Pâquet left provincial politics in 1883 following a severe injury suffered while inspecting forest cuts with federal MP Joseph Bolduc, and was subsequently named sheriff of Quebec County, a post he kept until 1890. He dabbled in various commercial ventures: the aforementioned wood commerce, the Lévis and Kennebec Railway (auctioned off in 1881 to the Quebec Central Railway) and the Quebec Mining Co. among others. He ran as a conservative for Lévis and was defeated in the 1891 federal election. From 1894 to his death on 23 May 1916, he was the Quebec City postmaster. He is buried in the Saint-Nicolas parish cemetery.
