have functioned better than others (and some have stepped up in other times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic and 2008 global financial meltdown), they highlighted an array of overarching barriers that have taken root since the 1990s, if not earlier. Among them are a depletion of talent despite the bureaucracy's total ranks growing; particular lack of implementation expertise in some economic areas and policy mechanisms Mr. Carney is prioritizing; disconnect between the public and private sectors; a lack of clear lines of accountability; failure to make use of modern technologies; and severe aversion to taking risks. Mr. Sabia's suitability to tackling all of that, if anyone can, is a subject of considerable debate. Over a late-career run that has included heading pension giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, serving as deputy finance minister and then leading Hydro-Québec, he's earned a reputation as a creative policy maker and architect of big, ambitious projects. Among them are the Canada Infrastructure Bank, the Canada Growth Fund and a new hydroelectricity relationship between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. He is also, like Mr. Carney, a rare Canadian executive who has moved fluidly between government and the private sector, giving him an unusual combination of institutional knowledge and outside perspective. At the same time, with his federal experience limited mostly to the Finance department, he may have less knowledge of government-wide dynamics than previous clerks who were career bureaucrats. Sharing some of Mr. Carney's suffer-no-fools reputation, it's an open question how he'll fare at bringing others along. And with a recent pattern of staying in jobs long enough to set big plans in motion and then moving on, it's not clear how much emphasis he'll place on long-term systemic reforms. But If ever there were a time for impatience to be a virtue, this might be it. While there are widespread calls around Ottawa for a formal, government-wide program review to comprehensively reallocate resources and modernize rules and processes – the sort of effort last seriously undertaken by Jean Chrétien's government in the '90s – that push could take most of Mr. Carney's mandate to complete. By then, the opportunity to seize on Canada's elbows-up moment with a transformative economic agenda, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump, might have passed. The hope among some reform-minded government veterans is that Mr. Carney and Mr. Sabia land on a two-track approach – in which they set in motion long-term structural overhaul, to leave the government in better shape than they found it, but more immediately send whatever signals and create whatever workarounds are needed to get stuff done now. That may not be a viable pathway to overcoming every obstacle. There may, for instance, be few quick fixes for Ottawa's reliance on outdated technologies and information systems. But three of the biggest potential obstacles to implementing Mr. Carney's agenda are instructive, in terms of how it could work. A common perception in Ottawa is that high-level bureaucratic talent has diminished over the past couple of decades. More specifically, there are widely acknowledged expertise gaps. In a government that has traditionally done most spending through grants and transfer payments, that includes lack of comfort with more complex financial tools that Mr. Carney may be looking to deploy in industrial strategies. And lack of employment mobility, between the public and private sectors, has contributed to a perceived disconnect between career bureaucrats in Ottawa and policies' real-world impacts. There are many fundamental ways to address those shortcoming – new strategies around recruitment and career advancement, changing pay structures, using technology to expedite glacial hiring processes. Most contentiously, but increasingly whispered about, Ottawa could loosen bilingualism requirements to broaden its pool. Canada has 'ambition deficit' and regulations that are scaring away investment, Sabia says In the near term, the most obvious lever is the anticipated deputy-minister shuffle, following a small shuffle that took place this month. It could see Mr. Sabia bringing in some new faces, and perhaps more so trying to elevate younger talent already in the bureaucracy, even if they have not worked their way up as gradually as has been customary. But many people interviewed for this story also suggested Ottawa may have to get more creative about bringing in people from industry – and possibly provincial governments – to work on policy priorities of Mr. Carney's for which they have specific expertise. That could potentially be done under Interchange Canada, an underutilized federal program enabling exchanges between the public and private sectors. It could also see people seconded from outside government, forming hybrid teams with bureaucrats to advance key files. Navigating conflict-of-interest considerations would be a challenge – but not, by most accounts, an insurmountable one. And Mr. Sabia's unusual history straddling the public and private sectors could help convince others to do so. A near-universal lament is that civil servants feel incentivized to keep their heads down and avoid risks – in putting forward new ideas, or taking ownership of moving policies forward. That's partly because of additional rules and guidelines layered on after any sort of spending or ethics controversy. Paring those down, to maintain but simplify accountability, is seen as a long-term play. But it's also because of a common perception that politicians are prepared to throw bureaucrats under the bus – or shove them in front of parliamentary committees – at the first