Cleantech

General Industry Profile

Greater Montréal is recognized worldwide for its expertise in the environmental technologies sector, which has experienced significant growth in recent years. The environmental technologies industry of Greater Montréal specializes in waste management; technologies, equipment and services related to water management, resource: air pollution management, engineering consulting and industrial services. The Montréal region's numerous international organizations in the environmental technologies industry contribute to its dynamism.

Key Figures

• 400 innovative companies in Québec in Energy (34%)
  water (16 %), waste (16 %), air (13 %), land (11 %), other (10 %)
• 200 research organizations and university chairs
  

Benefits of the Region

Labour

Greater Montréal offers numerous undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate technical and university training programs linked to environmental technologies:

• 34 000 university students registered in high-tech programs
  
• 7 400 university graduates in these same programs
  
• 2 200 college graduates from technical programs
  

R&D

Greater Montréal has several specialized research centres in the environmental technologies including: 

• Centre de recherche, développement et validation des technologies et procédés de traitement des eaux (CREDEAU)]
  
• Le Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la biologie, la santé, la société et l’environnement (CINBIOSE) (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Biology, Health, Society and the Environment)
  
• The Regional Centre for Climate Study and Simulation [Centre pour l’étude et la simulation du climat à l’échelle régionale (ESCER)]
  
• The Industrial Chair of the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in environmental design engineering
  
• The Global Environmental and Climate Change Centre (GEC3)
  
• The Experimental Station for Pilot Environmental Procedures [Station expérimentale des procédés pilotes en environnement (STEPPE-ÉTS)] makes its laboratory, equipment and expertise available to consulting engineers and municipalities in order to help them oversee, validate, establish and optimize such technologies linked to water management.
  

Incentives

The governments of Canada and Québec offer numerous tax incentives to companies in the environmental technologies sectors, including up to 20% in tax credits for R&D from the federal government, and 17.5% from the Québec government.

In addition to the tax credits for R&D, numerous other financial and tax incentives are offered to companies. Please contact us to determine if you are eligible for one of the following programs:

• Financial aid for the creation of jobs and training
  
• Tax holidays for foreign experts and researchers
  
• Investment plan feasibility study
  
• Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP)
  
• Strategic Investment Support Program [Programme d’appui stratégique à l’investissement (PASI)]
  
• Economic Projects Support Program [Programme de soutien aux projets économiques (PSPE)]
  
• PR@M Industry
  

Furthermore, companies that establish themselves in Greater Montréal may benefit from several government programs and venture capital fund programs, such as:

Municipal Green Funds
Fonds d’action québécois pour le développement durable (FAQDD)
Fonds Bio-Innovation (bio-innovation funds)
Investment Funds:

• The Société générale de financement (SGF) is active in the environmental sector, investing in nearly 740 companies. www.sgfqc.com
  
• Created in 2000, Emerald Technology Ventures specializes in environmental technologies. www.emerald-ventures.com
  
• THE Fonds de solidarité FTQ invests in Québec companies and provides them with services with the goal to helping them develop, create and maintain jobs in Québec. www.fondsftq.com
  
• The Fond Action de la CSN contributes to maintaining and creating thousands of jobs throughout Québec. www.fondaction.com
  

Costs

According to the Competitive Choices study conducted by KPMG in 2010, regarding costs, Greater Montréal offers a business environment that is among the most competitive in North America. In fact, Montréal ranks first among the 20 largest centres of Canada and the United States for lowest operating costs, labour costs, industrial and office space costs and energy costs.The excellent quality-to-cost ratio offered in Greater Montréal is:

• A strategic asset because selecting an establishment site is strongly linked to  cost especially during a period of economic downturn
  
• An incentive for companies that are looking for a site  located close to major North American markets
  
• A significant advantage for companies in the R&D sectors because of the generous tax incentives offered by the Governments of Québec and Canada
  

International Organizations

Greater Montréal benefits from the presence of seven international organizations in the environmental technologies sector: 

• Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)
  
• Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat
  
• e8 Network of Expertise for the Global Environment
  
• Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST)
  
• International Secretariat for Water (ISW)
  
• Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol
  
• Secrétariat international francophone pour l’évaluation environnementale (SIFÉE).
  

Main Leaders

SNC-Lavalin (TSX:SNC) is one of the largest engineering and construction company in the world, and an important asset in the management and operation of facilities as well as ownership, operation and management of infrastructures. (www.snclavalin.com).

Founded in 1957, Dessau-Soprin has more than 1,900 engineers and other specialists in various high-tech sectors. (www.dessausoprin.com).

CIMA+ is a multi-disciplinary company that offers a full range of services in urban infrastructure, civil engineering, the environment, transportation, building, industry, energy and hydroelectricity, as well as in telecommunications and computer science-geomatics. (www.cima.ca)

GENIVAR is a leader in Canada and offers services in engineering, the environment, organizational development and training, as well as in research. (www.genivar.com)

Tecsult is one of Canada's the most important expert consulting firms and is a leader in numerous fields of expertise including: engineering, transportation, resource management, the environment, forestry, geomatics, human resources development and virtual education (E-Learning). (www.tecsult.com).

BPR offers a full range of engineering and management services to industrial and commercial companies, major institutions and municipalities. The company has a renowned urban hydrology service which performs its activities on an international scale (www.groupe-bpr.com).