Latest news with #HydroQuébec
Ottawa Citizen
11-06-2025
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
Michael Sabia named new clerk of the Privy Council
Michael Sabia will become the next clerk of the Privy Council in a shake up in the public service's highest office. Article content On July 7, Sabia will replace John Hannaford, who has served in the role since 2023. Article content Article content The incoming clerk brings with him a background in both major projects and public finance. Sabia is leaving his position as chief executive officer for Hydro Québec where he oversaw plans for major projects to expand energy production in the province from 2020 to 2023. Article content Article content The fast-tracked development of big infrastructure projects remains a central priority for Prime Minister Mark Carney's government. Article content Article content Sabia also carries an intimate experience with public finances, having served as the deputy minister for the Department of Finance from 2020 until 2023. Article content 'As Canada's new government builds the strongest economy in the G7, Mr. Sabia's leadership will be key to this mission,' the Prime Minister Office said in a statement. 'Canada's exemplary public service – with Mr. Sabia at the helm – will advance nation-building projects, catalyze enormous private investment to drive growth, and deliver the change Canadians want and deserve.' Article content The incoming clerk also served as the president and CEO of Québec's public pension fund manager Caisse de Dépôt et placement du Québec and the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Article content Article content In a news release, the Prime Minister's Office thanked Hannaford for his service and congratulated him on his upcoming retirement. Article content Article content Hannaford joined the federal public service in 1995, and as clerk, looked to lead an overhaul of ethics and values within the public service. Article content 'Our public service values and ethics are our compass to guide us through times of change,' he said in a statement when launching the initiative. Article content 'As head of the public service, I am committed to fostering a renewed conversation on values and ethics that will support the effective management and renewal of our public service over the years to come.' Article content The change inside the clerk's office came within a month of Carney's cabinet swearing-in ceremony in May. Article content
Globe and Mail
11-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Politics Insider: Carney recruits Hydro‑Québec CEO to head public service
Hello, welcome to Politics Insider. Let's look at what happened today. Mark Carney has recruited Hydro‑Québec CEO Michael Sabia to take over as the country's top bureaucrat to help advance the Prime Minister's ambitious agenda. Sabia had served as deputy minister of finance before he left government to serve as head of the Quebec pension plan and later Hydro‑Québec. The current Clerk of the Privy Council John Hannaford announced today that he will leaving the government as the head of the public service and top adviser to the Prime Minister. Robert Fife reports that Carney had sought out Sabia because he needed a Privy Council clerk with business experience, who can push through his agenda, which includes major nation-building projects, a revamped military, major housing initiatives and cost-cutting expenditures for the public service. As Privy Council clerk, Sabia's roles include providing non-partisan advice to the Prime Minister and elected officials. Also, Steven Chase reports that Canada and the United States are exchanging potential terms of agreement in closely held talks on an economic and security deal. But these terms do not represent the draft text of an actual pact. These exchanges are an effort to spell out what both sides might be able to agree upon as Ottawa and Washington try to find enough common ground to end their damaging trade war, sources said. The Globe and Mail is not naming the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Alberta working with oil companies on pipeline proposal, Alberta Premier says: Danielle Smith also says she expects Prime Minister Mark Carney to 'operate in good faith' on the pipeline issue. Proposed GST rebate for first-time homebuyers could offer average $27,000 relief, says PBO: The Parliamentary Budget Officer says tax relief is expected to cost the government $1.9-billion, although its estimates do not take into account how the cut would affect market behaviour. Saskatchewan Premier vows $500 per person for wildfire evacuees: Scott Moe said that money is on top of existing supports for the more than 10,000 people forced out of their homes owing to a string of wildfires in Saskatchewan's northern region. B.C. Transport Minister raises concerns over BC Ferries construction deal with Chinese state-owned shipyard: The winning bidder on the contract to build four new passenger ferries is Chinese state-owned China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards. What's in Kananaskis? Explore the outdoor escape where G7 leaders will gather: The G7 Leaders' Summit descends on Alberta's Kananaskis Country from June 15 to 17. Kananaskis – just an hour's drive from Calgary – isn't a national park. Rather, K-Country, as locals call it, is a 4,000-square-kilometre network of connected provincial parks, reserves and recreational zones encompassing mountains and foothills. Prime Minister's Day: In Ottawa, Mark Carney attended the weekly Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill and also attended Question Period. Carney also spoke with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and invited him to next week's G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta. Party Leaders: At the House of Commons, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet participated in Question Period. In British Columbia, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May attended Parliament virtually and, in person she attended the blessing of new solar panels at the St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Sidney, B.C. NDP Interim Leader Don Davies, with other caucus members, held a news conference on NDP defence policy. No schedule released for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Starmer in Ottawa: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is to visit Mark Carney in Ottawa on Saturday and Sunday ahead of next week's G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis. Quote of the Day: 'That's the thing about us New Democrats. We're like goddamned dandelions. It's like once we're on your lawn, you can't seem to get rid of us so the dandelions are coming up again.' - Former NDP MP Charlie Angus, at a Parliament Hill news conference today, on his party's resilience after a federal election result he described as an 'unmitigated disaster.' Angus said he will not seek the party leadership. Which Russian leader attended the last G7 summit (then known as the G8summit) held in Kananaskis in 2002? Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer. Twenty years late, Canada hits the old NATO target, just in time to fall short of the new one. Post Mulroney, the Conservatives' brand is 'loser.' It's time for an overhaul. Got a news tip that you'd like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@ Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop. The answer to today's question: Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the summit and appeared in a photo that included Canada's Jean Chrétien, France's Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair from Britain and U.S. President George W. Bush.
