Canada: Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the OECD

Mr. Paul-Henri LAPOINTE

Mr. Lapointe received a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Montreal in 1972 and pursued doctoral studies in economics at the University of California, Berkeley from 1972 to 1975.

He joined the Canadian public service in 1975, serving initially with the Treasury Board Secretariat as a programme analyst. He moved to the Department of Finance in 1977 as Senior Advisor with the Task Force on the Retirement Income System responsible for making recommendations to reform private and public pension systems in Canada. He has subsequently served as Senior Economist in the Fiscal Policy Division; Group Chief and Director of the Economics Studies and Policy Analysis Division where he directed the study of the economic impact of the Canada/U.S. Free Trade Agreement. From 1990 to the end of 1992, Mr. Lapointe also served with the Privy Council Office as Senior Economist, where he was the chief economic advisor to the prime minister on economic and fiscal matters.

Prior to taking up his appointment as Permanent Representative of Canada to the OECD, Mr. Lapointe was Assistant Deputy Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Department of Finance, responsible for economic and fiscal analysis and forecasting and for coordinating the preparation of the budget. In that position he was an important actor in the process of fiscal consolidation of the Canadian government in the late 1990s.

During his career at the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Lapointe participated in numerous meetings at the OECD, notably as Canadian delegate to the Economic Policy Committee and as head of the Canadian delegation for the review of Canada.

Ambassador Paul-Henri Lapointe took up his duties as Permanent Representative of Canada to the OECD on 11 April 2007.

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