Visit by Gabriel Attal | Announcements that primarily benefit the French market

Quebec is home to several hundred French subsidiaries, but the opposite phenomenon occurred during the visit of the Prime Minister of France to Quebec territory. Gabriel Attal returns home with commitments numbering in the tens of millions, while the Quebec harvest is less significant. The return of the pendulum should arrive later.

This diplomatic visit coincided with the announcement of several expansion projects on both sides of the Atlantic, but it is France which reaps the lion’s share. Among other things, the Quebec medical equipment supplier Medicom will “soon” inaugurate a new protective glove factory in the French market, an investment of 145 million.

For its part, Lallemand, a specialist in the development, production and marketing of yeasts and bacteria, will invest around 30 million to increase production at its French factories, that of La Ferté-sous-Jouarre and that of ‘Aurillac.

Another Quebec company, Loop Industries, which says it has designed a chemical process allowing it to recycle plastic waste such as bottles and packaging, must also participate in a factory project in the French market, in collaboration with the giants Suez and Sk Geo Cenric.

The investment is estimated at 800 million, but we do not know what will be put on the table by Loop. Construction of the complex has not yet started. However, the harvest is much smaller on the Quebec side. Sopra Steria, a French IT company, will set up in Montreal to develop a specialized niche in aeronautics. The size of the investment is not specified. Integrator of industrial solutions, eXent arrived in the metropolis last fall to set up an office, a 3 million project spread over three years.

That said, an Exaion project is a bit more important. This firm specializing in digital solutions will spend 25 million over five years in Sherbrooke, as part of a data center project.

However, the roles could be reversed in the coming months. According to a government source, who is not authorized to speak publicly, certain announcements concerning projects by French companies in Quebec were not disclosed since all the details were not finalized. It’s only a postponement, we explain, behind the scenes.

“We will work together”

Several representatives of the business community also argued on Friday that the door is open to French companies wishing to establish themselves in Quebec, during a round table organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM).

“We want to encourage French companies to come and see us. There are already some, particularly in the battery sector, but if you have projects, we will work together,” indicated the vice-president for development of the living environment and partnerships at the Innovation Zone of the Valley of the energy transition, Michèle Landry.

This zone, the third in Quebec, is located between Bécancour, Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan. Last year, it benefited from a government investment of 8 million to carry out seven infrastructure and research projects. Its objective is essentially to bring together companies working on decarbonization.

“There is still land left,” she replied, when asked about the availability of land. “We hear that land is less and less available in Bécancour. Of course some have been caught, but there are still some. And there is openness to welcoming other businesses,” continued M.^me Landry.

A deep-rooted bond

Despite the disparity between the projects planned in France and Quebec, business links between France and Montreal demonstrate a certain vigor.

There are more than 380 French branches in the greater metropolitan region, according to Montréal International, which represents 16% of the number of foreign branches in this market and 45,600 employees. Giants like Ubisoft, Thales and Airbus have been well established for years.

Last year, the economic promotion agency supported 20 projects in the Montreal region which represented investments of approximately 625 million, according to data which was compiled as part of Mr. Attal’s visit to Quebec.

The president of the board of directors of the French banking giant Société Générale, Francis Repka, for his part recalled that 75% of French companies that establish themselves in Canada come first to Quebec. “There are governments, but ultimately, it is the companies that choose their framework,” he recalled.

In his eyes, the fact that Gabriel Attal chose Canada and Quebec for his first trip outside Europe as Prime Minister also sends “a very strong signal” that must be heard, on the one hand like the other. “It is an opportunity to look with a new and, above all, responsible eye at economic development between Quebec and France,” he said.