Board of directors

Magali Picard was elected president of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) in January 2023, at the 33rd convention. She was previously vice-president of the FTQ and Fonds de solidarité FTQ, national vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), and president of the Quebec Council.

Ms. Picard is a proud member of the Wendat Nation and an advocate for Indigenous and women's rights. Throughout her career, she has fought for greater social justice for workers so that everyone may live in dignity. She began her career as a union activist in 1999 at the PSAC-affiliated Union of Veterans' Affairs Employees (UVAE), where she was president of Local 10042. Her remarkable skills and enthusiasm set her apart, and she quickly climbed the ranks within the PSAC, an FTQ affiliate.

Ms. Picard is First Vice-Chair of the Fonds FTQ Board of Directors.

She also sits on the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Canada Council and Executive Committee, and on the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Council.

In addition, she is a member of the Comité consultatif du travail et de la main-d'œuvre (CCTM).

Pierre-Maurice Vachon is a well-known personality in the Beauce region where he is both a businessman and a political figure. He has worn several hats, first as CEO, then corporate director, followed by prefect and mayor. To this day, he remains interested in business and management.

Between 1990 and 2003, Mr. Vachon was CEO and chairman of Cartem, a company he helped found in 1977. He served as mayor of Sainte-Marie for 16 years as well as prefect of the Nouvelle-Beauce CMA and president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités (FQM). Earlier in his career, Mr. Vachon was the manager of production-related administrative services at the family company, Les Gâteaux Vachon, where he remained for 10 years.

Mr. Vachon has been a board member of the Fonds de solidarité FTQ since 2005 and a member of the Turnaround Board since 2004. He also serves on the boards of, among others, SSQ General Insurance Company, P.H. Tech and the Fonds régional de solidarité FTQ – Chaudière-Appalaches.

Pierre-Maurice Vachon holds a business administration degree from Université Laval.

Denis Bolduc is General Secretary of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ). He sits on the FTQ Executive Committee and has been a Fonds de solidarité FTQ Board member since June 2016.

Mr. Bolduc served as President of the Québec division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) from June 2016 to December 2019, and was a member of the CUPE National Executive Board and President of CUPE Québec Local 1450 from 2006 to 2011. He was also President of CUPE Québec’s Conseil provincial du secteur des communications (CPSC) from March to May 2011 and General Secretary of CUPE Québec from May 2011 to June 2016.

A graduate of Cégep de Jonquière, where he studied media art and technology, Mr. Bolduc worked as a journalist at the CKCV-AM radio station in Québec City from 1985 to 1986, then at Le Journal de Québec from 1986 to 2011. He was the editor of the free daily newspaper Média Matin from 2007 to 2008.

The members of PSAC-Quebec elected Yvon Barrière as Regional Executive Vice-President in June 2018. In this role, he represents more than 40,000 members and chairs PSAC’s Quebec Council. At the regional level, organizing, education, equity and women’s programs, area councils and directly chartered locals are under his purview.

Yvon is also Vice-President of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec and a member of the Fonds de solidarité FTQ board of directors.

Prior to his election as Regional Executive Vice-President of PSAC-Quebec, Yvon served as Regional Vice-President of the Union of Safety and Justice Employees (USJE), a position he held since 2014.

From 2002 to 2014, Yvon was a correctional programs officer. During this time, he cultivated a reputation for empathy and constructive interventions for the prison community. He is a determined and passionate activist who firmly believes in solidarity, democratic, fair and equitable unionism.

He is actively engaged in the community of his home region of Drummondville, where he volunteers as a sports coach and director of sports associations, and regularly gives of his time to various community organizations.

Yvon holds a bachelor of arts degree and a diploma in administration from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.

Driven by the defence of workers’ rights in the construction industry, Éric Boisjoly has built strong ties with the labour movement during his career, which he began as a construction labourer. He subsequently became a crane operator and a journeyman crane operator. A member of Local 791G, which represents some 1,200 crane operator members, he was named site delegate and regional delegate to represent crane operators in the Montréal metropolitan area. Soon after, he was appointed General Manager. In 2011 he became Assistant General Manager of FTQ-Construction and in 2018 his current role of General Manager.

Mr. Boisjoly is also Vice-President of the FTQ as well as a Board member of the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ).

From 2015 to 2019, he was a member of the construction industry’s professional training committee (CCQ) and since 2018 has been a member of the FTQ Pension Committee and the CCQ Benefits Committee. In 2013, he acted as negotiator for the collective agreements of the institutional, commercial and industrial sectors. He also represented FTQ-Construction on various round tables, including a jurisdictional dispute resolution committee, a workforce mobility file and a Québec-Ontario agreement.

In addition to a diploma of vocational studies in crane operation from the Commission scolaire des Trois-Lacs, Mr. Boisjoly has also completed several union training courses and training related to pension plans and employee benefits.

