Mario Lavoie was appointed as head of post at the Bureau du Québec à Ottawa (Ottawa office) in February 2020 after it was announced that the Ottawa office would reopen. He has worked for over 30 years in the world of politics and public affairs. His long and extensive experience in the field of intergovernmental relations, both within Canada and on the international stage, made him the ideal person to direct the office representing Québec in the federal capital. Mr. Lavoie is also a special adviser to the government in the area of Canadian relations.
From February 2019 until his appointment in February 2020, Mario Lavoie was director of international and intergovernmental relations in the Québec Premier’s office, a position he also held from 2003 to 2012.
At the federal level, he was director of operations for the President of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Canadian Infrastructure in 2014 and 2015.
In the course of his career he has directed research and communications departments for the House of Commons, the Senate and the Québec National Assembly. He has also worked in the private sector in the field of government relations.
When Mr. Lavoie began his career in Ottawa in the mid-1980s, Canada was in the throes of constitutional change. This was the time of the Meech Lake Accord, the Bélanger-Campeau Commission, the Beaudoin-Dobbie Committee, the Charlottetown Accord, and the Québec independence referendum of 1995, for which Mr. Lavoie worked as a researcher and political advisor.
In Québec City, a new era in Canada-Québec relations had begun, and Mr. Lavoie was instrumental in the work to create the Council of the Federation, the Federal-Provincial Health Accord (2004) and in the negotiations leading to the Canada-Québec agreement on QST and GST harmonization.
At the international Level, Mr. Lavoie helped negotiate the agreement on Québec’s participation in UNESCO and the creation of the Climate Leaders’ Summit. The many issues he was worked on include the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Québec-France agreement on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
Mr. Lavoie has advised first ministers, ministers and elected officials, as well as business leaders. He has taken part in more than 15 election and referendum campaigns in various capacities, from the drafting of public policy to the preparation of debates.
Several decades of practical experience in the world of government and politics will now be applied by Mario Lavoie for the benefit of the Ottawa office.
