Hill Climbers
A look at Industry Minister Mélanie Joly’s new team
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, who is also the minister responsible for the Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions agency, currently has a 22-member team in place in her office, including David McFarlane as director of policy.
As first noted back in June, Paul Moen is chief of staff to Joly.
It’s a return to the Hill for McFarlane, who previously worked in cabinet offices between 2016 and 2020. First hired as director of policy to then-innovation, science, and economic development minister Navdeep Bains in 2019, McFarlane briefly worked as Bains’ chief of staff. After that year’s federal election, McFarlane remained for a few months as a senior adviser before making his exit.
He’s since held a number of positions, and most recently spent the last four years as an independent director with PINQ², a non-profit organization started by the University of Sherbrooke and Quebec’s Economy, Innovation, and Energy Ministry that offers hybrid quantum computing services. McFarlane is also a past partner and senior counsel with FGS Longview, a corporate communications and public affairs firm; and, among other things, is a former vice-president of global alliances and senior adviser to the CEO of Kinova, which, as described on its website, “designs innovative robotic solutions manufactured by experts in North America to empower people and businesses.” Prior to working for Bains, McFarlane had most recently been investment director in the London, U.K., office of Investissement Québec.
Working under McFarlane are senior policy advisers Tim Logan, Yasmin Atassi, and Manuela Tomic; and policy advisers Simran Arulraj and Lisa Xie.
Logan previously worked under then-innovation, science, and industry François-Philippe Champagne, having been hired as a policy adviser in July 2024 after a roughly two-year career break spent travelling the globe. Before then, Logan had been a senior policy adviser to then-Treasury Board president Mona Fortier. A former field organizer for the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberals, the federal Liberals, and the U.K. Liberal Democrats across the pond, Logan landed his first gig on the Hill in 2020 as a British Columbia regional adviser to Bains as then-innovation minister (and stayed on briefly after Champagne took over the file in 2021). He’s since also been a policy adviser to then-digital government minister Joyce Murray.
Atassi is new to the industry file, and has spent the last roughly four years working for the federal resources minister. Starting as an intern to then-natural resources minister Seamus O’Regan over the summer of 2021, Atassi was subsequently hired as a special assistant for policy and executive assistant to O’Regan’s chief of staff—Moen, at the time. She stayed on after Liberal MP Jonathan Wilkinson took over the portfolio that fall, and was promoted to policy adviser in 2022. Most recently, she was a senior policy and Ontario regional adviser to Wilkinson as then-energy and natural resources minister. Until earlier this year, Atassi was also president of Zero Food Waste Ottawa.
Tomic comes from Joly’s old team as then-foreign affairs minister, which Tomic last joined in late 2024 as a senior adviser for consular affairs, intelligence, and exports fresh from roughly a year working as a parliamentary affairs and issues management adviser in then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office. Prior to her time in the PMO, Tomic had spent roughly a year and a half working as an assistant to Joly as foreign affairs minister. Amongst other experience, she’s also a past research co-ordinator with the McGill University Health Centre.
Arulraj was previously an Ontario and Atlantic senior regional adviser to Champagne as innovation minister, having joined his team at the start of 2024 after roughly a year as executive assistant to then-trade minister Mary Ng. Arulraj is also a former intern with Crestview Strategies, constituency assistant to Toronto Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz, and briefly worked as a research assistant with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs’ research and innovation branch.
Xie is another ex-Champagne staffer, having been hired to his innovation office as a regional adviser for the West and North in April 2024. Before then, she’d spent about six months working for then-small business minister Rechie Valdez, largely under the triple-barreled title of B.C. regional adviser, operations assistant, and executive assistant to the minister’s chief of staff. For the greater half of 2023, Xie worked in the ministers’ regional office in Vancouver—one of 16 such offices across Canada which support all of cabinet.
Like McFarlane, Ian Cameron has also relapsed and returned to the Hill, in his case as director of strategy and senior adviser to Joly after roughly two years away. Cameron was last on the Hill as director of communications to Wilkinson as then-natural resources minister, and before then was a press secretary and later senior communications adviser to O’Regan as then-resources minister. Since leaving the Hill in July 2023, Cameron has been director of communications for Power Sustainable in Montreal.
Marianne Goodwin is a recent addition to Joly’s team as director of parliamentary affairs. A veteran staffer, Goodwin was most recently a communications adviser with Natural Resources Canada, but her history on the Hill dates back to the 1990s, and includes time spent as press secretary to then-prime minister Jean Chrétien. More recently, she’s been director of issues management to then-families minister Jean-Yves Duclos. Her extensive CV also includes—in more recent years—time spent working for the Office of the Information Commissioner and the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
Currently working under Goodwin are Shaina Sharma, parliamentary affairs and issues management adviser, and Chase Knight, who is both a parliamentary affairs adviser and assistant to the minister’s parliamentary secretary, Liberal MP Karim Bardeesy.
Sharma previously did the same for Champagne as then-innovation minister, and is a former assistant to Ontario Liberal MP Iqwinder Gaheer. She’s also previously volunteered in the MP office of now-Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai, and was campaign manager for Gaheer’s successful re-election campaign in Mississauga–Malton, Ont., this past spring.
