The Mayor began by reminding the audience that Saint-Laurent is unique on the island of Montréal. With one of the most diversified populations on the island, 70% of the territory is devoted to professional, commercial, manufacturing and industrial businesses. Its 4500 businesses provide more than 110,000 jobs, making it the largest employment area in Greater Montréal after downtown. 

The five new REM stations and other sustainable mobility projects will add to Saint Laurent’s vitality, which – combined with these three key components – will enrich Saint Laurent’s “formula for success”:

• innovation 
• attractiveness, and
• sustainable mobility

Innovation is in Saint-Laurent’s DNA

Whether for the municipal administration or the Saint-Laurent business community, innovation has become essential today.

A case in point is the project of solar panels on industrial roofs, unveiled last year at this same conference, which revolves around the creation of an energy loop. The feasibility of a local heat-sharing network is currently being studied at the Technoparc.

Innovation has always been a strong feature of Saint-Laurent’s businesses. Today, Saint-Laurent boasts more than 3,000 value-added or prime mover service businesses, which account for nearly 60% of all businesses in our community. 

At the same time, the Centre d’expertise industrielle de Montréal is being converted into the Centre d’innovation et d’industrialisation du Québec. Currently dedicated to the digital transformation of manufacturing companies in Greater Montréal, the centre will offer Québec companies a platform for innovation.

Soon, Saint-Laurent will also welcome to the Technoparc the Centre de collaboration et d’innovation en aérospatiale et en mobilité́ (CCIAM) in connection with Espace Aero – Québec’s fourth innovation zone. Shared with Longueuil and Mirabel, this zone brings together universities – Polytechnique, Concordia and McGill – the Centre national de recherche scientifique, Saint-Laurent companies including Bombardier, CAE and CMC, all under the supervision of Aero Montréal, the team driving Québec’s aerospace cluster. Boeing has already announced investments of $110 million in the zone, including $80 million in Saint-Laurent. 

As for the CCIAM, it will focus on innovation, collaboration and coordination of entrepreneurial initiatives in the aerospace and advanced mobility sectors. It will feature first-rate physical space and large-scale equipment and will be just a stone’s throw from the first REM stop after the airport.

Alan DeSousa pointed out that, in July, he attended the Farnborough International Airshow – the world’s leading aerospace and aviation showcase. In this regard, Saint-Laurent represented the only municipal organization from the city of Montréal, while the aerospace industry is Québec’s leading export. 

The Airshow was an opportunity to highlight to the whole world Saint-Laurent’s expertise and the ecosystem that has developed here! 

According to the Mayor, all these new features obviously consolidate Saint-Laurent’s reputation as a prime location for innovation. It’s a status that will attract talent, entrepreneurs, major contractors and researchers from here and elsewhere.

Attracting businesses and families

Alan DeSousa reminded his audience that attractiveness is a two-fold issue:

• attracting new businesses to come and settle in Saint-Laurent 
• encouraging individuals and families to come and live in Saint-Laurent, by offering pleasant, safe and sustainable living environments, with a range of leisure and cultural activities in tune with the times.

For the first, the Mayor highlighted the good results of construction or renovation permits for the industrial sector in 2023, with an increase of 28% over the previous year, and with a similar trend for the first seven months of 2024 for retail and industrial permits. 

As for the second, permits granted in 2023 for the residential sector were up 51% over the previous year.

As a result, there will be more than 110,000 residents in Saint-Laurent by the end of 2024, - an increase of 6,000 since last year and even 30% more since 2006!

“These figures show that Saint-Laurent is undeniably attractive to many individuals and families. It’s important to do business in a community that’s growing every year,” stated the Mayor of Saint-Laurent as a reminder. 

Lastly, Alan DeSousa mentioned two Excellence industrielle Saint-Laurent (EISL) initiatives designed to boost the attractiveness of the territory: 

• Creation of a campaign and platform to promote local jobs under the banner “Saint-Laurent, évidemment!” (Saint-Laurent, of course!)
• Distribution of a list of 10 reasons to invest in Saint-Laurent (posted on the EISL website)

The REM and the Henri-Bourassa project for better sustainable mobility 

Two major projects will have a significant impact on sustainable mobility in Saint-Laurent: 

1. The REM and the overhaul of bus routes in Saint-Laurent

With five stations, Saint-Laurent will become the nerve centre of the REM, at the intersection of all connections. 

What’s more, the location of the five REM stations will make it possible to develop TOD – Transit Oriented Development – neighbourhoods. These are neighbourhoods where the architecture and spatial organization are designed to encourage residents to use public transit rather than cars for their daily activities. Planning towards this goal for the future of the Technoparc is already under way and should result in great service improvements for businesses in the area.

2. The redevelopment of boulevard Henri-Bourassa

The other vast project – defined as a “sustainable mobility corridor” – will extend over 18 km from east to west, from autoroute 40 to boulevard Lacordaire.

Already under way, the new configuration will enable people from Montréal’s east and west ends to get to Saint-Laurent more easily.

In conclusion, the Mayor of Saint-Laurent called on Saint-Laurent businesses to make the most of this living environment, which is changing and adapting to the values and lifestyles of the 21st century.

The spin-offs will benefit not only the industrial sector, but the community as a whole.

The convergence of these three key components – innovation, sustainable mobility and attractiveness - is the formula for Saint-Laurent’s success: 

“It’s here that you’ll make your best contacts, it’s here that you’ll find your workers or your contracts, it’s here that you’ll find everything your family needs. Saint-Laurent is even more promising than ever, with everything that’s on its way. We can’t say it often enough: “Saint-Laurent, it’s here that it’s happening!”