sign of trouble, rather than taking heat themselves. And that's where there may be an opportunity to quickly pursue culture change. Mr. Sabia could help by sending a signal across the bureaucracy that people who take initiative and move quickly will be valued. Much will come down to Mr. Carney. His tone, early on, has suggested that expedience and ambition are the priority. But bureaucrats tend to say that the real message about risk tolerance will come from how tolerant he and his ministers prove when moving fast causes something to go wrong. Another oft-cited reason for slowness and lack of individual initiative is that there are too many cooks in the kitchen. While recent growth of the total federal workforce (well above 300,000 people) is likely to be targeted by Mr. Carney for cost savings, ballooning upper ranks – assistant deputy ministers, associate deputy ministers, directors-general, etc. – have particularly bogged down decision-making by creating hierarchical confusion. So too, bureaucrats counter, has an excess of political staff – numbering around 800, by the end of former prime minister Justin Trudeau's tenure, far more than in other Westminster democracies – dipping in and out of files. Not to mention decisions notoriously getting log-jammed in the Prime Minister's Office. That crowdedness is crying out for a review aimed at paring back and simplifying lines of authority. But some of that could be done informally, for now. While a small number of top priorities will inevitably have heavy involvement from the PMO – and the Privy Council Office, the (also enlarged) bureaucratic department that supports it – the rest could be delegated to ministries with minimal central interference. And deputies there could be pushed to identify a small number of their top performers to push things through, bruised egos be damned. As with other possible quick fixes, it could be inelegant. But Mr. Carney has been elected, and Mr. Sabia appointed, with promised focus on results. Those results may include a dramatically restructured federal government. But they may not have time to wait for it, if they want to get everything else done.
Globe and Mail
25-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Carney ready to dismiss top bureaucrats unable to meet his expectations, Liberal insiders say
Prime Minister Mark Carney expects high-ranking public servants to speedily carry out his ambitious nation-building agenda and is prepared to discipline anyone unable to meet his expectations, government and Liberal insiders say. To meet his stated goal of achieving 'the largest transformation' in the Canadian economy since the Second World War, the sources say, Mr. Carney is also ready to recruit more outsiders like former Hydro-Québec chief executive Michael Sabia. Mr. Sabia, who served as deputy minister of finance from 2020-23 and once headed BCE and Quebec's pension fund, will become clerk of the Privy Council Office in early July. The PCO clerk is the country's top bureaucrat and the Prime Minister's deputy minister. The Globe and Mail spoke to five government and Liberal insiders about the Prime Minister's plans to rapidly fulfill his promises to diversify trade away from the United States and turn Canada into an energy superpower. The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Prime Minister and his top advisers have made it clear at every meeting that senior federal bureaucrats must meet the challenge of reforming the Canadian economy with the same 'pace and urgency' as the government, one official said. Two Liberal insiders told The Globe that discussions have been held with Mr. Sabia and incoming PMO chief of staff Marc-André Blanchard about demoting or dismissing senior civil servants who can't meet the performance goals. Carney hires Hydro‑Québec CEO Michael Sabia to head federal bureaucracy Carney selects former UN ambassador Marc-André Blanchard as chief of staff Mr. Blanchard, a former United Nations ambassador, also has extensive credentials. He was until recently executive vice-president of Quebec's pension fund and before that was chairman and CEO of McCarthy Tétrault, one of Canada's largest law firms. The insiders said the Prime Minister and those two top advisers have been told that they should not tolerate any deputy minister who is slow to implement the government's agenda. Deputy ministers serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, unlike most civil servants who cannot be easily fired or demoted. One of the insiders said there is frustration in the Carney PMO about the 'muscle memory' of senior bureaucrats who seem more focused on process than outcomes. The source stressed, however, that there is no sense that they are opposed to the government's agenda, but that they are caught up in 'analysis paralysis.' While there has been high-level talk of recruiting other business achievers to the government, the insider said the Prime Minister is not looking for an Elon Musk type of personality, or the chaos that ensued in Washington when the entrepreneur tried to massively cut spending. The insider said Mr. Carney would be looking at individuals with deep business and government experience, who could help, for example, new Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson get major energy projects approved quickly. Mr. Hodgson is a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs who was personally recruited by Mr. Carney to run for the Liberals. More infrastructure needed to boost energy security in Eastern Canada, Hodgson says A second official said the Prime Minister is serious about ensuring that top echelons of the public service meet his high expectations. He's made it clear, for example, that he expects cabinet ministers and deputy ministers to show up on time for meetings, to be well prepared and to have answers to his probing questions. Government expert Donald Savoie, a professor of public administration at the University of Moncton, said Mr. Carney and Mr. Sabia bring extensive government and business experience to the table and will not tolerate lackadaisical deputy ministers. 