Pitfield exits Petitpas Taylor’s office, Moussouni enters as new policy adviser

Caroline Pitfield has exited Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor’s office, where she’d been serving as director of policy since the beginning of 2016. Ms. Pitfield is listed as having officially switched to post-employment status as of Nov. 13, according to the federal conflict of interest and ethics commissioner’s online registry. She was originally hired to oversee the policy team in then health minister Jane Philpott’s office back in January 2016, and before that was working as executive director of strategic policy and ministerial services at the Public Health Agency of Canada. Caroline Pitfield has left the health minister's office. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Ms. Pitfield has about a decade of experience in federal public service under her belt, including her roughly year-and-a-half with PHAC, a government agency under the Health minister's portfolio. She’s also a former legal counsel with Health Canada, a former executive adviser to the deputy minister for health, and a former director of strategic policy, research, and cabinet affairs with Public Safety Canada. Ms. Pitfield is the daughter of the late Liberal Senator and former Privy Council clerk Michael Pitfield, who passed away in October at the age of 80. She’s also sister to Tom Pitfield, head of Canada 2020 and husband to Liberal Party president Anna Gainey. On the flip side, Kate Moussouni recently joined Ms. Petitpas Taylor’s staff team at Health as a new policy adviser to the minister. Until recently, she was working as a national priority adviser for the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addition in Ottawa. A non-governmental organization, the centre was created through federal legislation in 1988 to provide leadership on tackling the issue of substance use in Canada. Alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drugs (which would include opioids) are listed among the centre’s areas of focus on its website, along with tackling treatment and supports; children and youth; First Nations, Inuit and Métis; impaired driving; mental health and substance abuse; and workforce development for addictions professionals. Kate Moussouni has joined the health minister's office. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Responding to the national opioid crisis is a major priority for Ms. Petitpas Taylor as health minister, as indicated in her Oct. 4 mandate letter, along with working with other ministers to ensure the passage of the government’s cannabis legalization legislation, Bill C-45 and C-46. Ms. Moussouni is also a former project officer with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as indicated by her LinkedIn profile, and during the summer of 2011 interned with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s drug health branch, amongst other past experience. Other policy advisers currently working for Ms. Petitpas Taylor include: Travis Gordon, Kathryn Nowers, and policy and regional adviser for Western and Northern Canada Ashleigh White. Meanwhile, Thierry Bélair has been hired on a press secretary to the minister. Mr. Bélair comes to Ottawa from Quebec, where until recently he’d been working as press attaché to the province’s minister for higher education and status of women, Hélène David. Mr. Bélair is now working closely alongside the minister’s communications director, Yves Comeau, who’s been in the office since the beginning of June. Previously, Andrew MacKendrick was press secretary in the Health minister’s office, but departed on the heels of the Aug. 28 cabinet shuffle to follow his boss, Jane Philpott, to her new role as Indigenous Services Minister. Geneviève Hinse is chief of staff to the minister. Minister Joly recruits comms director from Quebec Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly has a new director of communications, Emilie Simard, poached straight out of the Quebec Liberal government’s staff ranks. Ms. Simard marked her first day on Ms. Joly’s political staff team on Nov. 20, and before that was working for the Quebec Liberal government as press secretary to the province’s minister for immigration, diversity and inclusion, Liberal MNA David Heurtel. She first began serving as Mr. Heurtel’s press secretary in 2016, according to her LinkedIn profile, during his time as minister of sustainable development, the environment and the fight against climate change. He was shuffled into the role of Quebec’s immigration minister in October. At Quebec’s National Assembly, Ms. Simard has also been a press attaché to the province’s Justice Minister and Attorney General Stéphanie Vallée, who is also the minister responsible for the Outaouais region; and to Quebec’s deputy premier and minister of public safety, Lise Thériault, before that. Amongst other past experience, she also previously worked at the National Assembly as a researcher for the Quebec Liberals. She studied both an undergrad and later a master’s degree in law at Université Laval. Ms. Joly, who represents Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Que., has been widely criticized in her home province since her announcement earlier this fall of a $500-million deal with Netflix to invest in Canadian productions over the next five years. The