Lamarre received a Bachelor of Appled Sciences in Civil Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal in 1952. He received a Master of Science degree from Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1955. He started work as a soil mechanics engineer with the firm of Lalonde & Valois eventually becoming president and chief executive officer of the firm now called Lavalin Group. He was president of "Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec" from 1993 to 1997.