Jim Bruce: retired Assistant Deputy Minister, Atmospheric Environment Service

Meet Jim Bruce.

Jim Bruce worked at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) for 37 years, before retiring from his position as Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) of the Atmospheric Environment Service (AES) in 1985. Jim began his career in 1948, after graduating from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts. He then received his M.A. in Physics (Meteorology) at the University of Toronto in 1952, launching his position as a weather forecaster and analyst. In the following years, Jim went to work in a number of capacities, garnering recognition at both the national and international level for helping to further the mission and mandate of the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC).

When Hurricane Hazel caused severe flooding and environmental damages in Ontario in the fall of 1954, Canadian interest in disaster loss reduction was piqued. Jim became superintendent of hydrometeorology in 1959 and later served as director of the Canadian Centre for Inland Waters, Burlington before assuming his position as ADM, bringing with him a breadth of knowledge to face the increasing number of severe weather events over the subsequent years.

Reflecting on his position as ADM, Jim cites that this was an exciting period for AES with a new Cray supercomputer providing more capacity to run complex forecasting models. This also fueled increasing interest in environmental issues like acid rain (long-range transport of air pollutants) and climate change. As ADM Jim played major roles in development through WMO and UNEP of the concept and early operation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This was later recognized by his invitation to the Oslo ceremony awarding IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize, 2007.

Following his career with ECCC, Jim worked at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva from 1986 to 1989. In 1987, he was honoured with the Order of Canada (Officer) for his contributions on water, meteorology and environmental issues. Jim was called upon to chair the U.N. Technical Committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) in the 1990’s. He has been named a Life Member of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Meteorological Society, and has Honorary Doctorates from Waterloo and McMaster Universities.

Many of his colleagues at ECCC remember Jim for his warm smile, thoughtful expertise and proven leadership.

Here are a few random facts about Jim:

• What was your first job? My first real job was in 1948 as meteorologist in training and holiday replacement forecaster in Mont Joli, Centralia, Churchill and St. Hubert. After Hurricane Hazel in 1954, I was seconded for 5 years to the Conservation Authorities in Ontario to develop a Flood Warning System.
• If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? Archeological sites in the Middle East.
• What is your favourite game or sport to watch and play? Tennis and football.
• What are your hobbies? Music appreciation, especially jazz. 93-year-old fingers won’t play piano as well anymore.
• If you were a super-hero, what powers would you have? Ability to foresee the future.
• If you could share a meal with anyone, living or dead, who would it be? David Suzuki.
• What's your favourite holiday? Visiting archaeological sites in Central America.
• What's your favourite movie? Singing in the Rain.

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