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Summary
- Justin Trudeau named former Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec CEO as the country’s new deputy finance minister on Monday.
- The 67-year-old bureaucrat takes the position after Paul Rochon and it set to take office on December 14.
- Sabia has been serving as an economic advisor to the Trudeau government since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic this year.
- Sabia’s focus as the deputy finance minister will lie on putting together a billion-dollar stimulus package once the COVID-19 outbreak is under control.
Michael Sabia, former CEO and president of Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ), has been appointed as Canada’s new deputy finance minister, said an official statement released the prime minister’s office on Monday, December 7.
The 67-year-old bureaucrat takes the position after Paul Rochon, who stepped down after serving the office for six years last week and is now set to become a senior member at the Privy Council Office.
Who Is Michael Sabia?
Michael Sabia was the chief executive officer at top Canadian telecommunications company BCE Inc (TSX: BCE) between 2002 and 2008. He then took over as the head of CDPQ, Canada’s second largest pension fund, in 2009 before stepping down earlier this year. He had also previously worked as the CFO of the Canadian National Railway.
In April 2020, Sabia took over as the chairperson of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which was initiated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau back in 2017.
He was appointed as the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto in February this year.
Sabia has also been serving as an economic advisor to the Trudeau government since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic this year. More recently, he led a three-year infrastructure plan worth C$ 10 billion that Trudeau announced back in October.
Sabia is set to take his post as the deputy finance minister, one of the senior-most positions in economic matters after the finance minister and the Bank of Canada governor, on December 14 this year.
Canada & COVID-Inflicted Financial Crisis
The novel coronavirus pandemic has led to more than one rounds of lockdowns in Canada so far, leaving the economy in a lurch. Late in November, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled the much-awaited Fall Economic Statement, detailing the government’s spending plans and emergency aid measures to combat the coronavirus.
The document estimated that the country’s budget deficit could hit C$ 381.6 billion in 2020-2021, driven largely by the extra cost of new COVID-19 emergency support plans. The budget deficit projected in this document stands much higher than the C$ 343.2-billion deficit that was forecast in July.
In an attempt to recover from this deficit, the Fall Economic Statement set a target of a C$ 100 billion stimulus package in a post-pandemic scenario.
Sabia’s focus as the deputy finance minister will lie on putting together this C$ 100 billion stimulus package once the COVID-19 outbreak is under control.
