Ever get the urge to set up shop in cosmopolitan Montreal? How about tucking away your company in the European-flavored old quarter of the city?

The Quebec government wants you and any other multimedia-media, post-production or technology-based producers to set up shop in the Cite du Multimedia, a quadrangle formed by de la Commune, Duke, William and King streets in Old Montreal.

The streets, located near the old port on the Lachine Canal (the St. Lawrence River), are home to a mass construction of nine buildings which will become part of a state-of-the-art technological production capital for Quebec.

Luc Meunier of Quebec’s Bureau de Developpement de la Nouvelle Economie explains what separates the Cite du Multimedia program from the traditional r&d tax credit.

‘What we have more of is the eligible spending for the tax credit,’ says Meunier. ‘[Also] it’s limited to the Cite du Multimedia – a specific area.

‘From our perspective in Quebec, the evolution of technology is a big issue in the next few years [and] right now. We want to be able to be more aggressive, go to larger spending on our technology and be able to [facilitate] this kind of activity.’

According to Meunier, ‘It was the city of Montreal [which] suggested we choose this area.’ The municipal government wants to add value to the streets around the old port, because right now ‘it’s not the best part of the city,’ explains Meunier.

Although the program was developed in 1998, the construction of the new buildings forced the program to accept applications one and two years ahead of time.

Pierre Luc Dumas, director of the Cite du Multimedia elaborates: ‘We had to make sure that we could locate as many firms as were asking for space in the Cite du Multimedia and we had to make sure that the investment was there to build close to one-million-square-foot buildings. These are nine brand-new structures that have to be constructed in [the next] two years. About 15 different teams of architects and engineers are involved at the same time.’

Meunier sees a specific end in his viewfinder. ‘Our goal is in the period of 10 years to have around 10,000 employees in this area of the city. And right now, after maybe two years – we have an agreement to have 7,000 in this area in one or two years.’

Commercial production house Voodoo Arts has already moved into the still-under-construction Cite. Says vice-president and executive producer (for live advertising in Montreal), Stephanie Lord: ‘We’re starting to find it very interesting because it’s growing a lot around us. And we can totally imagine a very good future with all the other people around us – not to merge, because we’re not going to merge companies. But, work together and help each other. It’s going to be like a big team, in a way. Even if we’re totally different entities.’

Meunier informed Playback that there are smaller versions of the Cite on the way for ‘Quebec City or in some other regions of Quebec.’

The maximum funding for the tax credit is $15,000 per employee per year. Meunier explains: ‘The businesses just receive the tax credit at the end of the year to pay the wages and the equipment that the businesses need to do the job. After [that] the ministry of revenue in Quebec and Bureau de Developpement de la Nouvelle Economie verifies that the people did the job that is eligible for the tax credit.’

The program is open to any business, Quebec-based or not, that is willing to set up shop in the designated area.

Meunier explains the application process: ‘They [the applicant] will send a business plan, and after the Bureau de Developpement de la Nouvelle Economie studies the plan, they will send a letter to the businesses that will say, ‘Your project is good.’ We will certify your project [and] if you do what is written on your business plan, we will, at the end of the year, give you – after an audit – the grant of the program.’

Cite director Dumas sums up: ‘Cite du Multimedia is not about buildings. It’s more about the firms that are located within the Cite du Multimedia. The next step is for us to make sure that the firms located here get good exposure.

‘What I’m doing at the moment is creating an Internet site and making sure that all the different firms are represented in there and you can do business and know them very well through the site. This is the second step in the credibility of the Cite du Multimedia.’