CTV News
11-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Michael Sabia, veteran of public and private sectors, to head Carney's Privy Council
Michael Sabia will serve as clerk of the Privy Council starting July 7, 2025. Sabia, at the time deputy finance minister, is pictured responding to a question as he testifies at the Public Order Emergency Commission, Thursday, November 17, 2022 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is tapping Michael Sabia, a veteran of the public and private sector, to head up the Privy Council Office in Ottawa. Sabia's tenure as clerk of the Privy Council and secretary to cabinet will begin July 7, replacing John Hannaford who is retiring. Serving as the head of Hydro-Québec since 2023, Sabia was Canada's deputy finance minister through the pandemic years and early recovery. He served as the head of Quebec's public pension plan for over a decade before that and is a former CEO of Bell Canada Enterprises. Sabia was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2017. The Privy Council offers non-partisan policy advice to the prime minister and cabinet and is responsible for managing the broader public service. CTV News is a division of Bell Media, which is part of BCE Inc. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2025. The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
11-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Media invitation - Presentation of Hydro-Québec's financial results for the first quarter of 2025
MONTRÉAL, June 5, 2025 /CNW/ - Hydro-Québec invites media representatives to participate in a virtual conference on its financial results for the first quarter of 2025.
Globe and Mail
09-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Canada has ‘ambition deficit' and regulations that are scaring away investment, Sabia says
Michael Sabia, former head of Quebec's powerful pension fund and current chief executive officer of Hydro‑Québec, warns Canada has long lacked the willpower and grandiose thinking needed to spur national projects, and he believes this must change fast in order to transform the country's economy. 'We have an ambition deficit,' he said on stage Monday at Globe and Mail's conference designed to foster conversation around building a stronger Canada. Fixing the economy, he argued, will involve shrinking layers of regulation that discourage foreign investment and changing how businesses and governments partner with Indigenous communities. 'We've got a lot to fix on the regulatory side', Mr. Sabia said, arguing that many rules, such as regulations around energy emissions, were likely implemented with good intentions, but they've piled on top of each other like 'a stack of pancakes.' Because there are now so many, they can be tough to navigate and can discourage private capital from making investments, he said. 'We need to stand back and say, 'There's got to be a simpler, better way,'' he said. As for relationships with Indigenous communities, Mr. Sabia said there needs to be a new approach to partnerships – something that is starting to materialize. In his role as Hydro‑Québec's CEO, he's spent a lot of time visiting with Indigenous communities in the province and he now appreciates even more that it is crucial for leaders to show up in person when trying to negotiate business partnerships. 'There is no substitute when working on these transactions for human presence,' he said. 'Human presence leads to trust. And we don't have a lot of that right now.' Because there hasn't been much trust, 'First Nations understandably have become very good at taking projects and governments to court,' he said. 'What happens in court? You lose decades.' 'If we keep doing things the old ways, it's not going to work,' he added. Mr. Sabia also stressed that Canada must reconsider how it will finance national resource and power projects. For so long, the hope has been that major pension funds such as Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which Mr. Sabia ran, will help fund new developments. But he said there's a major mismatch between what these funds require to meet their investment criteria and what these projects will deliver in their early years. 'Big institutional investors, they think about infrastructure as a set of financial characteristics,' he said, such as stable healthy cash flows for decades. Early-stage infrastructure projects, however, are extremely risky because of variables such as cost overruns. 'Asking that source of capital to take all sorts of risk? That's a crazy question,' he said. 'It doesn't work.' Instead, he said Canada needs to think about a form of bridge capital that comes in early, takes some risk, and then once the projects have operating cash flows, major investors such as pension funds can be brought in.
