CCI’s Québec Priorities for Fall 2024

By Jean-François Harvey
CCI Director of Québec Affairs

After a busy summer, Québec’s National Assembly got back to work on September 10. Just before that, Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced he was stepping away from politics, and Christine Fréchette took over as Minister of Economy, Innovation, and Energy. Fitzgibbon had held the role since the CAQ came into power in 2018 and was a strong voice for Québec’s innovators. We’re excited to work with Minister Fréchette and continue the strong relationship we had with Fitzgibbon and his team.

Here are the four key areas we hope to discuss with Minister Fréchette and her government colleagues this fall:

Review of Fiscal and Budgetary Expenditures

In the 2024 budget, Finance Minister Eric Girard announced plans to review all fiscal and budgetary expenditures to make government actions more efficient. So far, we’ve heard little about this process, and it seems there won’t be any consultations. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the government’s fall fiscal update to see when and how this review will take shape. Given its scale, we believe stakeholders should be involved.
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Québec Public Procurement Strategy

At CCI, we declared 2024 as “the year of procurement.” We’ve published two reports—Buying Ideas and Building Winners—that emphasize how procurement can be a powerful economic development tool. It’s not just about buying everyday items like staplers. Procurement, when used properly, can drive the private sector to develop new solutions.

In 2022, Québec rolled out its Government Public Procurement Strategy, with one goal being to use public procurement to drive innovation. So far, this area has seen the least progress. The government’s own analysis shows only 13 public organizations have tested measures to promote innovation, far from the goal of 52. We’ll continue working with the public procurement team to push this strategy forward.
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Québec Innovation Research and Investment Strategy(2022-2027)

Two years ago, the government launched its innovation strategy, aiming to cut the productivity gap between Québec and Ontario in half by 2027. A key part of this is better commercialization of research. The government created Axelys to handle this, and after two years of laying the groundwork, we’re hoping for concrete actions from Axelys this fall. With economic growth challenges on the rise, Axelys’ role is critical. CCI will continue collaborating to help shape a strong intellectual property strategy for Québec’s innovators.
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Law 14

Some aspects of Law 14 still pose challenges for Québec’s tech sector. While we understand the importance of preserving the French language, we believe it’s possible to do so without hindering economic development. Law 14, as it stands, adds more administrative burden on businesses, and we’ll keep pushing for a better balance that supports innovation while protecting the French language.

As we move into the fall, CCI remains committed to supporting Québec’s innovators and working closely with government officials to address these key priorities facing Quèbec’s fastest-growing companies.

CCI cares deeply about ensuring Québec’s innovation ecosystem remains competitive and our businesses are supported by policies foster growth, development, and success as they scale-up globally.

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Jean-François Harvey leads CCI’s Québec bureau and works closely with local innovators to shape economic strategies that help home grown companies access more of the talent, capital and customers they need to scale globally. He can be reached at jfharvey@canadianinnovators.org.

To learn more about CCI’s priorities in Quèbec, download our 2025 Mémoire prébudgétaire.

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About the Council of Canadian Innovators

The Council of Canadian Innovators is a national member-based organization reshaping how governments across Canada think about innovation policy, and supporting homegrown scale-ups to drive prosperity. Established in 2015, CCI represents and works with over 150 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies. Our members are the CEOs, founders, and top senior executives behind some of Canada’s most successful ‘scale-up’ companies. All our members are job and wealth creators, investors, philanthropists, and experts in their fields of healthtech, cleantech, fintech, cybersecurity, AI and digital transformation. Companies in our portfolio are market leaders in their verticals, commercialize their technologies in over 190 countries, and generate between $10M-$750M in annual recurring revenue. We advocate on their behalf for government strategies that increase their access to skilled talent, strategic capital, and new customers, as well as expanded freedom to operate for their global pursuits of scale.