Quebec-native Mr. Cournoyer is an Economist (MA, BA (Hon.), McGill University, PhD coursework), specializing in labour economics and econometrics. He retired after a distinguished career with the Quebec provincial government, most of which was spent in public employment services as a labour outlook expert and policy and program development.

As a manager, he worked in planning, research, assessment, workforce training, operations and immigration. At Emploi-Québec, he was Director-General of Planning and Labour Market Information, overseeing regional operations in Laval, the Quebec labour force training fund (Fonds National de formation de la main-d’œuvre, known as the “1% Law”) and the CPMT (Quebec labour market partners commission) Secretariat. He also served as a negotiator for the Quebec Government on Chapter 7 of the first Agreement on Internal Trade, which dealt with labour mobility, and was the manager responsible for the support team during negotiations for the Canada-Quebec Labour Market Agreement in Principle.

Mr. Cournoyer has received numerous scholarships, awards and honours, including: First-Class Honours (BA, McGill), Great Distinction (MA, McGill), Canada Council scholarships (MA and PhD), Conseil de l’Éducation supérieure du Québec scholarships (MA and PhD), McGill University scholarships, the Cherry Prize in Economics (McGill), the Steinberg scholarship (secondaire V /graduating year in high school – QC) and the 2007 Méritas Leadership award from the RQuODE (Quebec’s association of community organizations for employability).

He continues to be passionate about labour market information and is the author of the not-for-profit Job Market Monitor, a personal labour market information website that has received more than 600,000 visits to date. He is also a speaker as well as an education, training, workforce and immigration consultant for the Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce (FCCQ) and for the Honourable Diane Bellemare, Senate of Canada.