The Quebec economy – and more broadly the global economy – faces multiple challenges: climate crisis, supply issues, labor shortages, inflation, etc. Although Quebec is rich in resources, know-how and expertise, an exercise to structure and plan actions and to develop industrial activities is now on the agenda.
Industrial policy: the missing link in Quebec’s industrial and economic development
At the Summit on Industrial Policies organized by the Smart Prosperity Institute on October 27, 2022, Charles F. Sabel, an American academic and professor of law and social sciences at Columbia Law School, defined an industrial policy as follows:
“ “Industrial policy refers to measures that reorient economic activity to solve urgent social problems, such as decarbonizing the economy, accelerating economic growth or achieving shared prosperity, which the market, left to its own devices, will not be able to solve.”
Each element of this definition echoes the capabilities of Quebec’s electric and intelligent transportation ecosystem (TEI).
- Environmental aspect: in 2019, total GHG emissions in Quebec amounted to 84.3 Mt CO2 eq. Transport is responsible for 43.3%1, 36.5 Mt of CO2 — the weight of six Great Pyramids of Giza!
- Economic aspect: in 2021, the electric and intelligent transportation (TEI) sector posted revenues of CA$3.3 billion2, an increase of +300% compared with 2016.
In addition to benefiting Quebec’s environmental record, the electric and intelligent transition of land transport would provide a positive contribution to the province’s economy and, more specifically, theQuebec trade balanceas well as Quebec’s workforce from our sector for sustainable careers. In 2019, oil imports accounted for 48% of its deficit. Conversely, Hydro-Québec’s profits, including electric vehicle charging, are redistributed to the Quebec government for the development of public services. A virtuous loop!
Ambition TEI 2030, a collective momentum
As early as 2019, members of Propulsion Québec expressed a clear need forstructure and planning of our ecosystem’s actionsfor the years to come in order to promote the growth and development of Quebec projects and organizations in sustainable mobility. With this in mind, Propulsion Québec created a map of Quebec’s TEI ecosystem, completed an international analysis of global mobility trends, drew up a list of Quebec’s strengths and weaknesses and governmental ambitions (Canada, Quebec, Montreal, United States) by working hand in hand in workshops with more than a hundred ecosystem players to identify the most promising and high-potential niches in electric and intelligent transportation. The result of two years of work, the cluster made this industrial policy public last June 23:Ambition TEI 2030”, intended for TEI and built around8 major strategic themes.
Thanks to the 225 concrete initiatives deployed over the next 8 years, this TEI roadmap, a true industrial policy for our ecosystem, will enable Quebec toaccelerate its efforts to combat climate change, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to transport, in addition to improving mobility for Quebecers, the competitiveness of Quebec companies, creating sustainable jobs and stimulating a high-impact economic sector.
The implementation of these initiatives is shared among Propulsion Québec, Quebec TEI organizations and government bodies. The cluster has put in place ainteractive dashboardto track the 225 initiatives and the mobilization of ecosystem stakeholders in order to monitor the progress of the implementation of the industrial policy. It allows everyone to advance their initiatives and to unify them into a common project:to make Quebec a leader in electric and intelligent transportation,while contributing to the fight against global warming and to the territory’s economic and sustainable development.
Quebec will be able to rely on its own resources and skills, gain autonomy and take another step toward the ecological transition.
Ambition TEI 2030 was produced thanks to the support of the Government of Quebec –Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy, theMinistry of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, theDesjardins Group, Hydro-Québec, IVEY Foundation, theMontreal Metropolitan Community, Deloitte and theISEQ.
Sources:
1:Quebec greenhouse gas emissions inventory
2:Survey conducted by the MEIE