agreement has been heavily criticized by Quebec’s media and arts community in particular for lacking any specific provisions for funds to go towards original French-language productions. La belle province has since passed a motion in favour of imposing a provincial sales tax on foreign-owned streaming services like Netflix. Christine Michaud was previously communications director to Ms. Joly but left the minister’s office roughly a month ago to instead serve as director of communications to Public Services and Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough. Ms. Joly’s new press secretary Simon Ross, hired on in October, similarly joined the minister’s office straight from the Quebec Liberal government’s staff ranks, and had previously been an assistant press attaché to Quebec’s Municipal Affairs, Regions and Land Occupancy Minister Martin Coiteux. Leslie Church is chief of staff to Ms. Joly, who is also the minister responsible for official languages. In other news related to Ms. Joly’s office, The National Post recently reported that, according to newly-released documents, the minister’s director of policy, Caroline Séguin, was involved in the controversial selection of Madeleine Meilleur as the government’s nominee to become the next official languages commissioner. As a former Ontario Liberal MPP and minister, Ms. Meilleur’s appointment as the Liberal government’s pick for Canada's official languages commissioner in May was met with controversy, with the opposition calling it a partisan appointment. The government argued its selection of Ms. Meilleur for the appointment was merit-based, but criticism continued after it came to light that three of Ms. Joly’s staff had previously worked for the Ontario Liberals: two who worked directly under Ms. Meilleur (Ms. Michaud and the minister’s scheduling assistant, Vinciane Museru), and Ms. Séguin, who worked in Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office prior to joining Ms. Joly’s team in January 2016. In response, Ms. Joly indicated during Question Period in June that staff in her office who had previously had contact with Ms. Meilleur were in “no way involved” in her appointment. While Ms. Séguin wasn’t on the official selection committee, recent documents reported on by The National Post on Nov. 17 indicated she was being “kept abreast of details about the appointment as early as March.” NDP MP François Choquette, his party’s languages critic, attained the documents in question through an access to information request. As reported by The Post, Mr. Choquette noted that while Ms. Séguin didn’t directly work under Ms. Meilleur in her cabinet office, she worked for the minister’s boss. Ultimately, Ms. Meilleur withdrew her application to take on the role amid the backlash. A new federal languages commissioner still has yet to be appointed. New adviser to Freeland arrives from Veterans Minister's Office Veterans Affairs and Associate Defence Minister Seamus O’Regan is down one staffer with the recent departure of issues manager Trevor Harrison from his office. Mr. Harrison had joined the Veterans minister’s office in January under then minister Kent Hehr, who was shuffled out of the role and into his current portfolio as Sports and Persons with Disabilities Minister as part of a string of cabinet changes announced Aug. 28. Mr. Harrison started his new gig as a policy adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland on Nov. 14, Hill Climbers has learned. During the previous Parliament, Mr. Harrison was a legislative assistant to Ms. Freeland on the Hill in her capacity as the Liberal MP for Toronto Centre, Ont. Ms. Freeland was elected as an MP for the first time in a November 2013 byelection, and re-elected in the newly reconstituted riding of University-Rosedale, Ont., in 2015 after garnering 49.8 per cent of the vote. He’s also a former government relations coordinator for the Canadian Dental Association, and worked in then Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s office as leader of the official opposition before the 2011 election, during which he served as a Twitter community manager for the party. Owen Teo is director of policy to Ms. Freeland, and Laurence Deschamps-Laporte and Omer Aziz also currently serve as policy advisers in the office. Jeremy Broadhurst is chief of staff to the minister. Meanwhile, in Mr. O’Regan’s office, former departmental staffer Émilie Simard—not to be confused with Ms. Joly’s new communications director—has joined the exempt staff ranks at Veterans Affairs. Ms. Simard had previously been stationed in the minister’s office as executive assistant to the chief of staff—now Cyndi Jenkins—as a departmental employee, meaning she was a public servant and not a political exempt staffer, the latter being considered a public office holder and subject to certain disclosure requirements and post-employment restrictions. Now, Ms. Simard is a political aide to Mr. O’Regan as the minister’s Ontario regional desk adviser. Also currently providing regional advice to the minister are Christian Dicks, Atlantic desk adviser; and Annabelle St-Pierre Archambault, special assistant for the Quebec desk and assistant to the minister’s parliamentary secretary, Liberal MP Sherry Romanado, who represents Longueuil-Charles-LeMoyne, Que. lryckewaert@hilltimes.com The Hill Times