OTTAWA – 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.
Paul Rochon, Finance Canada’s highest-ranking bureaucrat for the past six and a half years, announced internally on Tuesday that he would stepping down from the job effective December 14, two sources confirmed to National Post.
His 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 to up $100 billion in additional spending to help navigate the country through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rochon’s retirement from the public service also 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.
Rochon is a veteran at Finance Canada, having occupying various important roles for over 20 years such as Associate Deputy Minister and Finance Canada’s main top bureaucrat in charge of the G7 and G20, according his biography on the department’s website.
He also served briefly as deputy minister of International Development between 2013 and 2014.
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