Investissement Québec (IQ) spends millions of dollars per year to carry out trade missions in which only a handful of companies sometimes participate.
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Last year, the state corporation carried out 68 missions in 28 countries in which 681 Quebec companies took part, we learned in information recently sent to the National Assembly at the request of the Liberal Party and the Newspaper by IQ.
Some missions were quite popular. Thus, 15 IQ employees and 162 company representatives participated in the one carried out at the Le Bourget air show, in France. The Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, and five members of his team were also there.
Three participants in Cuba
Others have been significantly less popular. This is the case of a mission to Cuba carried out in November 2023, which involved an IQ employee and barely three business representatives.
A mission linked to the Asian Development Bank attracted two entrepreneurs who were accompanied… by two IQ employees.
Of the 68 missions in 2023-2024, more than half, or 36, attracted 10 or fewer business representatives. And 18 attracted five or fewer.
In the case of 10 missions organized by IQ, no employee of the organization was present.
Despite the lack of enthusiasm generated by certain missions, the vice-president of exports at IQ, Marie-Eve Jean, believes that each of them was justified.
Marie-Eve Jean
LinkedIn Photo
“Even if we have [seulement] four companies in one [mission] targeted, it is our job to help companies access these opportunities and to facilitate networking [avec des acheteurs potentiels]», she explains during an interview with The newspaper.
“If we move, it’s because we see the added value,” she continues. Often, we are the ones who have contact with the potential customer. We facilitate on site, we put people in touch, we advise them.”
Total costs unknown
In 2023-2024, IQ spent nearly $2.6 million on various costs for its commercial missions (space rental, professional services, etc.) and billed participating companies a little more than $1.5 million.
To this must be added the remuneration of IQ employees who work to organize missions from Quebec as well as the travel expenses of those who accompany the companies on site. The Crown corporation was unable to estimate these costs.
However, we know that IQ’s international activities, which also include attracting foreign investment, cost $47 million in 2022-2023, or 34% of the organization’s total administrative costs. The corresponding sum was 24 million in 2020-2021.
Ali Azouz, professor of management at UQAM, views IQ’s commercial missions very favorably. He recognizes, however, that it is difficult to assess their concrete usefulness.
“The impacts of a presence in a trade show abroad are not too measurable for an SME,” says Mr. Azouz. The entrepreneur doesn’t really know if there will be real and concrete gains in the end. So he asks himself the question: “Is it worth it or not?”
Ali Azouz, professor at ESG UQAM.
LinkedIn Photo
More than $4 billion in benefits?
IQ maintains that the 681 companies that participated in its missions last year garnered “firm sales” of more than $4 billion resulting from its “support”. This represents nearly $6 million per company.
“The fallout is never after a single event, agrees Mme Jeans. It’s very rare that we travel to a location and sign a contract. It happens, but it’s not the norm. In fact, it’s really the support we provide over 12, 18 or 24 months [qui importe].”
But where does the 4 billion figure come from? “We have written confirmation from each company that the different actions we took, the different missions, the welcoming of buyers we did contributed to the company obtaining this contract,” replies the vice-president.
IQ trade missions in 2023-2024
Number: 68
Participating companies: 681
Business representatives: 1053
IQ employee travel: 113
Logistics costs (on site): $2.57 million
Travel expenses (estimated at $3,000 per trip): $339,000
Other costs: unknown
Amounts invoiced to businesses: $1.04 million
Source: Investissement Québec
