The political preaching of economic development in Quebec has always been about job creation. Actually, enough preaching and preaching, because the politicians didn’t really know how to do it, except for Robert Bourassa with Baie-James.
Posted yesterday at 9:00am
Up until the CAQ was elected, the Liberal Party was always the one that monopolized the issue, that pissed the furthest on the issue. But we now sense that MM. Legault and Fitzgibbon want to show great manly skill in this exercise. which is a bad idea.
The government needs to think and practice economic development differently in the years to come, and pay attention to job creation. Even with that nuance of creating more paying jobs, a very stretchy notion worthy of debate.
We are currently in an absolutely unprecedented economic environment, one of serious labor shortages that statistically will take about ten years to resolve.
This situation inevitably creates new paradigms that require strategic adjustments from governments.
Therefore, job creation should no longer be the goal in the short term. On the contrary, the biggest difficulty right now is finding people who, to date, have filled nearly a million jobs in the country.
Also, we could be on the eve of a recession. If so, will full employment cushion the impact of a potential economic downturn? The oracles skate on it.
But if it doesn’t happen, this recession, or if we get through it without too much damage, we’re still going to fall back into scarcity.
Therefore, we should use these years of grace to fix deficiencies, structural deficiencies that have plagued our economy for ages.
The first difficulty is convincing the government to prescribe a sedative and stop targeting the spectacular job creation announcement that elected officials associate with political success.
For example, I’m a supporter of Investissement Québec, but for now why isn’t this organization limited to guiding, investing and helping companies grow in Québec instead of traveling the planet to recruit others?
Quebec employers are increasingly reluctant to import foreign companies, which will exacerbate their labor problems. And they go bad, take my word for it.
And you have no idea how appalled they are to see governments’ inability to be diligent in handling immigration cases.
Added to this is the question of the training of workers, where they would wholeheartedly wish that the Ministry of Education would no longer deal with vocational training, even if this means that it is sometimes carried out in companies, as in France, with a diploma.
And they wonder why, despite the efforts already being made, the government isn’t pursuing a more aggressive, even nuclear, strategy to increase enrollment in science and engineering.
Furthermore, as we have long known, one of the blemishes of our economy remains the lack of productivity in our companies. Successive business ministers, and more recently Quebec’s new chief innovator Luc Sirois, are repeating it ad nauseam. And the situation is and will be even more dramatic with the shortage of workers.
We’ve been talking about this for decades. Again, our exports are doing well, mainly because our dollar is cheap because it’s still half a portion. We may be living on borrowed time.
Why don’t we put all the gum there? Instead of whining and bitching the violin over and over again, correct the situation on the same old scores.
Automation, digitization, etc. You have to invest there, and that is now paying off for a long time.
The government also wants to encourage entrepreneurship. We repeat ourselves here again.
Are we investing enough energy and money in founding companies, in supporting young entrepreneurs? Not at all sure I. We have never replaced the Innovatech companies in Quebec who have done this job brilliantly. I did volunteer work there for years. At the time, they were abolished by a liberal government for pseudo-ideological reasons. They shot us in the face!
Finally, and yes I know, even in a situation of full employment, political leaders must continue to prepare for the future. That is. But what would be wise?
Doesn’t this economy of the future come from a real zero carbon project in 2050? With all the economic activity it could generate. Why shouldn’t we do it and make sure we go there with a strategy that doesn’t harm our businesses in the short and medium term, but that we would plan for a period of about 30 years? It’s doable and responsible. nope ?
Or do you prefer the exclusive settlement of technology companies, the absence of which we could certainly jeopardize our economic future and whose ability, we can surmise, Quebecers teem with.
Conversely, we should no longer invite foreign companies to build energy-intensive data centers here. Let’s stop fussing like fleas when American tech giants give us a tata.
Let’s not be naïve, these companies only want to consume our energy cheaply and contribute far too much to the inflation of construction costs in Quebec, especially given the labor shortage that prevails in this industry, while delaying other important projects. We delude ourselves like children about their desire to develop something different here.
I have already managed this type of file at Quebec City Hall, it is third world.
Between us
Leadership is a fun bug that isn’t judged solely on the standard of intelligence and knowledge.
Women of Dominique Anglade’s quality are rare in politics.
But it had been inevitable since the elections.
Thank you for your commitment, work and dignity, Dominique Anglade, and good luck for the future!