Thomas Kunito Shoyama

Shoyama, Thomas Kunito

Thomas Kunito Shoyama, economist, public servant (b at Kamloops, BC 24 Sept 1916, d at Victoria, BC 22 Dec 2006). Denied employment in his native BC because he was of JAPANESE ancestry, Shoyama was prominent among the young civil servants who set up the machinery for new social programs in Saskatchewan under T.C. DOUGLAS. He was economic adviser to the premier when he left in 1964 to become a senior economist with the ECONOMIC COUNCIL OF CANADA. He held many senior positions with the federal government, including deputy minister of energy, mines and resources, deputy minister of finance, special adviser to the Privy Council on the Constitution and chairman of the board of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. He was a visiting professor at U of Victoria since 1980 and was a member of the ROYAL COMMISSION ON CANADA'S ECONOMIC PROSPECTS. Shoyama became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1978.