17 April 2013

PRESS RELEASE – The Sherbrooke economy continues its solid economic performance despite a difficult international context and an export market handicapped by the US recession. At the end of 2012, Sherbrooke registered a net gain of 23 businesses and 881 new jobs in one or the other of its five key sectors.

Mr. Bernard Sévigny, Sherbrooke’s mayor, Mr. Marc Cantin, Sherbrooke Innopole’s President and Mr. Pierre Bélanger, Director General of Sherbrooke Innopole

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Relative to investment, Sherbrooke experienced an increase of 8%, compared to 2011, considering all sectors, for a total of 586 million dollars. Moreover, the employment rate of the greater Sherbrooke Metropolitan Area (RMR) – which includes Magog – remains lower than the Québec province average for the fourth consecutive year. At 7.5% for 2012, it is lower than the 7.8% rate for Québec.

The Director General of Sherbrooke Innopole, Mr. Pierre Bélanger rejoices in this good Sherbrooke economic performance: « A net gain of 881 jobs and 23 businesses in our key sectors, in a difficult business environment, plagued by the closure of Marquis-Métrolitho and the Neptune incident, is a truly noteworthy performance».

The President of the Board of Sherbrooke Innopole, Mr. Marc Cantin, recognized the excellent work of the Sherbrooke Innopole team: «In 2012, they tackled 538 files. Of these, 130 were completed leading to the creation or the securing of 2,276 jobs and investments of $62,157,699».

In his comments, Sherbrooke’s mayor, Bernard Sévigny, said he was very happy with the annual report results: « We can only congratulate ourselves on our collective choices in the past years. We are really successfully managing a turnaround in the Sherbrooke economy. We have also successfully created real venues of dialogue between the academic world and the business environment by banking on our key sectors strategy. It has yielded excellent results year after year since 2009».

Mayor Sévigny is also happy about the fostering of a real entrepreneurial culture regionally and the existence of funding to help start or sustain our businesses: « In 2012, every dollar invested by one or another Sherbrooke Innopole backed Funds made available to our local entrepreneurs generated a private investment of $6.25 from the private sector for an investment total of $7,870,732 and the creation or consolidation of 283 jobs».

Sherbrooke Innopole’s President, Mr. Marc Cantin, and Sherbrooke’s Mayor, Mr. Bernard Sévigny, said they were very happy with work accomplished by Sherbrooke Innopole and were eager to commend the major contribution of Pierre Bélanger, who will relinquish his Director General role at the end of June 2013.

In closing, Sherbrooke Mayor Bernard Sévigny added: « Really, if Sherbrooke citizens are happy about the good results of our local economy, they can be assured that money from their taxes invested in Sherbrooke Innopole’s mission is well spent and yields measurable results. »