Hill Climbers
Minister Champagne brings some fresh faces to finance file
Finance and National Revenue Minister François-Philippe Champagne has made good progress in firming up his new office, and he’s introduced some fresh talent to the portfolio.
Niloofar Boroun, who was previously director of policy to then-international trade minister Mary Ng, has been hired as director of international policy to Champagne.
Boroun had been working for Ng—who opted not to seek re-election this year—since April 2024, beginning as a senior adviser. She was promoted to policy director that June.
Prior to working for Ng, Boroun was a principal and founder of Lotus Consulting Group in Toronto. Boroun has some provincial political experience under her belt, including as a senior policy adviser for international trade, economic development, and immigration in then-Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne’s office between 2016 and 2018, and as a past executive assistant to then-training, colleagues, and universities minister John Milloy.
On the public-service side, Boroun also briefly worked as a senior policy and public appointments adviser with Ontario’s Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Science. And according to her LinkedIn profile, Boroun was director of tour and operations for Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie’s successful 2023 leadership campaign.
Boroun is also a former executive director of Consider Canada, and a former manager of investment services and global markets with Toronto Global, among other past jobs.
Matthew O’Connell has been named deputy director of financial sector policy to Champagne.
O’Connell comes from Champagne’s old team as then-innovation, science, and industry minister, having worked in that office as a policy adviser since May 2024. O’Connell continued to tackle policy in the office during now-Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s brief turn as innovation minister from March to May of this year, and stayed on briefly after current Industry Minister Mélanie Joly was sworn in on May 13. Prior to first being hired by Champagne last year, O’Connell’s LinkedIn profile indicates he was manager of strategic partnerships with Drop, a consumer services firm in Toronto.
Kyle Fox is now deputy director of policy to Champagne. Fox took a break from working on the Hill at the start of this year, having previously been director of policy to then-housing, infrastructure, and communities minister Sean Fraser, who was briefly shuffled out of cabinet last December before returning to the front bench in May in his current role of minister of justice and attorney general. Fox had been running Fraser’s policy shop since shortly after the minister took over the file in July 2023. Before then, Fox was a senior policy adviser to then-housing, diversity, and inclusion minister Ahmed Hussen.
Fox is also a past special assistant—for operations, and later for policy—to then-associate finance minister Mona Fortier, a former Ontario field organizer for the federal Liberal Party, and a former aide to Toronto city councillor Paul Ainslie, amongst other past experience.
Also tackling policy for Champagne are senior advisers Jessica Fullerton and Yianni Papadatos. Fullerton is also an Atlantic regional affairs adviser to Champagne.
A former research analyst with The Capital Hill Group, Fullerton joined the Liberal research bureau (LRB) as a special assistant in the spring of 2020. After the 2021 election, she landed a job as a policy adviser for intergovernmental affairs to then-intergovernmental affairs, infrastructure, and communities minister Dominic LeBlanc, and—until recently—stuck with LeBlanc through his various portfolios since. More recently, she was a senior policy adviser in his office as then-minister for public safety, democratic institutions, and intergovernmental affairs. According to her LinkedIn profile, she continued as a senior policy adviser to LeBlanc during his recent brief turns as finance and intergovernmental affairs minister, and international trade and intergovernmental affairs minister.
Papadatos has been with the finance portfolio since April 2024 when he was hired as a parliamentary affairs adviser to then-minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland. Before then, he had been a communications assistant and later parliamentary affairs adviser to then-Indigenous services minister Patty Hajdu. Papadatos is also an ex-aide to Quebec Liberal MP Annie Koutrakis.
Cheryl Cardinal is in place as a senior adviser for Indigenous affairs. Another former Freeland adviser, Cardinal was hired as director of strategic initiatives and Indigenous equity in the finance office under Freeland in the fall of 2023. Before then, she’d been working for the then-named public services and procurement minister, starting as director of Indigenous policy and procurement to then-minister Anita Anand, and later as director of policy and Indigenous procurement to then-minister Helena Jaczek.
A federal cabinet staffer since 2018, Cardinal’s first post was as director of Indigenous relations and reconciliation to then-natural resources minister Seamus O’Regan. Before then, she’d been president and CEO of the Indigenous Center of Energy.
Sean O’Neill continues as director of parliamentary affairs to Champagne, a role he previously filled in Champagne’s office as then-innovation minister since October 2024. O’Neill is also a former parliamentary affairs director to Ng as then-trade minister, an ex-parliamentary affairs and issues management adviser in then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office, and previously tackled parliamentary affairs in the innovation office under both Champagne and then-minister Navdeep Bains. As well, O’Neill is an ex-aide to Ontario Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, and a former special assistant in the LRB.
