By Andrew Macdonald
Karen Oldfield’s 17-year run as chief executive officer of the Halifax Port Authority is coming to an end in December, but her successor may be named as early as the end of this month.
The port’s board of directors, mostly appointed by the Trudeau government and with appointees from the Nova Scotia government Halifax City Hall, has spent the year searching for Oldfield’s replacement. The search has involved casting about for a candidate with international port community experience, suggest my sources.
Karen Oldfield’s Halifax Port contract expires in December. A successor could be named by the end of August.
I have closely covered the Port of Halifax for 25 years and found that it was riddled with patronage appointments during the governments of Jean Chretien and Stephen Harper/Peter MacKay. The port has a history as a haven for party partisans.
During the Chretien years, port directors were closely tied to Merv Russell and Bob Pace, the controllers of Chretien patronage in Nova Scotia. At one point in that era, I even wrote a column that a dentist to the Chretien allies got a port job, as did a housewife who toiled for Sue Uteck.
Even their accountant got a port posting.
During the Chretien-Harper-MacKay years, it seemed that international shipping experience was not needed to sit on the port board.
Today, the port board — appointed by former Nova Scotia minister Scott Brison before his retirement from the Trudeau government — seems to have gotten it right, to a large degree. Board member Jim Spatz has oodles of experience as a major landlord—and the port, after all, is a landlord to the federally owned container terminals. Diana Dalton has international oil and gas consulting experience and is a former deputy minister of energy. And, while she supports the federal Liberals, she tends to support the Progressive Conservatives in Nova Scotia. Tom Hayes has experience in seafood exports, and Hector Jacques once ran an international marine engineering empire.
David Cameron was re-appointed to a three-year term on the Halifax Port Authority. He’s a former president of the Nova Scotia Liberal party. He is shown with his wife, and trade development consultant Pernille Fischer Bouliter. The Notebook photo.
In fact, the only current board member with overt Liberal ties is lawyer David Cameron, a former also-ran Grit candidate and Liberal party president, but the rest of the board is a refreshment over the partisans appointed by Chretien and Peter MacKay.
I should note though, MacKay did make some appointments to the port board who had merit: corporate lawyer Geoff Machum was a decent port appointment, and David Henderson had experience on shipping fronts as a regional rep for electronics, which are shipped into the port.
Now to Karen Oldfield. Soon into her start in 2002 as port CEO, she began to speak of the Halifax port as a “discretionary port.” That term has been extensively used by Oldfield over her tenure, and during the collapse of container movements in Halifax in the global recession and credit crunch of 2008-2009, she overused the term.
Halterm Container Terminal in south end Halifax. Andrew Macdonald photo
The term is a copout and did a disservice to the folk who in 1969 created the Halterm Container Terminal when they envisioned an international shipping route into the U.S. Midwest from Halifax, as well as a prime mover of container boxes into Montreal and Toronto.
Halifax used to do more business than the Port of Montreal, but during Oldfield’s reign, a new port established in Prince Rupert, B.C., in the last decade, soon outpaced the container movement, and is now Canada’s third busiest port, while Oldfield’s Halifax was pushed into fourth place.
It is encouraging for me to hear from two port sources that the international head-hunting recruitment entity hired by the current port board is tasked with finding someone who actually does have international shipping experience.
Back in 2002, Oldfield had no shipping experience – zero, zilch. So how did she end up getting the job of running what is a $2 billion economic linchpin of Atlantic Canada, where 9,000 direct and indirect jobs are attached to the Port of Halifax?
Halifax Port Authority HQ, adjacent the glass-walled HQ for Nova Scotia Power. Andrew Macdonald photo.
Well, Chretien loyalist Merv Russell played a large part in the 2002 hiring, but there is even more Chretien political intrigue.
Oldfield was a Tory chief of staff to then-Premier John Hamm when the port’s board, all Liberal supporters of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, hired her. Oldfield, a former lawyer at McInnes Cooper, was hired by Russell even though there were more qualified applicants.
My sources tell me they included Calvin Whidden and Patricia McDermott, both of whom offered a ton of shipping experience. Whidden is the current and longtime general manager of Ceres, Halifax’s north end container terminal, and McDermott was a very senior port authority exec.
McDermott would later leave the port authority during Oldfield’s tenure, as did another port exec, Denis Creamer. And, in recent years, another knowledgeable port exec left, George Malec, who had a keen sense of the international shipping business. He was perhaps the most knowledge of any exec at the port authority.
Halifax Port. Photo by Wiebe Schroeder
I am now also hearing that in addition to Merv Russell’s input into hiring Oldfield, another top Jean Chretien ally also had a hand in her hiring. That Chretien loyalist is none other than Bob Pace, who owns a chain of radio stations in Atlantic Canada, and who, with Myra Freeman, chaired Chretien’s election campaign in Nova Scotia.
In 1993, both Pace and Freeman saw to it that Chretien would take all 11 MP seats in Nova Scotia, elevating their status with Chretien, who practiced the art of dispensing patronage to his supporters.
Pace was appointed as a Crown agent of Canadian National Railway and has made multi-millions from this post. He now serves as CN chairman, keeping his lucrative post after CN was privatized. Next to the cable TV license awards by Pierre Trudeau to Liberal stalwarts—including John Bragg, now a Nova Scotia billionaire, Pace’s appointment to the CN board has to rank as an all-time lucrative patronage plum.
