 Gilbert Normand
Secretary of State
(Science, Research and Development)
Constituency: Bellechasse-Etchemins-
Montmagny-L'Islet
E-mail: normand.gilbert@ic.gc.ca
Born in Montmagny, Quebec, on March 31, 1943, Dr. Normand attended college in La Pocatière and Québec City, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963. He studied at the School of Optometry of the University of Montréal in 1965 and received his degree in medicine from Laval University in 1970.
He operated a private medical practice in Montmagny from 1970 to 1989 and was a member of the medical, dental and pharmaceutical staff of Hôtel-Dieu de Montmagny hospital from 1970 to 1997. He served as Director of the Département de Santé communautaire de Montmagny from 1990 to 1993. Since 1993, he has served as a consulting physician with the public health directorate of the Chaudière-Appalaches Regional Health and Social Services Board.
Dr. Normand has also taken an interest in health issues in the Developing World and in rural areas of Quebec. He conducted health activities in Jamaica in 1968 and took part in the development of a "healthy cities, towns and villages" network in Senegal in 1993 and in the reorganization of a general hospital and the central pharmacy in Chad in 1994. In Quebec, he was regional president of the Red Cross (Côte-du-Sud Region) from 1986 to 1988, member of the founding board of trustees of the Chaudières-Appalaches Health and Social Services Board, president and executive member of the Quebec "healthy cities, towns and villages" network from 1988 to 1994, and member of the Health and Welfare Council study committee on the reorganization of health services in Quebec from 1993 to 1995.
Dr. Normand was also involved with the economic development of his community and surrounding regions. He founded the Côte-du Sud Tourism Bureau in 1986 and was its president until 1993. He was also deputy chair and then chair of the Côte-du-Sud economic council from 1986 to 1993. In the Chaudière-Appalaches region, he was chair of the economic summit in 1990, chair of the Conseil régional de concertation et de développement (CRCD) from 1988 to 1992, and member of the board of directors of the University Services Founding Corporation from 1990 to 1994.
Dr. Normand's political career started in 1985, when he became mayor of Montmagny, a position he held until 1993. He also served as assistant warden of the Regional County Municipality of Montmagny from 1987 to 1993. He was elected MP for the federal riding of Bellechasse- Etchemins-Montmagny-L'Islet on June 2, 1997, and appointed Secretary of State (Agriculture and Agri-Food, Fisheries and Oceans) on June 18, 1997.
As Secretary of State for Agriculture and Agri-Food, he was entrusted with responsibility for numerous issues and activity sectors, among them the development of the functional foods and neutraceuticals file, the worldwide development potential for which is estimated at over $500 billion by the year 2000.
With respect to Fisheries and Oceans, Dr. Normand was responsible in particular for aquaculture, an extremely promising industry both for Canada and for the rest of the world.
On August 3, 1999, he was appointed Secretary of State (Science, Research and Development) under the Industry Canada Portfolio, and has thus been entrusted with an entirely new mandate, just as future-oriented and stimulating as his previous one.
Last updated: 14 December 1999
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