Loïc Breton has been President of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE-SEPB - Québec) since 2016. Mr. Breton’s involvement in the labour movement began in 1991 and he has since held various positions within the SEPB, including president of SEPB-574, organizer, union trainer and employer representative on union bodies.

Mr. Breton holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McGill University.  He has been an employer representative on the SEPB-Québec Pension Committee since 2017. In addition, he sits on the SEPB-COPE National Executive and has worked, among other things, on the development of the investment policy for the Strike and Lockout Benefit and Defence Fund.

Loïc Breton joined the Fonds de solidarité FTQ Board of Directors in September 2020.

Frédéric Brisson has been the General Secretary of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE-Québec) since May 2021. He was President of the Provincial Social Affairs Council from October 2017 to May 2021 and has served on the local executive as Director, Grievance Officer, Vice-President and President.

Active in the labour movement since 2004, Mr. Brisson has held various positions such as vice-president and president and has sat on several committees including the Public Services Negotiating Committee, where he negotiated the 2020-2022 public sector collective agreement for the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleurs du Québec (FTQ). He also negotiated the group insurance plan contracts for the FTQ Intersectoral Parity Committee (Group 6000) for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Mr. Brisson worked for 20 years as a patient attendant in the operating room of Université Laval’s Québec Heart and Lung Institute. 

Frédéric Brisson joined the Fonds de solidarité FTQ Board of Directors in May 2021.

Daniel Cloutier is the Québec director of Unifor. From July 2014 to April 2022, when he was elected Québec director, he served as the union’s national representative for health and safety and the environment, as well as coordinator of the Service de défense des accidentés du travail. Before that, he was the service representative of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), one of the founding unions of Unifor. He subsequently served in various capacities, including as local president. 

Daniel Cloutier’s union career began in 1990 at Purolator Courier.  Upon being hired by the CEP as a service representative in 1997, Mr. Cloutier was initially assigned to the petrochemical industry, representing groups at Petro-Canada, Petromont, Olin and Hercules. He was also put in charge of several groups in other sectors, including the media, where he represented members at the CTV station. This broad range of experiences gave him the opportunity to work in several regions of Québec as well as in the rest of Canada. 

During his 17 years of representing members, he has led numerous negotiations, including several at the national level. Throughout the years, he has also defended multiple files before the Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité au travail (CNESST), arbitration boards and the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT). 

Mr. Cloutier is a Board member of Envirocompétence and Multiprévention, an occupational health and safety association. He has taken part in several international missions to Belgium, Haiti and Algeria, where he participated in, among others, bargaining and market economy workshops.  Daniel Cloutier joined the Fonds de solidarité FTQ Board of Directors in May 2022. 

A graduate in law and industrial relations, Anouk Collet is executive assistant to the national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. She has over 20 years’ experience in bargaining, organizing, training and member services.

Ms. Collet was elected vice-president of the FTQ and to the board of directors of the Fonds de solidarité FTQ in 2013. She is also vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) as well as a member of various FTQ committees, including education and grievance arbitration.

Anouk Collet is co-chair of Détail Québec, the retail trade labour sector committee. Engaged in the community, she has served on the board of directors of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada since 2012.

Ms. Sylvie Demers is a consultant and corporate director, as well as a trainer at the Collège des administrateurs de sociétés at Université Laval in corporate governance on boards of directors. Until November 2023, she was Executive Chair, TD Bank Financial Group, Quebec Region, and Senior Vice-President, Branch Banking. Previously, Ms. Demers worked as Vice-President, Strategic Initiatives within the organization. From 2011 to 2013, as President, Affinity Market Group at TD Insurance, she coordinated operations and services nationally. Ms. Demers joined TD in 1985. Until 2011, she held a number of leadership positions in various departments, including Commercial Banking and Securities, Corporate Banking and Retail Banking, as well as Regional Vice President and Market Leader at TD Waterhouse Private Client Services for Eastern Canada. She has evolved in various roles such as financing for private enterprises and financing for public enterprises. Ms. Demers has also worked in fund management, treasury and derivatives, and is Vice-President of a branch network, District Montréal, Centre-Sud. 

Ms. Demers holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from HEC Montréal with a specialization in finance and marketing.

Éric Gingras has been President of the Centrale des syndicats (CSQ) since June 2021. From 2005 to 2021, he held various positions, including President of the Champlain union and Vice-President of its Marie-Victorin local. From 1996 to 2004, he taught grade school pupils from disadvantaged and multi-ethnic backgrounds at the Centre de services scolaires Marie-Victorin. 

Mr. Gingras has been active in the labour movement since 1997. His responsibilities at the CSQ include bargaining at the national level, inter-union relations, public policy, pay equity, communications and activities on the international scene. 

Mr. Gingras is a member of the Commission des partenaires du marché du travail and the Comité consultatif du travail et de la main-d'œuvre. 

He holds a bachelor's degree in education from Université de Montréal. Éric Gingras joined the Fonds de solidarité FTQ Board of Directors in October 2022.

