With its new offices, Google has more space to expand in Montreal, explains Jean-Philippe Gauthier, director of platforms and spokesperson for Google Montreal.
The company officially unveiled its new Montreal offices on Wednesday. The Californian company, which employs more than 300 people in the metropolis, could now accommodate up to 1,000 employees. It also has options that would allow it to lease more space for a longer term.
“We needed a [bâtiment] that would allow us to grow, and McGill College [la rue où étaient situés les anciens bureaux] did not allow us to grow. That’s why we moved. […] It’s a bit of a “catch 22”. If you don’t have space, it’s more difficult to convince teams around the world to come and settle here, in Montreal. »
Google Canada, however, has no difficulty recruiting, despite the scarcity of specialized labor in the technology sector, says Mr. Gauthier, who nevertheless says he devotes a lot of time to meeting potential employees.
Bill 96, which aims to reinforce the use of French in the workplace in Quebec, has not harmed recruitment efforts. Several companies in the technology sector, including the CEOs of Stingray and Coveo, had expressed their concerns. They feared that the law would discourage certain candidates in a context of labor scarcity. The language law has had no consequences for Google Canada, says Mr. Gauthier, who did not want to comment on it.
With 300 employees, Google Montreal represents a small part of the some 150,000 employees of the multinational, which, in addition to the search engine of the same name, operates the YouTube platform, cloud computing solutions and the Android operating system.