{"id":1075,"date":"2014-04-30T17:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T17:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/30\/laval-economy-slows-as-investment-dips\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:41:10","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:41:10","slug":"laval-economy-slows-as-investment-dips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/04\/30\/laval-economy-slows-as-investment-dips\/","title":{"rendered":"Laval economy slows, as investment dips below $1 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Frank<\/b>
www.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Concerns that Laval\u2019s business juggernaut might be stalling arose last week, after Laval Technopole reported that capital investment in Quebec\u2019s third-largest city had fallen below the $1 billion threshold for the first time in many years. <\/p>\n

Technopole put a brave face on the figures. In a statement, it described the $946 million that businesses invested in the city during 2013 as \u201cgood results, albeit not the highest, which nonetheless confirm Laval\u2019s stability as [an economic] magnet.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, no one from the usually voluble Technopole was available afterward to comment on the significant drop in investment, despite The Suburban\u2019s<\/i> repeated telephone and electronic mail requests for an interview. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, opposition politicians at city hall sounded the alarm. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the worst performance in more than a decade,\u201d Jean-Claude Gob\u00e9 told The Suburban. <\/i>\u201cYou have to go back to 2001 to find worse. Residential and industrial investment is down by a third, institutional investment dropped 29 percent and commercial investment plummeted 59 percent.\u201d <\/p>\n

During the election campaign, recently re-elected Vimont MNA Jean Rousselle accurately predicted that Laval\u2019s economic dynamism couldn\u2019t remain an outlier indefinitely, while the economy in most of the rest of Quebec stalled\u2014or declined\u2014last year, under the former Parti qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/i> government. <\/p>\n

Gob\u00e9 fretted that the city\u2019s current administration is making things worse by killing the goose that laid the golden egg. <\/p>\n

\u201cA mayor has to spur investment in the economy,\u201d he asserted in an interview, criticizing what he considers Mayor Marc Demers\u2019 Wyatt Earp ethos. \u201cThe mayor is instead saying \u2018I deliver law and order in Laval.\u2019 I don\u2019t have anything against that, but he has a responsibility to keep the economy going strong as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen was the last big real estate development project announced?\u201d Gob\u00e9 asked. \u201cWhen was the last major industrial investment?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cLaval could lose its coveted AAA+ credit rating,\u201d he warned, \u201cwhich ranks it among the most soundly managed cities in Canada. That could increase the Laval’s borrowing costs, leaving taxpayers to pick up the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Kevric real estate mogul Richard Hylands told hundreds of business leaders who attended the annual Montreal Real Estate Forum that midtown Montreal is successfully luring back businesses that had previously fled to \u00cele J\u00e9sus.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies that set up in the suburbs found that their free parking doesn\u2019t attract employees to work in those call centres,\u201d he observed, \u201cbecause those people don\u2019t have cars. So tenants now want buildings close to mass transit in a live-work area like Mile End-Park Extension.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome are coming here from Laval,\u201d Hylands added.<\/p>\n

In December, the city fired former Technopole CEO Pierre Desroches, who had hitherto helped attract $1.5 billion in direct investment to Laval during each of the preceding six years.<\/p>\n

The city then refused to give Desroches the severance pay that it had previously agreed to in his contract.<\/p>\n

Last week, the city grudgingly offered to pay him just 16.5 percent of the money that his contract specified. It remains to be seen whether Desroches, who has never been accused of any wrongdoing, accepts or challenges the ruling in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Frankwww.thesuburban.com Concerns that Laval\u2019s business juggernaut might be stalling arose last week, after Laval Technopole reported that capital investment in Quebec\u2019s third-largest city had fallen below the $1 billion threshold for the first time in many years. Technopole put a brave face on the figures. In a statement, it described the $946 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLaval economy slows, as investment dips below $1 billion - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/04\/30\/laval-economy-slows-as-investment-dips\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Laval economy slows, as investment dips below $1 billion - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Robert Frankwww.thesuburban.com Concerns that Laval\u2019s business juggernaut might be stalling arose last week, after Laval Technopole reported that capital investment in Quebec\u2019s third-largest city had fallen below the $1 billion threshold for the first time in many years. 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