Denis Labrèche has over 30 years’ experience in business valuation, financial disputes and M&As in various industries. As a partner at Ernst & Young from 1978 to 2011, he was involved in key mandates and transactions and was frequently called to give expert testimony. He was also tasked with many venture capital mandates for the Government of Québec, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Société générale de financement du Québec. He also acted as financial advisor to large organizations including Provigo, Métro, Rona, Bell Canada and the Canadian Red Cross.

Very active throughout his career, Mr. Labrèche has given speeches, led countless seminars on business valuation and financing and written articles on the topic for the business magazine Commerce and the La Presse newspaper.

Mr. Labrèche has served on the boards of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators and of Réseau Capital.

Denis Labrèche is a Chartered Business Valuator (CBV – 1984) and a Chartered Accountant who made the prestigious Honour Roll of the Chartered Accountants 1978 Uniform Exam (UFE).

Dominic Lemieux is the United Steelworkers Québec Director and was Assistant to the Québec Director from January 2016 to March 2020. He previously worked as the union’s North Shore Regional Coordinator.

Following his studies in mining, he began his career in the Abitibi gold mines and then returned to work at Stelco (now ArcelorMittal) in Contrecoeur. He quickly developed an interest in occupational health and safety and became an activist on the USW Local 6951 Executive, which led to his appointment as a USW union representative in 2008. Mr. Lemieux travelled throughout Québec as a member of the Steelworkers’ organizing team.

He also has led major bargaining with multinationals such as Rio Tinto, Alcoa, Lafarge, ArcelorMittal, Glencore and many others.

He holds a certificate in health and safety from Université de Montréal and completed the Harvard University Trade Union Program.

He chaired the FTQ Youth Committee from 2007 to 2009 and played a key role in a determined campaign that led to a ban in 2018 on two-tier pension and benefit plans in Québec workplaces.

Mr. Lemieux has served on various boards including Formabois, Bureau de la sécurité privé, Comité paritaire des agents de sécurité du Québec, CSMO Mines, Fonds régional de la Côte-Nord and Juripop. He currently sits on the advisory committee of FinTaxi. 

Dominic Lemieux joined the Fonds de solidarité FTQ Board of Directors in January 2020.

Katia Marquier has more than 20 years of experience in accounting, taxation, strategic planning and corporate governance. In February 2017, she assumed an executive position at Fednav, an international shipping company, where she was responsible for financial, accounting and tax management for two years before being appointed Chief Financial Officer in January 2020. Previously, she was Corporate Controller and Director of Regulatory Accounting at Gaz Métro (now Énergir) and Valener, as well as Auditor at KPMG.

She sits on the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Net Real Estate Investment Trust and Chair of its audit committee.  She is a member of the Association des Femmes en Finance du Québec and was involved in the Cancer Research Society for eight years as a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, and Chair of the Audit Committee. She also served on the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee of Sportscene Group until it went private.

Ms. Marquier holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a graduate degree in professional accounting from HEC Montréal, where she was a lecturer from 2005 to 2010. She is a member of the Québec Order of Chartered Accounts and holds a university certificate in corporate governance from the Collège des administrateurs de sociétés. Katia Marquier joined the Fonds de solidarité FTQ Board of Directors in October 2022.

Active in the labour movement for 35 years, Sylvie Nelson made history in October 2017 by becoming the first woman to be elected as president of SQUESS-298 (FTQ). At the same time, she was appointed FTQ vice-president representing the Service Employees International Union (UIES).

Ms. Nelson began her career as an aide in a Laval rehabilitation centre for physical and intellectual disabilities. Her interest in and concern for this clientele led her to become a specialized educator.  Over the years, she demonstrated a keen commitment to labour activism and was especially active on her local union executive board. She was president of her base unit for over 25 years and was elected member of two provincial public sector bargaining committees, serving as technical representative in two major files:  salary relativity and pay equity.  

In 1997 Ms. Nelson was hired by SQEES-298 member services as an advisor and in 2010 became a coach in the training department. Appointed secretary general in 2011, she assumed responsibility for the training department, political action committee and intercultural and mobilization committee, as well as management of administrative staff. In 2016 she was elected FTQ vice-president representing women in the FTQ.

Throughout her career, Sylvie Nelson has always been known for her activism and dedication to advancing the cause of women, particularly as regards their living standards and working conditions.

 

 

Jean-Claude Scraire is an independant consultant in strategic development. Since 2002, he has worked for different organizations and businesses in Asia, Europe and Québec.

Mr. Scraire previously worked for 22 years at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec where he served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer from 1995 to 2002. He also held various positions in Québec public administration from 1974 to 1981, including at the Ministère de la Justice.

Committed to economic development and strongly believing in the importance of entrepreneurship while respecting the local communities, Jean-Claude Scraire has recently chaired the Board of Directors of Investissement Québec and the Fondation de l’entrepreneurship.

Member of the Barreau du Québec since 1970, Mr. Scraire is also a member of the Fondation de l’entrepreneurship and the University Club.