The Policy Secretariat

Our Mandate

The Policy Secretariat provides advice and recommendations and undertakes corporate projects to improve the policy and planning decisions of the Ministry. The Secretariat analyses domestic and international agricultural and macro economic policies, assesses the potential impact on Alberta's Agriculture, Food and Rural Development sector and makes recommendations on how the Ministry should respond to these challenges. The Secretariat plays a strong advocacy role for Alberta's agricultural interests and is currently focused on issues in trade policy; science and innovation; environment; land use planning; farm income; grain marketing and risk mitigation strategies.

Who We Are

Director

Nithi Govindasamy
Nithi's work involves harnessing, coordinating and managing the human and financial resources of the Policy Secretariat to develop and advocate policies and programs that remove impediments and enhance opportunities for industry growth. Nithi leads Policy Secretariat's involvement in the business of the Department by supporting the efforts of the Executive Team and the Minister.

Trade Policy

Len Ewanyk, Team Lead
Len’s work revolves around resolving and managing trade issues and coordinating development of Alberta’s position on multilateral, regional, and bilateral agricultural trade agreements. He represents Alberta’s agricultural trade interests by participating in various international, federal-provincial and interdepartmental committees and forums.

Shiferaw Adilu
Shiferaw monitors and analyses global agricultural/trade policy developments, helps formulate and communicate Alberta's position on the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and bilateral initiatives to the federal government and provides expert advice to industry groups on the WTO negotiations. He also participates in the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Economic Analysis that conducts a detailed analysis of agricultural policy and industry competitiveness issues to inform the next generation of agricultural policy in Canada.

Freida Boodram
Freida monitors and analyzes trade disputes and emerging issues such as agriculture-related world trade negotiations, country of origin labeling, bioterrorism, and GMO regulatory issues.

Peter Kuperis
Peter works on resolving trade disputes and addressing emerging trade issues. He is currently focusing on country of origin labeling, U.S. bioterrorism regulations, and trade disputes ranging from seed potatoes to wheat.

Food & Resource Policy

Mel Miller, Team Lead
Mel is currently working to coordinate the Ministry's pandemic influenza preparedness planning efforts. Mel also works with the Food Safety Division in its efforts to manage the disposal of specified risk materials under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's proposed enhanced feed ban. Mel also has experience working with a wide variety of private and public land use and resource planning systems through his contacts and work with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, Municipal Affairs and Environment.

Lori Enns
Lori tracks and provides recommendations on national and provincial environmental and land use policy issues that involve Alberta's agriculture industry, including participating in a number of interdepartmental and federal-provincial committees/working groups. Resource or land use issues on private and public lands, biodiversity and species at risk are some of the areas on which she presently focuses.

Karen Haugen-Kozyra
Karen is the Secretariat’s environment and land use senior policy advisor. Working with her extensive networks in other provincial and municipal governments, the industry and non-governmental organizations, Karen tracks international, national and provincial policy developments in biodiversity, greenhouse gases/climate change, private land use issues, integrated resource management and environmental goods and services.

Bob Prather
Bob coordinates and manages our policy tracking and advisory services on Canadian provincial water policies and programs. He currently manages the Ministry's commitment to an international development program in the Ukraine (FARM) and provides policy input and advice on international relations and business. He also contributes his expertise in industry development, economic research and information services.

Domestic Policy

Darcy Willis, Team Lead
Darcy has worked in a broad range of policy areas including trade, grain marketing and safety nets. The domestic policy unit will be focusing on various files including Marketing Choice, the next Agriculture Policy Framework, farm income issues and other policy matters.

Sharon McKinnon
Sharon works on a part time basis on policy issues such as the department’s Marketing Choice Initiative. She also serves as a liaison between farmers, industry and government for domestic policy issues.

Christy Benedict
Christy is a new addition to Policy Secretariat. She is working with Sharon and on policy development issues such as examining domestic, national and international policies and agricultural trends, and assessing their potential impact on Alberta's agriculture and food industry.

Science & Innovation Policy

Yilma Teklemariam, Team Lead
Yilma is the senior science and innovation policy advisor. With his team, he tracks and evaluates the implications of advances in science, research and innovation for Alberta's agriculture and food industry. Areas of special emphasis include crops, livestock, food, life sciences and bioproducts. Based on ongoing monitoring, analysis and evaluation, he and his team prepare positions, briefings, advisory notes and recommendations on provincial science, research and innovation policy matters. Yilma is also a member of the national Working Group on the Science and Innovation Chapter of the Agricultural Policy Framework. As well, he serves on or chairs several provincial and federal committees that provide forums for sharing information on research advances.

Dale Armstrong
Dale is looking at emerging bioscience- and innovation-related issues from conceptualization to commercialization. One of Dale’s primary focuses is around biotechnology, including development of the science, the moral, ethical, legal, environmental, business/innovation and policy issues surrounding biotechnology and the international impacts and trade ramifications for industry and governments.

Mafiz Khan
Mafiz tracks and analyzes information on research and science facilities, programs and manpower. He is also part of the Secretariat team that monitors, evaluates and prepares recommendations on high-level national and international research and science policy issues. In addition to providing input to various agriculture science plans, Mafiz handles research information analysis and coordinates planning activities between AAFRD divisions and provincial and federal agencies.

Rong-Cai Yang
Rong-Cai, a research scientist, provides bio-statistical services to help AAFRD researchers and Policy Secretariat staff ensure the validity and excellence of their research and projects. He also maintains a research program to help resolve issues of importance to producers and the industry. Rong-Cai is currently leading an ongoing research project aimed at providing the scientific basis for crop variety recommendations to Western Canadian grain producers. He is also AAFRD’s representative in a partnership with the University of Alberta focused on developing new theories and analytical methods for studying genomic data and increasing the efficiency of genomic discovery and gene mapping.

Policy Consultation

Gibson Hanna, Team Lead
Gibson has recently assumed the role of Team Lead of the Policy Consultations Unit. He also provides assistance in negotiating industry-government agreements, and serves as AAFRD’s non-voting representative on the Board of Horse Racing Alberta.

Alan Ford
Over the years, Alan has added expertise in facilitation and out-of-the-box thinking to his extensive background in economics and finance. Alan currently assists the business planning committee by providing an environment scan of business issues and trends that Executive Team considers when setting strategic direction. Alan is also supporting development of a bio-energy policy framework for the province.

Evelyn Shapka
Using her communication, systems thinking, project management and facilitative process skills, Evelyn helps coordinate policy consultation meetings for the Miniser and Executive Team. Evelyn is currently working on initiatives geared toward bringing industry up to speed on progress in World Trade Organization negotiations and changes to federal support programs. She is also helping to organize the 16th annual Tri-National Agricultural Accord meeting which Alberta is hosting in 2006.

Administrative Support Group

Judy Wilson, Administrator
Judy is our office manager, oversees the Secretariat’s administrative responsibilities, and acts as the administrative support group leader.

Judy Leshschyshyn, Secretary to the Director
Provides administrative support to Nithi Govindasamy as well as to Len Ewanyk, Peter Kuperis, Shiferaw Adilu, and Freida Boodram.

Melanie Kruger, Administrative Assistant
Provides administrative support to Mel Miller, Karen Haugen-Kozyra, Gibson Hanna, Evelyn Shapka, Alan Ford and Lori Enns.

Mary Mah, Administrative Assistant
Provides administrative support to Yilma Teklemariam, Mafiz Khan, Dale Armstrong, Bob Prather, Darcy Willis, Sharon McKinnon, Christy Benedict and Rong-Cai Yang.


For more information about the Policy Secretariat contact Nithi Govindasamy at (780) 422-2285.