As I said earlier, the aerospace industry in Quebec represents 250 businesses and 43,000 employees. It has annual sales of $23 billion. It’s the largest exporter in the province.
One of the most effective initial steps was the government’s decision to support the industry and to position it as a strategic priority. We’re fortunate to have a Quebec aerospace strategy that effectively aligns various ministerial priorities with business priorities, ensuring businesses receive the support they need.
One area where we’ve not done as well as other provinces and territories or other countries is in developing dual-use technologies. On our end, we have always designed civilian aerospace products. I’ll use the obvious example of Bombardier, which produces the Global Express and modifies it for military use and missions. Meanwhile, France and the U.S. use their defence sectors to design products, and businesses can later take them to market for civilian use.
More investments in defence give us an opportunity to turn around what we have always done and use the defence sector to design products that can be commercialized later.
That said, there is no doubt that having a Quebec strategy enables us to align orders, set priorities and focus on a strategic sector for the province.