New Brunswick’s deputy minster of intergovernmental affairs will move over a chair to become the province’s top bureaucrat for agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries.
Longtime provincial public servant Jim McKay becomes deputy minister for both the agriculture and aquaculture portfolio and the fisheries portfolio effective Monday (Sept. 22), Premier Shawn Graham said in a release Thursday.
McKay was previously assistant deputy minister for federal/provincial/territorial relations within the intergovernmental affairs department, and was responsible for Atlantic Canada/New England regional co-operation.
McKay has also served as director of investment and immigration with Business New Brunswick and has held a variety of positions in other ministries including economic development and tourism; commerce and technology; and tourism, parks and recreation.
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In both of his new deputy minister portfolios, McKay replaces Byron James, who becomes deputy minister of post-secondary education, training and labour, also effective Sept. 22.
McKay will then be replaced in the intergovernmental affairs portfolio by Edith Doucet, currently assistant deputy minister of program development and monitoring for the social development department.
The reassignments Graham announced Thursday in total include one new appointment and five changes of assignment in the deputy ministers’ ranks, following three retirements.
