By Robert Frank
www.thesuburban.com
Paolo Galati might be packing his bags, but he’s not leaving his elected office.
Instead, the St. Vincent de Paul city councillor is about to embark on a globetrotting mission to promote Laval business abroad. It’s the first time that the city has appointed an elected official to an economic development post.
“I was appointed as Laval’s ambassador for international economic development,” Galati told The Suburban.
The city’s economic development agency Laval Technopole will be absorbed into the municipal civil service within a few months, he explained in an interview.
“The role is vast,” Galati said. “It’s to get leads and identify opportunities for development to bring back to the economic arm of the City of Laval to follow through on.”
Laval’s economy and its population have for several years outpaced that of the province.
“Within a few years, Laval will be the second most-populous city in Quebec,” he observed. “The city is working hard to ensure that it establishes itself economically on the world stage.”
As this week’s edition of The Suburban went to press, he was slated to meet yesterday with Technopole vice-presidents Gilbert LeBlanc and Damien Cloutier to hammer out details of the arrangement, which will entail overseas travel.
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