James J. Farrell

James J. Farrell (Canadian Liaison) of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada was most recently Assistant Deputy Minister of the Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada from 2006 to December, 2011. In that capacity, Jim was the Government of Canada’s senior executive responsible for the forest sector which included: the Canadian Forest Service with staff complement of close to 1,000 across Canada and annual budgets of up to $800.0M.

Jim joined the federal public service in 1983 as the senior forestry officer in Saskatchewan. He later moved to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario as Director of Forestry Development for Ontario, where he was responsible for federal-provincial programs and for research and development programs in forest-landscape management, fire management, forest health and climate change.

Before joining the public service, he worked with Abitibi Paper Company (later Abitibi-Consolidated) in Manitoba and Ontario, supervising forestry operations, and buying and selling logs for company mills. He also worked with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in Toronto.

Jim graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry. He resides in Ottawa with his wife, Janet. They have three children.