Quebecers are known worldwide for the creativity and inventiveness that fuel their entrepreneurial spirit. That creativity knows no borders; it permeates every industry and everything they do. It inspires their top talent and is a big part of the reason why so major international companies here prosper.
A unique synergy between the arts, design, high tech and science has materialized in Québec. What’s more, businesses have forged solid partnerships with the province’s colleges and universities, fostering an outpouring of creative energy in the workplace and at school.
Céline Dion, Robert Lepage, Jean-Marc Vallée, Xavier Dolan, Denis Villeneuve, Cirque du Soleil, Moment Factory and Arcade Fire, to name just a few, are internationally recognized Québec artists whose creations have travelled the globe.
Montréal is known as a city for fashion and is one of UNESCO’s Cities of Design, whose ranks include Berlin, Shanghai and several others.
Québec is also where many well-known scientists, including Judes Poirier, Yoshua Bengio and Karim Zaghid, are conducting groundbreaking research in their fields.
As the birthplace of such 3D animation pioneers as Softimage
and Autodesk
, Québec is home to world-famous game publishers and highly innovative production studios. Eidos
, Electronic Arts
, Ubisoft
and Warner
are a few of the inventive companies operating here.
It’s not enough for Québec to be a dominant player in the global aerospace industry: we want to be tops!
In keeping with that ambition and working from a perspective of sustainable development, a number of major companies including Bell Helicopter Textron Canada ,
Héroux-Devtek , Esterline
and Thales Canada
are combining their forces to develop smarter, more effective and more efficient technologies while reducing the aerospace industry’s environmental footprint.
An innovative spirit is a great asset in science too! AngioChem
, GSK Biologicals
, Merck
, Pfizer
, Norda Stelo
and a number of other leaders in pharmaceuticals and contractual research are choosing to invest in Québec.
Industrial partnerships, clinical testing, local investment funds and the scientific expertise of its research facilities are some of the advantages that make Québec so attractive to international pharmaceutical companies.
Montréal was named one of the world’s top 10 cities for students, according to the 2019 Best Student Cities
index prepared by the British firm QS. What defines the best student cities? Along with outstanding and reputed universities, other factors include quality of life, employment prospects, student life and affordability. In its 2019 rankings, QS looked at these key factors and a series of indicators to compare 120 cities in 51 countries.
By investing heavily in education at the elementary, secondary and postsecondary levels, Québec has developed an outstanding education system and achieved one of the highest enrollment and graduation rates in OECD countries .
Québec’s network of universities and research centres is spread strategically across the province and includes seven prestigious universities dispensing programs in French or English. The university network does more than just train the workforce of tomorrow, however: it also plays a long-standing role in fostering university-industry cooperation.