Karen Oldfield worked among John Hamm’s premier’s office staff in 1999. Front, from left, are Jim David, Jim Cormier, John Hamm, Jamie Baillie, Peter Spurway, David MacGregor; and back, Rob Batherson, Chad Rogers, David Tarrant, Chris Lydon (holding baby Caroline), Amanda Dean, James Mitchener and Chris d’Entremont.
CN Rail has significant interests in the Port of Halifax and the thinking is that Pace, who controlled the Chretien patronage machine in Nova Scotia, needed to have a Tory who would be well connected to Premier Hamm’s office.
“Merv would love to take credit for making it happen, but the real key was Bob Pace,” says a port source about the hiring of Oldfield in 2002.
“Pace, as you know was Chretien’s number one guy and provincial campaign chair for Chretien. You will note that Chretien put him on the board of CN and made sure that when it was privatized, the chair—another Chretien close contact from B.C.—made sure Bob remained on the board when CN became private sector.”
As Chretien’s top dog in Nova Scotia, Pace needed access to inside info on Premier Hamm and the new government. So, I hear he approached Oldfield with a big offer to become CEO of the Halifax Port Authority. She got the big bucks (circa $400,000 salary), access to unlimited international travel and Pace got his inside access to what was going on with the Hamm government.
But, Merv Russell, who was at the time a business partner with Pace, would later in 2008 nab newspaper headlines, turning against Oldfield, and saying the port of Halifax was a disaster under her leadership.
Chretien’s other Nova Scotia election co-chair, Myra Freeman, became the province’s lieutenant-governor and her lawyer husband, Larry Freeman, became the untendered lawyer to do the port’s legal work. He had been a colleague of Oldfield at McInnes Cooper, and still retains the port’s legal work, keeping it after he joined Stewart McKelvey.
Meanwhile, I have recently reported that well placed sources tell The Macdonald Notebook that two current executives at the Halifax Port Authority have applied to replace Oldfield.
The sources say Oldfield’s second-in-command, senior vice-president Paul MacIsaac has applied to become CEO, as has New York-based Paul DuVoisin.
I made a recent request to the Halifax port authority to speak to the two executives, and the request was denied.
“There is a formal process underway to select the next port CEO. As you can appreciate, this—as all personnel matters—is confidential. We will have no further comment at this time,” said Rebecca Bruce, one of two spokespersons for the port authority.
So nervous was Bruce to speak to the media about my tip, she refused to give me the proper spelling of DuVoisin’s name, so I had to rely on other port sources to get the proper spelling.
In June, I reported via sources that an international head-hunting firm had narrowed the field of possible replacements down to half a dozen. I do not know whether MacIsaac or DuVoisin made that cut.
Paul MacIsaac joined the Port Authority in 2005 as senior VP, currently overseeing overall responsibility for finance, infrastructure, environmental management and the controversial Seaport Redevelopment Project, which is about retail real estate development at the port, where container boxes are the main bread and butter.
“Prior to joining the Halifax Port Authority, Paul had an extensive career in the private sector in retail operations and commercial real estate leasing. Previously, he held the position of senior manager, corporate advisory services, with Ernst & Young Chartered Accountants,” reads his biography.
“Actively involved in his profession and community, Paul is chair of the Nova Scotia division for the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, an executive member of the Associated Alumni of Acadia University, past-chair of the ACPA Finance Committee and past member of Financial Executives International.”
He has worked with the United Way of Halifax and has served as a coach and executive member of various sports associations within his community, adds the bio.
If he made the cut, MacIsaac will have keen competition to replace Oldfield because the other port exec who applied, Paul DuVoisin, has a strong history in the port world.
The Port of Halifax appointed DuVoisin as its commercial director in 2008 to work on its behalf in key American markets. Based in New Jersey, he has focussed efforts on key markets in Chicago, Buffalo, New York and New England.
“DuVoisin has 25 years of experience in international shipping and logistics. As a senior VP and general manager for P&O Nedlloyd, he was responsible for business units in North America, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America,” reads his bio. As well, he was responsible for all P&O vessel operations in North America.
While Oldfield got her job at the port through politics, it is understood the current port board of directors are keen to get someone in the CEO job who actually has port experience which is why the recruiting firm was charged with finding a replacement from the international port community.
That international corporate recruitment firm is Boyden Canada, which has offices around the globe, and which has posted a job opening and description:
“The HPA’s 17-year CEO announced her resignation in the fall; paving the way for a new leader to take the Port through its next phase of evolution. The new CEO will lead the development and implementation of the Port’s vision and strategy and provide leadership to the Executive Team and full staff. Operating in a complex landscape, the new CEO’s mandate will be multi-faceted. A key priority for the new CEO will be aligning numerous key stakeholders around a vision to become Canada’s East Coast Gateway.
“Port activities create jobs, stimulate economic activity and connect the country to international markets. At the same time, some are industrial operations located in a vibrant area of the Halifax peninsula, so managing relationships with many diverse community and stakeholder groups is vital to the Port achieving its growth objectives.
“The ideal candidate will bring a track record of success in a senior executive capacity in the marine transportation or related industry with a significant supply chain and related infrastructure (i.e. port, terminal, marine, rail, logistics, mining, forestry, or other transportation/industrial business).
“Ideally, s/he has worked with a Board of Directors and has advanced strategic thinking, leadership and stakeholder engagement skills demonstrating high political acumen.
“This is a nation-building opportunity as the HPA has the potential to be Canada’s East Coast Gateway for international trade.”
