Goodbye NSIA
Or, funny machinery in Ottawa?
(No, not the Privy Council Office, but a work by the Swiss artist, Jean Tinguely, c Tinguely Museum)
Every so often, the government shuffles the deck on senior appointments in the public service. It may bring excitement for some and disappointment for others in the senior ranks, but usually doesn’t make waves outside downtown Ottawa.
The moves announced today are more extensive and significant than most, and more head-scratching. [1] No fewer than 16 officials are moved into new senior positions across multiple government departments.
But the most striking and problematic change is in the management of national security and intelligence.
Gone is the office of the National Security and Intelligence Adviser to the PM, a function that has been around for over four decades and was boosted in profile after the 9/11 attacks. The purpose of the office was threefold: to be the PM’s chief adviser and bring intelligence to the Cabinet table for consideration; to coordinate the work of the many agencies involved in security and intelligence; and to represent Canada abroad with counterpart heads of security and intelligence organizations, especially in the Five Eyes. It was a powerful office, now suddenly erased in this shuffle. Timing wise, the government chose not to wait for the recommendations on the NSIA in a forthcoming report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians.
What we get instead is a move of David Morrison, currently the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, to take on a new role as “Senior Diplomatic and International Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister.” Dominic Rochon, who comes out of the world of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), but is currently at Treasury Board as the Chief Information Officer, is moved to the Privy Council Office in a new title as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (National Security and Intelligence). [2]
The position of Deputy National Security and Intelligence Adviser is also wiped from the slate. Ted Gallivan, who came over from CBSA to serve in that function, has moved to the DM slot at Immigration.
On the face of it, we either have no NSIA, or two. Neither is a good bureaucratic solution.
The shuffle involves personalities, as always, but this time major, and completely unexplained, organizational change.
A sudden erasure of the role of the National Security and Intelligence Adviser and the possible siloing of the function into separate international and national security portfolios makes no sense at this moment in time.
At least no sense to me. Machinery of government changes are often best understood by those who have spent a lifetime in the belly of the beast.
And so I asked Vincent Rigby, a former senior official whose last post in government was as National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the PM (January 2020 to September 2021), and who now teaches at the Max Bell School at McGill University, to help me with this.
Here is his take. It deserves close reading:
“In the absence of further information about the roles and responsibilities of the new senior diplomatic and international affairs advisor and the deputy secretary to cabinet (national security and intelligence), it’s difficult to assess the impact of eliminating the NSIA position. However, at first blush, the decision looks dangerous. The NSIA role has grown in stature and influence in recent years as the security environment facing Canada at home and abroad has taken a serious turn for the worse. The position effectively gave the prime minister one-stop shopping in terms of receiving intelligence as well as advice on how to respond to threats.. By seemingly reducing the NSIA position to that of a traditional deputy secretary within PCO who does NOT report directly to the prime minister, Carney has not only removed a critical asset in terms of his own support on the NS file, but has also made it more difficult to coordinate the S&I community and engage with nsia counterparts in other countries (a deputy secretary would not normally perform these types of roles) . At the same time, it would appear that the creation of the two new positions has taken us back to an era when domestic and international security were seen as two solitudes. That has long ceased to be the case, and government has worked hard in recent years to move away from such a stovepiped approach. At a time when Canada is facing a more diverse range of threats than at any point since the Second World War, this decision could send the wrong message to Canadians and allies. Again, we need more information on how the new structures will work, but it has the potential to be a serious step backwards.
It’s ironic — Canadians were just starting to understand the importance of the NSIA position, whether through increased public appearances or public mandate letters. And just like that…it’s gone.”
An explanation, we both agree, is urgently required.
[1] Prime Minister’s Office, “Prime Minister Carney announces changes in the senior ranks of the public service,” March 4, 2026, https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/03/04/prime-minister-carney-announces-changes-senior-ranks-public-service
[2] Privy Council Office, org chart, February 2026, https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/pco-bcp/images/org/org-eng.pdf
Well.
Mr Rigby's assessment is worth noting. These developments could well have detrimental effects on the briefing to the Prime Minister of covert information and assessments relevant to pressing foreign and defence policy challenges.
The person who is taking up the new position is, it should be noted, is someone who spent most of his career with foreign affairs (he originally came out of the Canadian International Development Agency).
In other words, no deep operational experience in any of Canada's covert intelligence collection organizations.
These transfers and reassignments, certainly in areas of national intelligence matters are highly problematic. I certainly agree with “A Canuck’s” statements. I tread into areas I’m not familiar with but any positions regarding national intelligence matters must be filled by subject matter experts.