Alberta’s deputy provincial environment minister, a civil engineer and 28-year veteran of the Canadian Forces, has been named the province’s new top agriculture bureaucrat.
Premier Rachel Notley on Tuesday put through an order in council appointing Andre Corbould as Alberta’s deputy minister of agriculture and forestry effective Wednesday, replacing Beverly Yee.
Corbould, the province’s deputy minister for environment and parks since February 2016, previously served the same role in ministries including jobs, skills, training and labour; transportation; and municipal affairs, and as chief assistant deputy minister for the southern Alberta flood recovery task force.
Read Also
Alberta harvest just ahead of average pace
The harvesting of all crops in Alberta reached 42 per cent complete as of Sept. 9, compared to the five-year average of 40 per cent. The provincial agriculture department noted combing was highlighted by little or no rain.
According to his biography as a director with the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, Corbould, a fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineers, studied civil engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada and also has master’s degrees in management and in defence management and policy.
Reaching the rank of brigadier general during his career in the Forces, Corbould did tours in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, East Timor and Afghanistan, the latter including a stint as deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division.
Domestic operations in which Corbould took part during his career in the Forces included the 1997 flood in Manitoba’s Red River Valley, the Swiss Air recovery mission in 1998, and commanding security operations during the Olympics in 2010.
Yee, the deputy minister for agriculture and forestry since October 2015, moves over to become deputy minister for intergovernmental relations, also effective Wednesday through the same order in council. — AGCanada.com Network
