CCI Response to the 2022 Quebec Budget

Today, the Quebec government delivered their fourth budget , the last one before the election in October. On behalf of the province’s tech sector and CCI’s members, CCI Quebec director Pierre-Philippe Lortie issued the following response:

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“As we are coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec’s technology companies are poised to lead the economic recovery and keep spurring job creation. We had hoped that today’s budget would drive growth for the Quebec economy through its fastest-growing sectors.

This budget invests heavily into Quebec’s new Research and Innovation Strategy, and introduces new funding to support the growth of innovative companies in the province. It renews its Life Sciences Strategy and signals a desire to leverage more “made-in-Quebec” technologies to solve modern health challenges in our province. There are many details yet to be released by the government regarding these plans, but at first blush, it appears these high-level measures will support Quebec’s tech sector in the years to come.

However, despite this budget’s large investments into its research and innovation strategy, this is not a budget that goes far enough in addressing the on-the-ground challenges facing Quebec’s high-growth companies today. This budget does not adequately respond to the skilled talent shortage in the tech sector and does not pursue more substantive measures to increase pathways for highly skilled immigrants. The government could increase immigration targets to help ease the tech talent crisis, but the budget was silent on that point. We had also hoped to see meaningful reform on the Quebec multimedia tax credit to better support companies that are headquartered here in Quebec, not overseas. Instead of chasing foreign investment and measuring success in terms of job creation, our government must focus on growing the available supply of skilled talent in Quebec.

This will be the final budget before the 2022 Quebec election. CCI will continue to advocate for innovation and economic development policies that will position Quebec for the 21st century knowledge-based economy and meet the growing challenges of our members. In the months ahead, we look forward to engaging with all political parties who want to put forward policies that drive innovation and growth for Quebec and its high-growth tech sector.”

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Media Contact:

Pierre-Philippe Lortie

plortie@canadianinnovators.org

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