On a recent mission to Washington, DC and New York City, Québec Premier François Legault paid a visit to the New York head office of Collective[i] to announce that the company would soon open a business centre in Montréal. Thanks to the drawing power of its artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, Québec’s largest city has become the top choice of business leaders.
As the creator of one of the largest international intelligent data networks putting AI to work for sales teams around the world, Collective[i] is looking to expand. It expects to create some 30 jobs in Montréal by 2020.
During the mission, the Premier also took part in talks with the heads of numerous large companies based in New York City. Several of them, including AVAIO Capital and MasterCard, are in contact with Investissement Québec’s New York office and other teams in its International Affairs Division. The aim of the meetings was to move ahead on start-up projects and reinvestments in existing Québec subsidiaries.
Mr. Legault met with representatives of the multinational Citigroup, among others, and outlined the beneficial conditions that Québec is able to offer a large bank seeking to pursue its technological transformation. He also visited the offices of Blackstone, a subsidiary of which is working with Hydro-Québec on a transmission line project that is expected to deliver Québec power to New York City.
Mr. Legault also paid a visit to the head office of Morgan Stanley, which announced that it would be continuing to diversify its operations in Montréal, specifically in AI. He concluded with a visit to Facebook, which has had an AI research lab in Montréal since 2017. Mr. Legault spoke about Québec’s many advantages to encourage the company to expand its operations in the province.
In addition to promoting Québec-made intelligent transportation and AI solutions, Mr. Legault held up Québec as a partner of choice for New York government agencies seeking to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. “Québec has the potential to become North America’s top supplier of green energy, and it makes me proud to see a city like New York recognize that fact,” said Mr. Legault. “As we have always said, the greatest contribution that Québec can make in the fight against climate change is to export its hydropower.”
It was in that spirit that Mr. Legault met with the Mayor of New York City’s right-hand man to lay the foundation for a possible collaboration. During their conversation, he reiterated that Québec energy is clean, reliable and affordable, and that Québec is well positioned to contribute to the city’s efforts to decarbonize.
In a speech to the Foreign Policy Association, Mr. Legault announced his intention to bring about a dramatic increase in U.S. investments in Québec thanks to a favourable financial and fiscal environment, as well as to boost Québec exports to the U.S.
A recap of some of Québec’s many advantages:
Read more:
An Electrifying Partnership for Hydro-Québec and Investissement Québec
Productivité innovation website (in French only)
Compétivert(in French only)