Ouellet was born in Riviere-du-Loup, Québec as son of Charles Eugene and Antonia Dubé.
He worked as a naturalist at Point Pelee National Park and joined the Redpath Museum, McGill University in 1965.
Cameron and received a doctorate in 1977 for work on the biosystematics and ecology of hairy and downy woodpeckers.
In 1977 he succeeded W. Earl Godfrey as curator of bird at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa where he worked as an assistant.
He was involved in the standardization of French names for North American birds along with Michel Gosselin.