According to Site Selection magazine’s Canada’s Best Locations 2022 list, Sherbrooke Innopole is once again among the top 20 business development agencies in Canada. Remember that Sherbrooke Innopole is the para-communal economic development organization serving Sherbrooke’s flourishing industrial and tertiary sectors. Its mission is to accelerate the development of companies in five key sectors – Manufacturing and Advanced Manufacturing, Information Technologies, Clean Technologies, Life Sciences and Micronanotechnologies.

This is the second year in a row that Sherbrooke Innopole has been included in the site selection list. Only three other Quebec business development organizations are among the top 20 locations in Canada. Sherbrooke Innopole General Manager Sylvain Durocher emphasizes that the team is once again honored to be recognized among Canada’s economic development leaders: “It is a great privilege for us to receive this recognition for two years. This testifies to the consistency and excellent work that our professionals do every day with industrial and technology companies to support them in their start-up, growth and establishment projects. Additionally, we are excited to share the credit for this success with all of our employees and our City of Sherbrooke partners.”

For its part, for the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sherbrooke Innopole, Alexandre Nault, this award also shows the great adaptability of the entrepreneurs in Sherbrooke: “They had to redouble their zeal and ingenuity to maintain their pace of growth, despite all the business restrictions imposed by the pandemic were caused. Her confidence and boldness underscores the thriving and innovative ecosystem Sherbrooke benefits from, thanks to the engagement of a whole network of partners and stakeholders. It also clearly demonstrates the leadership and professionalism of the people who have been involved within the organization for years. Our city is experiencing phenomenal growth, thanks in part to the dedication of Sherbrooke Innopole. I would like to congratulate Mr. Sylvain Durocher and his team as well as the board of Sherbrooke Innopole! the environment and their creativity do not go unchallenged. seen and it is their merit”.

The ranking, published in its September 2022 edition, is based, among other things, on private sector investment and job creation. The data comes from the Conway Analytics database.

Site Selection’s article also highlights the importance of the provincial government’s designation of Sherbrooke as one of Quebec’s first innovation zones, a structuring project in which Sherbrooke Innopole has played an important role from the start.

The magazine’s editor, Adam Bruns, adds: “Among the companies associated with this sector, we should mention quantum computer maker Pasqal, which is opening offices in Sherbrooke and Boston. Pasqal, 1Qbit and Eidos-Sherbrooke together will pump $205 million into the local economy over the next five years.”

The article also lists some recent investment projects that have taken place in the area and in which Sherbrooke Innopole has collaborated at different levels: Chocolat Lamontagne, Métosak, Kruger Products, BioMimir, DE LA FONTAINE. The Sherbrooke Innopole team conducts an average of almost 650 interventions a year with industrial and technology companies to support them in their start-up, establishment, growth, consolidation or succession projects in Sherbrooke.

Recall that Sherbrooke’s five key sectors – Manufacturing and Advanced Manufacturing, Information Technologies, Clean Technologies, Life Sciences and Micronanotechnologies – account for 20,747 jobs across 697 companies. Since 2010, the key sectors have recorded:

 a net profit of 202 companies;

 A net job creation of 7617;

 Invested more than $2.9 billion in machinery, equipment, land, buildings and R&D.