Topic: Finance Canada's Activities during the Great Recession
Speaker: Wayne Foster, Director, Financial Markets Division, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance Canada
Wayne Foster’s career in the Department of Finance spans 25 years. In his current position of Director, Financial Markets Division, a position he has held since September 2008, Mr. Foster is responsible for providing policy analysis and advice on the management of the Government’s debt and financial assets, capital market developments, access to financing issues, the borrowing and risk management framework for Crown corporations, and currency and coinage matters. Since August 2007, Mr. Foster has been instrumental in the development of the Government of Canada’s response to the global financial crisis, as detailed in Budgets 2008 and 2009, including the development of the Insured Mortgage Purchase Program, the Canadian Lenders Assurance Facility, and the Canadian Secured Credit Facility. In this context, he also directed a review and updating of the Minister of Finance’s Financial Risk Management Guidelines for Crown corporations. From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Foster was Regional Finance Counsellor for Southeast Asia at the Canadian High Commission in Singapore, where he represented Canada at various international and in bilateral consultations with Asian countries, while acting as chief negotiator for financial services during the Canada-Singapore Free Trade negotiations. Mr. Foster holds an M.A. in Economics from McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.
