For the Quebec tech and innovation ecosystem, the upcoming provincial fall session is key

By Pierre-Philippe Lortie, CCI Director of government affairs for Quebec

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The upcoming parliamentary session in Quebec will be significant for two reasons: First, it will present several initiatives that are important for the innovation ecosystem, and second it is the last session before the countdown to the next election scheduled in November 2022.

The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), in collaboration with the Quebec innovation ecosystem, will want to make sure that the Quebec government puts forward specific initiatives that will accelerate our economic recovery and support our SMEs to scale domestically and abroad.

When the session begins on Sept. 14, I’ll be watching five key items which will impact the Quebec innovation ecosystem:

1. Bill 64 on data privacy passed the clause-by-clause portion of the legislative process during the last session, but it still needs to receive final adoption this fall. As we highlighted in our report on Bill 64 last Spring, we believe that the Quebec government should rally to international standards that have proven their worth rather than going it alone at the risk of creating obligations that contradict what is done elsewhere in the world, to the detriment of Quebec companies doing business with other Canadian provinces and abroad. When Bill 64 passes, our scale-up tech CEOs want to be reassured that they will be able to continue to grow their business not only in Quebec but in all the jurisdictions in which they manage data.

2. One of the key priorities of the Legault government is to increase the usage of French in all spheres of the economy. Bill 96 — An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec— is the government’s most important bill for the fall session, and it has the potential to greatly impact tech companies. Most important for our members, the bill introduces new measures aimed at ensuring the prevalence of French in workplaces by requiring all companies with 25 to 49 employees in Québec to predominantly use French in your daily business. On behalf of tech companies, CCI wants assurances that the government will be creating incentives for French usage, rather than simply relying on heavy-handed enforcement and fines. The CCI will present its report on Bill 96 in the coming month.

3. We are not expecting legislation, but CCI will be closely monitoring the status of the Quebec Intellectual Property (IP) strategy which is part of the fall political agenda. In April of this year, the Quebec government launched Axelys, the organization mandated to define the upcoming IP strategy for the province. We are eager to see how Axelys can collaborate with Quebec SMEs and grow the tech ecosystem and prioritize IP as an economic driver.

4. Talent strategy — Quebec is facing a massive talent shortage, and the Legault government recognizes that this is a serious challenge for the economy. One of the key recommendations CCI has put forward to address the talent shortage is for Quebec to increase the co-op opportunities in technology programs in higher education institutions. In fact, we are calling for Québec to adopt a policy that would make it mandatory for every student graduating from engineering and information technology programs to go through some sort of co-op placement for real-world job experience. We are looking forward to working closely with the government on this pressing issue.

5. Quebec research and innovation strategy (SQRI) — The Quebec government will organize an Innovation Summit in November where it will highlight the key elements that will be included in the upcoming Quebec research and innovation strategy (SQRI). Last spring, CCI Quebec presented several recommendations for what the SQRI should include. We believe that the SQRI should play a key role in addressing the talent shortage, and when it’s implemented, there should be funding to help Quebec companies attract, train, and retain the skilled workers they need to grow.

On behalf of our members, and all innovators in Quebec, CCI will be watching the fall political agenda closely. These five items will be important, but more broadly, we want policymakers to understand that innovative scaling companies are a vital part of our economic recovery.

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