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The Economic Development Strategy
The City has undertaken the development of a Stratégie de développement économique (Economic Development Strategy), slated for adoption before the end of 2004. This project follows a consensus reached at the June 2002 Montréal Summit, where it was identified as a priority.
The City would like to assume a new role, larger and more dynamic, required by the evolution of its environment. Creating a competitive business market and supporting the transformation of the economic structure and the development of companies are objectives for every metropolis in North America working to keep pace with market forces.
The strategy identifies interventions to be pursued by the Ville de Montréal which will offer concrete support to specific enterprises and the wider business community, pursue the support of other levels of government, reinforce its many partnerships and help it fully and actively participate in the economic development organizations of which it is a member.
A vision of Montréal’s economic position
- Montréal, an international metropolis, a city of knowledge and innovation, oriented towards technology, a metropolis of culture and a festive city where people want to live and do business.
Main strategies:
- Reinforce Montréal as a metropolis of knowledge and innovation, the only way to maintain a dynamic, wealth-creating economy.
- Support the development of strategic sectors of the economy, particularly those working in new technologies.
- Encourage productivity growth in companies.
- Reinforce Montréal’s outreach as a city of culture, supporting the creators and industries of culture and entertainment.
- Maintain a high level of quality and safety throughout the Centre and the City’s boroughs.
- Make Montréal a city that is open for business.
Main objectives:
- Improve the standard of living: Be among North America’s leading cities in this matter by 2025.
- Accelerate the growth and improve the quality of life by establishing partnerships with other governments to:
- invest in infrastructure to accelerate the pace of economic growth;
- share the revenues created by growth;
- ensure continued growth with continual reinvestment.
Main intervention priorities:
The City’s action plan is centered on five priorities, each of which lead to a set of measures to be implemented over a three-year timespan:
- Montréal, a city open for business
- An accelerated enhancement of assets
- A business support network
- Support for strategic sectors
- Promotion of Montréal’s advantages
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Dynamic, accessible and diversified employment areas
The City is taking the necessary measures and acquiring the appropriate means to support the adaptation of its economy and therefore increase the competitiveness of the metropolis. After losing many jobs in the traditional manufacturing industries over the past decades, Montréal is making major gains in several sectors of the knowledge economy, notably in business services, medium- and high-tech manufacturing as well as in arts and media. The preparation of a Stratégie de développement économique (Economic Development Strategy) seeks to support the development and diversification of the economy in order to increase the collective wealth and improve Montrealers’ quality of life.
In accordance with this Strategy, the Master Plan recognizes the increasing role that the quality of the urban setting plays in retaining and attracting businesses. In this respect, Montréal’s main assets are the Central Business District’s prestige as a place of meeting and exchange, the dynamism of its institutions, particularly in the field of research and the quality and diversity of the industrial and residential areas of the City. Whether by improving the living environment or developing the Centre’s assets, the Master Plan provides for various actions that will contribute to Montréal’s economic development.
The Plan sets forth three objectives that relate more specifically to the development of employment areas.
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Consolidate employment areas by attracting dynamic firms and improving transportation links
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Diversify and reinforce activities at the Centre’s periphery in order to support a more intensive use of existing infrastructure
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Promote the development of major institutional employment areas while ensuring their integration with the urban fabric.
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Actions aimed at developing the Central Business District and Montréal’s Centre more generally, which form the main employment node of the City, are covered in Objective 5.
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