Ashton Ross is director of issues management. She recently oversaw issues management—while also serving as a senior policy adviser—for then-veterans affairs minister Darren Fisher, and briefly for his successor, current minister Jill McKnight before being hired to Champagne’s new finance team last month.
A former assistant to Ontario Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell, Ross worked in various roles for LeBlanc from 2022 until early this year. Starting as assistant to the parliamentary secretary in LeBlanc’s office as then-intergovernmental affairs, infrastructure, and communities minister, Ross was later made an Ontario adviser, and went on to be a legislative assistant and later parliamentary affairs and policy adviser in LeBlanc’s office as then-public safety, democratic institutions, and intergovernmental affairs minister.
Pierre-Yves Bourque continues as director of operations to Champagne, a role he’s filled since the end of 2021, previously in Champagne’s office as then-innovation minister. Bourque has been working for Champagne since the start of 2019, beginning as director of communications in Champagne’s office as then-infrastructure and communities minister. He went on to be a senior communications adviser and issues manager to Champagne as then-foreign affairs minister, and was later promoted to director of parliamentary affairs in that office.
Bourque is also a former Quebec Liberal staffer, an ex-assistant to then-Liberal MP Stéphane Dion, and a former parliamentary affairs assistant to then-international development minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and to Freeland as then-foreign affairs minister.
François Massicotte is a senior Quebec affairs adviser to Champagne, no doubt working closely with Élyse Moisan, the minister’s Quebec regional affairs adviser, also known as the Quebec desk.
Massicotte was most recently director of strategic planning to Champagne as then-innovation minister, and has been working for Champagne since the start of 2015, beginning in Champagne’s constituency office as the MP for Saint-Maurice–Champlain, Que. Massicotte joined the ministerial staff ranks at the start of 2020 as a special assistant for Quebec and Atlantic affairs, La Francophonie, and parliamentary affairs to Champagne as then-foreign affairs minister. He was promoted to director of operations to Champagne roughly a year later—a title Massicotte initially carried with him when he followed Champagne to the innovation portfolio in early 2021.
Moisan was previously a Quebec adviser to Freeland as then-finance minister and deputy prime minister. Hired by Freeland roughly one year ago, before then, Moisan had covered Quebec for the LRB.
Quinn Ferris is senior West desk for Champagne. Ferris was last director of operations to then-agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay, and before then spent two-and-a-half years working in the ministers’ regional office in Winnipeg, Man., one of 16 such offices across Canada which support all of cabinet. He’s also a former West and North regional adviser to then-rural economic development minister Gudie Hutchings, a former communications adviser to then-fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan, and an ex-aide to then-Manitoba Liberal MPs Jim Carr and MaryAnn Mihychuk, amongst other past roles.
Audrey Milette is director of communications to Champagne, working closely with deputy director of digital media Kevin Acquah and press secretary John Fragos.
Milette previously did the same for Champagne as then-innovation minister. A former lawyer with Lacoursière Lebrun avocats, Milette has been working for Champagne since 2021, starting in his office as an MP. She joined his innovation office as a communications adviser after that year’s federal election, and worked her way up to Quebec regional affairs adviser, then policy adviser, then press secretary before being made communications director this past February.
Acquah comes from the LRB where he’s been working since a 2023 summer internship, most recently as a communications and outreach adviser and videographer.
Fragos previously tackled communications for the federal employment minister under various titles—starting under then-minister Randy Boissonnault, and continuing through Liberal MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor and now-Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon’s turns in the role—and is a past press secretary to then-sport and physical activity minister Carla Qualtrough. Between 2020 and 2021, he worked as an assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Marc Miller, and joined Qualtrough’s office in 2023 after a little more than two years working as a communications specialist with ABB Canada in Montreal.
Héléna Botelho is office manager for Champagne. Botelho was previously executive assistant to Champagne as then-innovation minister, and before then did the same for then-foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau and for O’Regan as then-natural resources minister.
Hirra Majid is executive assistant to Champagne’s chief of staff, who, as previously reported, is Ian Foucher.
Majid is a former assistant to Toronto Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz, and according to her LinkedIn profile, worked on Dzerowicz’s recent successful re-election campaign in Davenport, Ont.
Wrapping up Champagne’s 19-member team—as it currently stands, at least—is ministerial driver Naran Leseigneur.
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