The next three decades, however, proved to be a daunting period for the province as many of the mature industries it had traditionally depended upon began a long process of restructuring and contraction.

In recent years, however, Quebec seems to have emerged from these difficult times and now appears to be prepared to position itself as being an international center of excellence in knowledge-based industries.

A combination of brainpower, capital and entrepreneurial spirit are coming together to drive the growth of new industries such as life sciences, aerospace and information technology. At the same time, these forces are also helping to reinvent more traditional sectors, including the pulp and paper industry.

Recent economic indicators seem to suggest that relatively speaking, knowledge-based industries in Quebec have been growing impressively.

During the first quarter of 2003, for example, Quebec companies attracted 54 percent of all Canadian venture capital investment, despite that the province is home to only about one-quarter of the Canadian population.

Quebec’s thriving biotech and life sciences sector is a major contributing factor to this success. During the first three months of the year, 110 Quebec companies active in this sector received some form of new investment.

When all factors are considered, Quebec offers a compelling business case to attract new investment to its knowledge-based industries.

Costs of doing business in the province are among the lowest in North America, and it has an abundance of well-educated and skilled workers.

In addition, many knowledge-based industries in Quebec have benefited handsomely from some of the most generous tax and fiscal incentives available anywhere in the world.

Perhaps more than anything else, however, emerging industries in Quebec can attribute much of their rapid growth to the presence of an exceptionally good research and development infrastructure.

Quebec is home to several world-class universities that enjoy international recognition for leading-edge research in their fields.

The work that is done within these academic institutions is further complemented by work performed by several top-notch private research organizations.

Plus, several municipalities have also created high-tech industrial parks. These organizations serve as important catalysts for research.

Quebec City

One region that has combined all of these assets in an effective fashion, is Quebec City, the provincial capital and the second-largest city in Quebec.

The city is home to Laval University, an institution that traces its roots back to the 17th century, and also to several other leading research organizations.

In 1988, recognizing the potential that knowledge-based industries had to offer, the Quebec Metro High Technology Park (QMHTP) was established. Located in the northwest corner of the city, the QMHTP is currently populated by more than 90 companies and is rapidly becoming a magnet for attracting new investment to the region.

Research activity in QMHTP is concentrated in six sectors: optics and photonics, biofood and biomedical products, high performance materials, environmental technology, information technology, and forest products and wood technology. One of the most important organizations in the QMHTP is the Institut National d’Optique (INO), which is known for its work in optics and phononics.

Last year, the QMHTP took an important step forward with the signing of a collaborative agreement with the Louvain-la-Neuve Science Park in Belgium. The two parks share many of the same areas of expertise, and the agreement will give the QMHTP an important foothold in continental Europe.

Another highly regarded research organization in Quebec City is the Centre Hospitalier Université Laval (CHUL) research center. Closely affiliated with Laval University, the mandate of the CHUL research center is to conduct work related to important healthcare issues.

CHUL, one of North America’s largest health sciences research organizations, employs nearly 1,200 professional and support staff. Research at CHUL is organized into 14 different groups, each of which focuses on a topical healthcare challenge.

During the past three decades, CHUL has undergone several progressive expansions that have greatly enhanced its ability to conduct groundbreaking research.

As a result, the center’s achievements have grown dramatically in terms of both numbers and significance. The statistics tell a clear story of success.

During the past 30 years, research funding at CHUL has grown more than tenfold, from $3 million (Canadian) in 1974 to more than $50 million today. During the same period, the number of articles published by CHUL researchers in scientific journals increased from 76 to 404, and the number of conference presentations jumped from 119 to 774.

Researchers at CHUL have made noteworthy contributions in a number of areas — among other things, the center has been responsible for important advances used in the treatment of prostate and breast cancer, and has developed new tests to screen infants for genetic diseases that are now used in a number of different countries.

One development on the horizon is a $46 million (Canadian) project to construct a new genomics laboratory at CHUL.

Montreal

The most significant concentration of R&D activity in Quebec is found in Montreal, the province’s largest city and a metropolis with a population of nearly 4 million people.

