Published May 5, 2023
After more than 37 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Military Engineers, LCol Paul Doucette, CD, retired on 30 June 2020, during the pandemic. Anecdotes and retirement wishes may be sent to Capt C. Perrie at Christopher.Perrie@forces.gc.ca.
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Doucette was born in Charlottetown, P.E.I. in 1965, and joined the Canadian Forces in 1983. He completed a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at the Royal Military College in 1988. After completing Military Engineering training at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Chilliwack he was posted as a 2Lt to 1 Construction Engineering Unit (1 CEU) Winnipeg in January 1989. He was promoted to Captain in While at 1 CEU, he filled the roles of Project/Design Officer for projects at various locations such as Alert, Bedford, Bermuda, Calgary, Cambridge Bay, Edmonton, Goose Bay, Shelburne, Shilo, Suffield and Trenton.
In 1992, Capt Doucette was posted to Formation Construction Engineering (CE) at CFB Halifax. While in Halifax, he filled various CE jobs such as Requirements Officer, Production Officer, Construction Engineering Officer, and Central Maintenance Officer as well as commanding the east coast Naval Construction Troop.
In 1997, Paul was posted to the Deputy Commanding Officer (DCO) position at 4 Airfield Engineering Squadron in Cold Lake. It was during this posting that Major Doucette rejoined 1 CEU for a six-month NATO tour in Sarajevo as part of the Works and Design Squadron for SFOR Headquarters.
Promoted to Major in 2001 and posted to 5 Wing Goose Bay as the Quality Assurance (QA) Officer, he ran the QA section assessing the Alternate Service Delivery contractor for the Foreign Military training facility.
In 2003, he was posted to a newly formed DCO position at the Canadian Forces Network Operations Centre (CFNOC) at CFS Leitrim. In August 2005, he transferred to the Station to assume the role of Technical Services Officer. In the spring of 2006, he was appointed to the position of Officer Commanding CFS Leitrim.
In July 2007, he was posted into the Joint Engineer Branch at Canada Command and in Feb 2009, he was appointed as Coordinator for the Deputy Chief of Staff Support. While at Canada Command, he was involved in the planning of a myriad of operations including the 2010 Winter Olympics and G8/20 Summit as well as numerous other domestic operations.
With the promotion to LCol in Jan 2011, he assumed the position of Director of Maritime Infrastructure, responsible for the Royal Canadian Navy’s $3B+ real property portfolio.
In Jul 2014, LCol Doucette transferred to the Associate Deputy Minister (Infrastructure and Environment) (ADM(IE)) Real Property Operations Group and assumed the responsibility to implement the centralization of the Department’s $26B RP portfolio.
Upon completion of the centralization initiative on 1 Apr 2016, LCol Doucette briefly assumed the duties of J5 Planning for the RP Ops Gp HQ before being assigned to ADM(IE)’s Defence Policy Review Team in June where he contributed to the Department’s Strong, Secure, Engaged Defence Policy. He continued onto the Special Initiatives Team to assist implementation of the policy objectives.
In Sep 2018 while at ADM(IE), he took over Project Director responsibilities to identify the Construction in Support of Equipment (CISOE) elements of the RCN’s new Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) project. After completing over 35 years of service he transitioned to the ResF in Mar 2019 and continued his role with the CSC infrastructure until Jun 2020 when he transitioned to the Public Service. After a brief stint in IE’s Natural Resources section dealing with the proposed Pumped Storage Project at Meaford, he transitioned in Oct 2020 to his current role with Defence Research and Development Canada as the Head of Infrastructure Requirements.
Paul and his spouse, Dianne, have settled into a new house in Carleton Place and continue to enjoy an active life cycling, camping, canoeing, and skiing and enjoying time with their four grandchildren.