Catrina Tapley

Early Life and Education

Tapley was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1963. She attended Fredericton High School. After high school she went on to university where she graduated from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science and Economics in 1985.

Citizenship and Immigration

Tapley currently holds the position of Assistant Deputy Minister for Strategic and Program Policy at Citizenship and Immigration Canada. She has held this office since November 2014. Before 2014, Tapley was Associate Assistant Deputy Minister for the same portfolio. She is responsible for overseeing policy and program development on a variety of issues. She focuses on the selection, settlement, and integration of newcomers in Canada and the development of a socially cohesive, multicultural society. In her role at CIC, she chaired the United Nations High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development at UN Headquarters in New York City. She has also has spoken at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Tapley previous has lead many delegations to international conferences and roundtable discussions concerning all aspects of migration, citizenship, and integration.

Beyond the Border Working Group

In 2011, Tapley played a senior role in the creation and negotiation of Canada-United States agreement on economic competitiveness and perimeter security as a part of the Beyond the Border Working Group.

The Treasury Board

Before joining Citizenship and Immigration in 2011, Tapley held numerous offices at the Treasury Board of Canada, Secretariat. She joined the department in 2006 as the Executive Director, Accountability in Government. It was during this time she played an integral role in the policy and legislative process for the development of the Federal Accountability Act. Further along in her career at the Treasury Board, she held offices responsible for the Canadian Government's regional communications network, and developing and facilitating Treasury Board's working relationships with key provincial, territorial, national, and international partners and stakeholders. Finally, her most senior position was that of Executive Director, Security and Justice Division, where she was responsible for management and financial oversight of sixteen different federal departments and agencies in the Public Security and Justice portfolios. She also helped develop the Government's Public Service Readiness Plan and the Public Security and Anti-Terrorism reporting process.

Human Resources and Skills Development

Before 2006, Tapley was the Director General of Workplace Skills at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Here she worked to create Canada's first Workplace Skills Policy, establish the Workplace Skills branch, and address issues with the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Fisheries and Oceans

Before working at HRSDC, Tapley worked most of her Public Service career at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans where she held positions of increasing responsibility in the Policy and Fisheries management sectors. Much of her work focused on citizen engagement and fisheries management issues on Canada's Atlantic Coast including problems related to conservation and sustainable use, and access and allocation of a common property resource. During this period she also served as the Executive Director of the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council.

Politics

Before joining the Federal civil service, Tapley was involved in politics, specifically that of the Conservative Party of Canada. She was a member of the Conservative Youth Federation in university and became even more involved when she got a summer job working in the Prime Minister's office in Ottawa. After university in 1985 she worked full in the Prime Minister's office, and went on to work for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Bernard Valcourt, as his Senior Policy Advisor and Executive Assistant.