Robert Dick is the Head of Canada’s National Supply Chain Office, which has been created in response to the National Supply Chain Task Force Report. The Supply Chain Office’s mandate is to collaborate with other orders of government, industry, and labour to strengthen the efficiency and resiliency of transportation and logistics infrastructure and operations, to improve the reliability of Canada’s supply chains and contribute to productivity and affordability. For the past eight years, Robert served as Assistant Deputy Minister of the Transport Canada’s Pacific Region. His area of responsibility included safety and security oversight of federally regulated air, marine and rail modes of transportation, as well as the transport of dangerous goods; the operation of airports owned by Transport Canada; and the delivery of environmental programs.

Under Robert’s leadership, Transport Canada’s Pacific Region built successful collaboration mechanisms with industry and other levels of government that transformed how supply chain disruptions were managed in the critical Western Canadian gateway and corridor. He has also been instrumental in leading the development of new partnerships with First Nations and Indigenous groups, including as the national lead for Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan. These partnerships, which often included industry, resulted in new ways of collaborating to advance reconciliation, protect the environment, and bring greater acceptance of, and certainty for, transport operations.

Robert brings over 25 years of federal government experience to his new role, with an extensive background working in air sector policy, national cyber security, and on a range of economic, social and national security files at Transport Canada, Public Safety Canada, the Privy Council Office, and Western Economic Diversification. Robert is from Winnipeg and has lived and worked in there as well as in Ottawa, and, since 2014, in Vancouver, where he will continue to be based.