'Both of them will know who is performing or not. They have been in government. They know,' he said. 'Both Carney and Sabia know the system. When they turf somebody out, they will be turfed out for the right reasons, because they are not up to the task at hand.' Mr. Carney made a small shuffle of deputy ministers on Friday but a much larger one is expected once Mr. Sabia and Mr. Blanchard have had time to assess the work of top civil servants, according to two of the sources. Allen Sutherland, a former senior PCO official who recently became president of the Institute on Governance, said the urgency of the Carney agenda presents a challenge for the public service that it hasn't faced in years. He acknowledged that some senior bureaucrats are apprehensive about the demands placed on them by Mr. Carney. Konrad Yakabuski: The federal public service is broken. Is it too late to fix it? Opinion: Canada can learn from Trump and cut its bloated bureaucracy 'The Carney government has a high expectation and their ambitions are high,' he said. 'For some people in the public service there is an appetite for this because they see the moment that the country finds itself in and, just like any other Canadian, they want their institutions to deliver." Pierre Martel, a former senior public servant and now professor of public administration at the University of Ottawa, said the federal bureaucracy is going to be tested, not only on its ability to deliver on Mr. Carney's agenda, but also on whether it can become more efficient with fewer people. 'It is certainly a very profound change from the way prime minister Justin Trudeau operated. Mr. Carney has a more businesslike approach with cabinet setting the direction, and he is expecting results,' Prof. Martel said. 'The public service has to demonstrate that they can be more efficient and more agile to produce results very quickly.' The public service has grown more than 35 per cent over the Trudeau decade, which is not sustainable in a world where there is increased pressure on Canada and its allies to divert money to defence and security, he said. 'It is going to be an exciting time to be in the public service. Obviously there are tough challenges and we will hear more and more about doing more with less,' he said. 'There is no way around it but the public service has to reinvent itself.'
Cision Canada
20-06-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
Redressing the Past and Building for the Future: Innu Nation and Hydro-Québec Come to a Reconciliation and Collaboration Agreement Français
Natuashish, Nitassinan, NL, June 20, 2025 /CNW/ - Negotiators for the Innu Nation of Labrador and Hydro-Québec have signed an historic agreement-in-principle to settle past grievances and a legal challenge by Innu Nation related to the construction, operation and maintenance of the Churchill Falls Hydro-Electric complex, and to set out core elements and principles as the foundations of a new relationship. "On behalf of the Innu of Labrador, I am pleased that we have taken this major step towards settling our lawsuit against Hydro-Québec, out of court. Innu negotiators were able to reach a fair agreement to address the damage this project has done to our culture, our way of life and our lands and we will be pleased to bring this to our members. I want to personally acknowledge Michael Sabia for his leadership and for fulfilling Hydro-Québec's mandate to seeking a resolution-based approach to fairly address Indigenous concerns." Grand Chief Simon Pokue, Innu Nation Under the terms of this agreement, Hydro-Québec will contribute an amount of 87 million dollars to the Innu of Labrador in the form of annual payments to a Reconciliation Fund over a 16-year period. This milestone agreement confirms Innu Nation and Hydro-Québec's intention to forge a long-term relationship based on openness and mutual respect. In addition to the annual payments, it will also provide the Innu of Labrador (comprised of Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation and Mushuau Innu First Nation) with 3 per cent of the dividends which Hydro Québec receives from Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation for as long as Churchill Falls produces power, which they can use according to their own priorities. This is consistent with terms under the existing agreement between Innu Nation, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. "Building more respectful relationships with Indigenous communities is a fundamental priority for Hydro-Québec. This agreement is a strong demonstration of how we can work together to build a more equitable and sustainable future. It opens the door to building new power generation facilities to the benefit of all our communities." Michael Sabia, President and CEO, Hydro-Québec The agreement in principle also sets out terms for Hydro-Québec's collaboration with Innu Nation in the development of future facilities in the region, such as the Gull Island Power Generating Station. Next steps The Innu Nation will first present this agreement in principle to its members in the Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Natuashish. Following this, all terms of the agreement in principle will then be made public. Negotiations will continue to finalize the terms of a formal agreement by the fall of 2025. Once a final agreement is reached, Innu Nation will present it to its members for ratification. SOURCE Hydro-Québec
