The Caisse donated $2 million in 3 years to the C2 Montréal jet-set event

The Caisse de dépôt has paid nearly $2 million to C2 Montréal since 2022, a much larger sum than previously disclosed.

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The Caisse’s real estate division, Ivanhoé Cambridge, paid $750,000 to C2 for each of the 2022 and 2023 editions of the international conference, to which were added various “services” of which the institution did not want to specify the details. cost.

“In the context of the pandemic, Ivanhoé Cambridge had made greater commitments, among other things by hosting the event in its buildings (Place Ville Marie and Le Reine Élizabeth hotel) in order to help bring traffic back to the city center . His agreement therefore included services and a portion of financing,” declared Newspaper a spokesperson for the Caisse, Kate Monfette.

She puts on the brakes

For the 2024 edition, which ends Thursday, Ivanhoé Cambridge significantly reduced its sponsorship to C2 Montréal, which still amounted to $400,000. For its part, the Caisse contributed a little more than $28,000 to the event, compared to $50,500 last year.

“We have revised downwards the agreements for 2024,” noted M^me Monfette.

Last year, the institution only disclosed its own contribution, without mentioning that of Ivanhoé.

Governments, for their part, maintained their contributions to C2 Montréal this year. The largest financial support comes from Quebec, which contributes $1.25 million to the event, followed by the federal government ($750,000) and the City of Montreal ($250,000).

“It is certain that the support of governments is very important for us,” admitted Wednesday the president of C2 Montréal, Anick Beaulieu, specifying that last year, public financing represented “between 20 and 25%” of the total budget of the organization.

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Photo Facebook C2 Montreal

David Levine of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at C2 Montreal on Tuesday.

Loto-Québec is hiding

Loto-Québec, which is one of the sponsors of C2 Montréal, did not respond when The newspaper asked him to quantify his contribution.

Last year, the state-owned company paid $15,400 to allow 14 of its employees to take part in the event, or $1,100 per person. In 2022, she had paid nearly $6,000 for six employees.

Hydro-Québec indicates that it has purchased only one ticket for the 2024 edition. “We list a single ticket purchased, for a single day [845$]“, says a spokesperson, Maxence Huard-Lefebvre.

The organizers of C2 Montreal maintain that “more than 5,000 participants from more than 60 countries and more than 30 industries” will have attended the event this week.

Half a billion in benefits?

Billing itself as “an internationally renowned forum for entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity,” C2 claims that the three-day meeting “results in more than $500 million in business transactions and economic impact each year,” without however revealing the methodology behind this calculation.

This year, the event’s distinguished guests included Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo, Bombardier CEO Éric Martel, American designer Nathan W. Pyle, Professor Ruha Benjamin of Princeton University, David Levine , strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and fashion designer Dapper Dan.

– With Martin Jolicoeur