Knight is a former assistant to Ontario Liberal MP Valerie Bradford and has worked as a program administrator with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Veronique Simard is director of operations to the industry minister. She returned to working in the federal political arena this year, starting with Carney’s leadership campaign, which morphed into a role as a PMO speechwriter and French communications lead for the federal Liberal campaign, as noted on Simard’s LinkedIn profile.
Simard previously worked on the Hill between 2016 and 2020, starting as an assistant to now-Government House Leader and Transport Minister Steve MacKinnon as the MP for Gatineau, Que. Simard went on to work as executive assistant to the communications director in then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office, as press secretary to then-employment minister Patty Hajdu, and as senior communications and media relations adviser to Bains as then-innovation minister. Since then, Simard has worked in the private sector, including tackling corporate communications for Nespresso Canada, and as director of Quebec corporate affairs for Labatt Breweries.
Cédrick Devedeux Delorme is deputy director of operations. A former assistant in Joly’s office as the MP for Ahuntsic–Cartierville, Que., he was most recently director of parliamentary affairs to then-emergency preparedness minister Harjit Sajjan, and has also been assistant to the parliamentary secretary to then-emergency preparedness minister Bill Blair.
Also returned to the Hill to work for Joly is Damien O’Brien, who holds the title of senior adviser and regional adviser for Ontario. O’Brien left the Hill—and his role as director of parliamentary affairs to MacKinnon as then-labour and seniors minister—at the start of this year, and subsequently ran as the Ontario Liberal candidate in the provincial riding of Niagara Centre, ultimately placing third.
A former Ontario Liberal staffer and senior public affairs consultant with Edelman, O’Brien got his start on the Hill in 2017 as director of strategic research in the Liberal research bureau. He went on to work as a senior adviser for stakeholder relations to then-natural resources minister Amarjeet Sohi, and as director of parliamentary affairs to O’Regan as both natural resources minister and labour minister. At Queen’s Park, O’Brien worked for a number of provincial Liberal ministers, including as press secretary to then-agriculture minister Jeff Leal, and as senior adviser to then-government and consumer services minister David Orazietti.
Covering Quebec regional affairs for Joly is Cyril Nawar. Nawar is another former assistant in Joly’s MP office where he worked between 2022—starting as an intern—and 2024. Most recently, Nawar was a special assistant for parliamentary affairs in Joly’s office as foreign affairs minister.
Focused on Atlantic Canada is regional adviser Caroline Belbin, while Soha Samii tackles Western Canada.
Belbin has been on the Hill since 2024, starting with a summer internship in O’Regan’s office as then-labour and seniors minister. She was subsequently hired as a policy adviser to the office—by then under MacKinnon’s oversight—and stayed on after end-of-year cabinet changes saw MacKinnon become employment, workforce development, and labour minister, and then jobs and families minister in the first cabinet lineup Carney unveiled in March.
Samii has spent the past almost two-and-a-half years as an assistant to B.C. Liberal MP Ron McKinnon, and according to her LinkedIn profile worked as a field organizer in the province for both Carney’s leadership campaign and the federal Liberal campaign earlier this year.
Isabella Orozco-Madison is Joly’s director of communications. She worked as one of a number of Ottawa-based spokespeople for the national Liberal campaign this past spring, and subsequently spent time as a press secretary in Carney’s PMO. Orozco-Madison first began working for Joly in September 2023 when she was hired as press secretary in Joly’s office as then-foreign affairs minister, and was promoted to deputy director of communications at the start of this year. Orozco-Madison is also a former special assistant for operations in Chrystia Freeland’s office as then-foreign affairs minister, executive assistant to then-justice minister David Lametti, communications adviser to then-immigration minister Sean Fraser, and communications adviser to Freeland as then-deputy prime minister and finance minister.
Gabrielle Landry is press secretary to Joly. Hired in August, Landry spent the last roughly three years working for National Public Relations in Montreal. She went on leave from the firm earlier this year to work on Charles Milliard’s Quebec Liberal leadership campaign—a race ultimately won by former Liberal minister Pablo Rodriguez. Landry is also a member of the Quebec bar and a former lawyer with Norton Rose Fulbright, having studied law at McGill University, and interned in Lametti’s office as then-justice minister in 2018.
Also with Joly’s communications team is senior adviser Keely Hargraft. Hargraft first began working for Joly in late 2023 as a parliamentary affairs and issues management adviser in Joly’s office as then-foreign affairs minister, and previously did the same for then-Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario minister Filomena Tassi.
Senior special assistants Tiana Thomas and Sara Larcher fill the function of executive assistant to Joly and chief of staff Moen, respectively.
Thomas has previously been executive assistant to Lametti and his chief of staff as then-justice minister. Larcher used to be an operations and executive assistant to the chief of staff in Champagne’s innovation office.
Finally, there’s Steve Desjardins as ministerial driver and senior special assistant. Desjardins’ CV includes previously serving as driver to then-transport minister Marc Garneau.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Sept. 26 to correct and add some details regarding staffers David McFarlane, Chase Knight, Caroline Belbin, Isabella Orozco-Madison, and Gabrielle Landry. It also has added mention of Marianne Goodwin as director of parliamentary affairs.
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