Québec

Dynamic and Diverse

A strategic location between Europe and the Americas, Québec offers an abundance and variety of natural resources, highly-skilled, multilingual workers, a vibrant cultural community and an exceptionally high quality of life. Add to these advantages Québec ’s steadfast commitment to R&D, and you have one of the country’s most innovative economies, with high technology industries and ‘green’ energy increasing prosperity in the 21st century.

Business Environment

• GDP of CDN $301 billion in 2008, 60% generated by the service sector
• GDP per person 18th in the OECD, comparable to Germany and Italy , surpassing Spain
• Tax rates on business profits among the lowest in North America
• Tax incentives and labour force assistance and training programs ($2.5 billion annually)
• Exports account for 33% of GDP , with 72% of international exports shipped to the US
• Access to NAFTA market of over 440 million consumers
• A market of 110 million consumers within a 1000 km radius
• Within a 600 mile radius of Boston , New York , Washington and Detroit
• #1 exporter of newsprint, 2nd largest magnesium producer and 4th largest aluminum producer in the world
• The St. Lawrence Seaway offers easy access to the industrial heart of North America

Workforce

• Highly-educated workforce—19 universities produce 65,000 graduates annually
• 85% of workers have post-secondary or more , 22% a university degree
• Highly bilingual and multilingual workforce—40% speak French and English; 13% speak a third language

Other Key Advantages

• Quebec ranks among the 10 most important health sciences industrial pools in North America. As a proof, the ten largest pharmaceutical companies in the world have operations in Quebec: Canadian head office, fundamental R&D or manufacturing facilities.
• Nearly half of the Canadian biopharmaceutical industry and most of the basic and clinical research activities are concentrated in Quebec
• Over 62% of overall Canadian aerospace industry production takes place in Québec
• Internationally, the Greater Montréal region is considered one of the major world centres for aeronautics, on the same level as Seattle, Wichita and Toulouse
• Montréal also has one of the highest concentrations of high-tech jobs in North America along with San Francisco, Seattle and Boston
• Clean energy producer supplying electricity to other parts of Canada and the US
• R&D spending—2.7% of GDP—is the highest in Canada and higher than the average of the OECD, the G7 and the European Union. Furthermore, Québec’s objective is to invest 3% of GDP in R&D by 2010
• Over 200 specialized university R&D centres—McGill is the Canadian university awarded the most patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office
• Private and public capital to fund investment projects
• Efficient road and rail networks and airport infrastructure
• 110 international financial centres
• Montreal Stock Exchange a Canadian hub for financial risk management and a significant partner in specialized markets in North America
• Home of the Canadian Space Agency

Sector Strengths

• Aerospace
• Agriculture & Agri-food
• Automotive & Ground Transportation Equipment
• Biopharmaceuticals
• Construction
• Energy (hydro-electric & wind)
• Environment
• Forestry
• Financial Services
• Genomics
• Information & Communications Technologies
• Information Technologies & Software
• Light Metals
• Microelectronics
• Mining
• Multimedia
• Textiles
• Tourism

Look Who's Investing in Québec

• A2M
• Abbott Laboratories
• Activision (Beenox)
• Airborne Mobile
• Alcoa
• Anapharm
• AstraZeneca
• Bell Helicopter Textron
• Boehringer Ingelheim
• Bombardier
• Bombardier Aerospace
• Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Cato Research Canada
• CGI
• Charles River Laboratories
• Covance
• CSC
• Danone
• Dassault Systèmes
• Eidos
• Electronic Arts
• Ericsson Research Canada
• Esterline/CMC Electronics
• Forensic Technology
• Frito-Lay
• GE Canada
• Héroux-Devtek
• IBM
• Johnson & Johnson
• Kraft
• Laboratoires ITR
• Lockheed Martin
• Matrox
• MDA Corporation
• MDA Space
• MDS Pharma Services
• Merck Frosst
• Messier-Dowty
• Nestlé
• Paccar
• Pfizer
• PMC-Sierra
• Positron
• Pratt & Whitney Canada
• Rio Tinto Alcan
• Rolls-Royce Canada
• SR Telecom
• Thales Avionics
• Ubisoft
• Volvo (NovaBus, Prevost Car)
• Wavesat Telecom
• Wyeth

Visit the Competitive Advantages page for more information on the Centres of Excellent and Innovation found in Québec.