Innovation to drive a strong Quebec economic recovery

By Pierre Philippe Lortie, Director of Government & Public Affairs ~ Quebec

Since CCI established our presence in Québec in 2018, our members have asked the government for one very simple thing: let’s unite our efforts to build a stronger Québec for the 21st century economy. This is why in December we were pleased to see the creation of a provincial advisory council on innovation and commercialization, and the appointment of a Chief Innovator for Québec, vesting Luc Sirois and the group with the responsibility of building out a new policy framework that increases Québec’s innovation outputs.

One of the key priorities for this council and Mr. Sirois will need to be finding ways to address the barriers to growth for Québec’s fastest-growing firms in the post-pandemic economy. This means helping companies access highly skilled talent, access growth capital, and access new customers — both here in Québec and around the world.

In our recent pre-budget submission to Finance Minister Éric Girard, we also outlined the need for sophisticated strategies to drive the commercialization of Canadian ideas through our most innovative companies. This includes a new provincial intellectual property (IP) strategy that would be aimed at helping Québec create and retain more IP as they expand their businesses globally.

In the innovation economy, IP and other intangible assets are the most critical sources of economic advantage for firms and economies. In 2020, more than 91% of the value in the S&P 500 came from intangible assets. Moreover, as the pandemic continues to drive a wave of digitization, intangible assets like patents and algorithms will only become more valuable.

Innovation experts expect that Canada’s post-pandemic economy will be driven by the companies that perform the research, development, and commercialization of new ideas and technologies, and new tools are needed from Québec City to support these companies.

With all the recent momentum on the innovation file in Quebec, we’re hopeful that when Minister Girard tables his budget next week, the government will continue to see Quebec’s innovation sector as drivers of future prosperity in the province.

To learn more about CCI’s advocacy in Quebec, please get in touch with me at plortie@canadianinnovators.org.