He graduated with a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University and earned a diploma in sociology at the Université catholique de Louvain.
[1] Payne moved to Quebec in 1971 to become the Directeur Général du Centre d'accueil des immigrants.
He was elected to the provincial legislature as the Member for the new district of Vachon in 1981, but was defeated in 1985 and 1989, only to be re-elected (with strong majorities) in 1994 and 1998.
He was appointed Secretary General of Environnement 2000, a government supported agency preparing policies towards the Rio Summit later that year.
As the only anglophone in the PQ caucus at the time, he was a frequent guest on Canadian television and radio media concerning Quebec constitutional and language affairs.