Yves Poirier is a security professional with over 30 years of experience in physical protection systems, guard force contract administration, museum security, special events security, transport security, nuclear security, health security, personnel security, security intelligence and infrastructure protection.
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Yves started his security career with the Government of Canada at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) in 1990. After joining the security team at the NGC, he obtained his Certified Protection Officer and Certified Security Supervisor designations through the International Foundation for Protection Officers (IFPO). In 18 years, he filled the role of Safety Awareness Officer, Protection Officer, Client Liaison Officer, Duty Officer and Security Operations Manager. All the while, Yves was a First Aid instructor with St-John Ambulance and later a First Responder through the Canadian Red Cross.
After honing his technical, supervisory and management skills in museum security, Yves accepted a position as Security Advisor at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). From November 2008 to April 2020, Yves was Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Nuclear Security, Team Leader and inspector for the CNSC. In those 11 years, he was Inspector, Security Specialist and SME in nuclear security matters. He was soon promoted to Team Leader, High-Security Nuclear Facilities responsible for a team of inspectors. He has taken on several assignments, including lead on regulatory issues at Nuclear Power Plants, contributor to Regulatory Operations Reports and author of Regulatory Documents (Security Clearances).
Yves successfully completed the IAEA International Training Course on Physical Protection of Nuclear Facilities & Materials. In 2012, he was the Canadian SME on an International Physical Protection Advisory Service (IPPAS) mission to Romania. Yves then became a key member in IAEA meetings to review Technical Guides on establishing nuclear security infrastructure, sustainability of nuclear security and the design of physical protection systems. In 2015, Canada hosted its first IPPAS mission to verify its nuclear security regime. As project officer on this file, Yves coordinated the 10-day official visit. In 2018, he was appointed the Canadian representative on the IAEA Nuclear Security Guidance Committee.
From 2017 to 2020, Yves lead the intelligence unit, the performance-testing program and the regulatory framework for security documents. Yves became a Certified Nuclear Security Professional through the World Institute of Nuclear Security (WINS) and completed a university Certificate in Public Administration. He emphasized mentoring and coaching his team members to meet future needs within the CNSC in capacity building and human resource development. Before leaving the CNSC, he was lead on rewriting the Nuclear Security Regulations, the Design Basis Threat and other regulatory documents.
In April 2020, Yves joined Health Canada as Director, Security Screening and Security in Contracting to help the department meet the demands of the COVID-19 Pandemic. He built a team of security screening professionals to manage the large surge of oncoming staff hired to deal with the pandemic. Yves also took on the role of Director, Investigations and Regional Security Management where he also built a team of Senior Analysts to implement security measures within the HC infrastructure across Canada. From December 2020 to March 2021, Yves acted as the Executive Director, National Security Management Division. The remainder of his time at HC was devoted to establishing a sound governance structure and training program for the division.
In October 2022, Yves left HC to join the Parliamentary Protective Service (PPS) as Special Advisor to the Director where he is currently helping the Operations Sector to develop strategic intelligence capacity, as part of his overall function to support the delivery of the PPS mandate for the Parliamentary Precinct.