Harry Swain is our New DM

 

ISTC's new (and only our second) deputy minister is another Harry. Harry Swain came to us on September 18 from Indian Affairs and Northern Development, where he was deputy minister since October 1987.

 

He replaces Harry Rogers, who became a senior advisor at the Privy Council Office (PCO), pending the announcement of his next assignment.

 

Born in Prince Rupert in 1942, Harry Swain obtained his PhD from the University of Minnesota in urban and economic geography in 1970 and spent that year as a Canada Council postdoc at St Catharine' s College, Cambridge University.

 

Not new to us!

 

Among the many positions he held the next two decades was one year that he spent with many of us. Between 1984 and 1985, Harry was ADM, Plans, for the old Regional Industrial Expansion.

 

He began his public service career in 1972 as a research director in the Urban Affairs secretariat


Between late 1973 and 1975 he was
a research scholar and project leader in urban and regional sys­tems at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.

 

In 1976, Harry rejoined the public service as a policy analyst for Treasury Board. Later that year he became Energy, Mines and Resources' first senior advi­sor on renewable energy. In 1978 he became director general, Electricity, Coal, Uranium and Nuclear Energy, which involved him in international nuclear sales.

 

In 1980 he was briefly B.C: s ADM, Energy Policy, after which he returned to Ottawa as director (later deputy secretary) in the Ministry of State for Economic Development's Operations branch.

 

Then came the time he spent with us, after which he joined PCO as assistant secretary to the Cabinet for economic and regional development policy. While there, he was also secretary to the Trade Executive Committee that provided guidance to Canada's negotiators on the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and Multilateral Trade Negotiations.

 

ISTC will have three principal goals in the short term. According to the new DM, "We must have an absolutely critical role in defin­ing and delivering the govern­ment's approach to renewed prosperity. The best way to do that is to build a clear, consistent and strong public policy process across the entire portfolio. Within that, our challenge is to become the center of microeconomic expertise within the federal government.

 

"All of this will take the energy, enthusiasm and involvement of every ISTC staffer in every region."

 

In his leisure time, he enjoys tra­velling and sailing with his wife Julie.

 

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