There is economy, and then there is economy. The freshly launched election campaign has enabled several parties to approach the first by promising individuals that they will have more in their pockets. As for broader policies, we risk hearing too little about them, fear Quebec entrepreneurs from the world of innovation and technology.
With five main parties in contention and the “ballot box issue” officially focused on the economy, they say it is a good time to revisit issues that have been raised in recent months but have fallen little in a vacuum, economic news looking elsewhere: productivity, full employment, intellectual property, etc.
Four digital challenges
Through the Canadian Council of Innovators (CCI) in which they participate, some twenty medium-sized and large Quebec technology companies are targeting four policies that particularly affect them: wage assistance in the form of tax credits granted for two decades to the multimedia sector , the brand new privacy law, the government’s newly revised local procurement thresholds for technological solutions and the application of the Official Language Act (ex-Bill 96) .
In the last three cases, companies are wondering when and how these new laws will be implemented and are anxious to know their impact on their activities. In the case of tax credits, which have existed for a quarter of a century, one wonders whether the changing economy of Quebec should not lead to their modernization.
“If Quebec loves its companies so much, why do we sometimes feel that it does more for foreign companies? asks CCI Director, Governments and Public Affairs, Pierre-Philippe Lortie. It is well known that the pan-Canadian organization founded by the co-inventor of the BlackBerry, Jim Balsillie, would prefer provincial policies more focused on increasing corporate profits than on raising workers’ wages.
“Right now, in techno, no new jobs are being created,” believes Mr. Lortie. “There is a displacement of talent. A computer scientist hired for twice his salary by Google, partly thanks to government assistance, is it sustainable? »
“We do not say that we have the answer”, defends the spokesman of the ICC. But he adds that times have changed and that instituting policies favoring job creation in the midst of a labor shortage is perhaps not the best way to create this wealth that would bring Quebec closer to Ontario, as outgoing Premier François Legault wishes.
“We need more declared profits in Quebec, so that the intellectual property developed here benefits people here,” concludes Mr. Lortie.
Silent parties… for now
In its requests, the ICC joins some ideas presented a few days ago.bear by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), which also represents a large group of companies and business people, but from other sectors of activity.
The CCMM asks in particular to review the immigration thresholds, because for it, part of the solution to the labor shortage necessarily involves more new workers from elsewhere. It would raise the Quebec annual threshold from 50,000 to 64,000.
She also believes that public services could perform better if they made more room for the private sector. “We believe that it would be in our interest to draw more inspiration from best practices from elsewhere in the world. And in fact, several territories know how to take better advantage of innovations from the private sector in order to improve and optimize the delivery of public services, thus allowing innovations and technologies to be at the service of sound management of public finances. , writes the CCMM.
The two corporate groups note in the process that innovation should be taken as a whole, and not sector by sector, while noting that no party offers, for the moment, answers to each of their requests. Both the CCMM and the ICC hope that there will be more in the electoral platforms expected over the next few days.
“It’s good that the start of the campaign takes place under the theme of the economy, but we are still eager to know what’s next,” concludes Pierre-Philippe Lortie. Because there are more economic issues than just taxes and debt.