Home to four world-class research universities, Montreal has the largest number of college students per capita of any North American city, and in 2001 the city’s post-secondary institutions had 23,000 students enrolled in programs relating to life sciences. Montreal also ranks third among North American cities in terms of the number of life sciences jobs per capita.

During the past six years, Montreal’s life sciences sector has enjoyed rapid growth, thanks in part to about 50 major private sector investments adding up to $1.3 billion (Canadian).

The city has also benefited from an additional $500 million in new investment in public facilities, including the McGill University Health Sciences Complex, currently under construction.

By 2010, it is estimated that an additional 16,000 new jobs will be created in Montreal’s life sciences industry, bringing total employment in that field to 40,000.

A key hub of activity in the life sciences field is the Montreal suburb of Laval, located about 20 miles northwest of downtown Montreal. Now home to more than 80 companies that are involved in the life sciences field, Laval is working to position itself as being Canada’s leading biotech city.

To achieve this goal, the city launched the BIOPOLE initiative in 2001. BIOPOLE is designed to aggressively recruit new investment. More than $100 million in new private and institutional investment has been confirmed during the past two years.

R&D activity in Laval will also take an important step forward when the new National Experimental Biology Centre (EBC) opens this year. The EBC will be the largest facility of its kind in Canada, and its work will focus particular attention on the development of new kinds of vaccines.

Another big driver of R&D activity in the Montreal region is the aerospace industry. Currently, Montreal ranks second only to Seattle in terms of its importance as a global center of activity in aerospace, and the city is home to major facilities operated by several international aerospace companies, including Pratt & Whitney, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, Bell Helicopter Textron and Rolls Royce.

The aerospace industry supports nearly 40,000 jobs in the Montreal region, and each year Quebec’s aerospace companies register total exports valued at about $10 billion (Canadian).

A 2002 KPMG study identified Montreal as being the most cost-effective location in North America for operating an aerospace company, and the city is the only place in the world where all of the components required to manufacture an aircraft can be accessed within a 20-mile radius.

Collectively, the 130 companies located in the Montreal area spend $500 million annually R&D. One of the leading contributors to R&D activity is Pratt & Whitney Canada.

Located in the suburb of Longueuil, Pratt & Whitney Canada is one of the largest employers in Montreal and currently ranks second among privately held Canadian companies in terms of the size of its R&D expenditures.

Another big player is the aerospace division of Montreal transportation conglomerate Bombardier, which has certified a new aircraft design every year since 1992.

Montreal’s universities and colleges work in very close partnership with the aerospace industry, and currently the city has 7,500 students enrolled in programs related to the field. Five Quebec universities recently combined forces to develop a new Master’s program in Aerospace Engineering, which has been geared toward the technical needs of the industry.

Also playing an important role is the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec (CRIAQ), a newly formed network that is intended to facilitate collaborative research involving participation by the engineering faculties in Quebec universities and major companies in the province’s aerospace industry.

Trois-Rivières

A hundred miles to the south of Quebec City lies Trois-Rivières, a thriving community of 126,000 and the third-largest city in the province. It is an important center of Quebec’s pulp and paper industry.

Pulp and paper accounts for about 30 percent of the Trois-Rivières employment base, and research being done in the region is helping to transform the industry and significantly strengthen its global competitiveness.

Leading the way in this effort is the Université du Quebec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), a small but dynamic institution.

UQTR operates the Pulp and Paper Research Centre, which focuses its attention on a number of issues that are key for the industry, including process improvement, bleaching, papermaking, surface treatment of paper and paperboard, utilization of byproducts and environmental management.

Researchers at UQTR examine both fundamental and applied issues that pertain to the technological processes involved in the operations of modern-day paper mills.

Among other accomplishments, they were some of the first university researchers in the world to study the de-inking of wastepaper at a time when recycling was starting to become an important issue for the industry.

The Pulp and Paper Research Centre works in close partnership with many of the industry’s leading companies, including Abitibi-Consolidated, Cascades, Donohue, Kruger and Tembec.

Michael Kennedy is a freelance writer based in Toronto.