“One of the things that attracts businesses to Montreal is the quality of life. Now, that can raise some eyebrows, because there are various aspects of Montreal that may not be that positive to certain people versus other people. You can always talk about the fact that our housing, as an example, on a relative basis, is less expensive. But the moment you evoke that kind of a discussion, it evolves quickly into yeah, but it’s getting really expensive.

Well, there’s a message there, first of all, one, come to Montreal, two, stay in Montreal, three, invest in Montreal and you’re gonna catch that wave. That is an inevitable part of how society evolves. If you’re not prepared to accept that and to understand that, I challenge you to go anywhere in the world where the same thing hasn’t happened, and you might not find the quality of life there so good.

What makes us different is the fact that we are conscious of that, and so we’re finding the juste equilibre between the two, and that’s very powerful stuff. So maybe our house prices are going up, they may never reach other levels for one reason or another, but that still doesn’t mean that we’re not gonna become an economic powerhouse, it just means we’re gonna become an economic powerhouse with a really cool understanding and base as to how we got here this time.”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.