In April 2016, François Guimont retired from the public service after more than 33 years of service.
From 2012 to 2016, François Guimont was deputy minister of Public Safety Canada. Prior to this appointment, he held the positions of deputy commissioner of customs and revenue, president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and associate deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada (known at the time as Public Works and Government Services).
During the 1990s, Guimont served with the Privy Council Office as assistant secretary to the cabinet (Economic and Regional Development Policy) and held various executive positions with Environment Canada. Prior to this, he worked for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, where he headed environmental programs related to hydrocarbon exploration in the Arctic Ocean.
From 2010 to 2011, at the request of the clerk of the Privy Council, he acted as the National Managers’ Community (NMC) champion. The NMC presented him with its Ambassador Award, due in large part to his work as chair of the 2011 Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign.
In 2012, he acted as deputy minister university champion for the University of Ottawa. That same year, the University’s Alumni Association honoured him with its Commitment to the University Award and he received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
François Guimont, who began his career with the Quebec government as a physical scientist studying aquatic environments, accepted the position of general manager of Ottawa’s Mark Motors in the fall of 2016.
He holds a BSc in biology from the University of Ottawa, an MSc in water resources from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique in Quebec City as well as a master’s in civil engineering from Université Laval, also in Quebec City.