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ECONOMIC IMPACTS

July 14, 2007

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New taxation powers for the City of Montreal. One solution: Move forward with the Quartier des spectacles

The vision developed by the Partnership, to make this part of downtown a creative and cultural neighbourhood, will have definite economic impacts over the life of the 15-year project:

  • Real estate activity* will generate $200 million for the federal government and 400 million dollars for the Quebec government. These include direct and indirect revenues, through construction, income taxes from workers' salaries, and taxes on the goods and services linked to the development of the Quartier des spectacles. With a total of 7.6 million square feet of buildable area, the potential valuation of the Quartier des spectacles is $1.9 billion. This will add $1.5 billion of tax revenue to Quebec's economy and create on the order of 27,000 jobs.

  • Tourist activity** will also generate significant economic impacts. Studies carried out by the Transat Chair in Tourism at UQAM demonstrate that (without assuming that the total number of visitors will increase, but assuming that the current number of visitors will decide to spend an additional night in Montreal) more than 1,000 jobs will be created, with recurring annual economic impacts of $6.5 million for Ottawa and $10.5 million for Quebec City, in the form of income and sales taxes. The additional yearly revenues coming from tourism are estimated at $57 million.

  • For the City of Montreal, the new mixed-use construction in the Quartier des spectacles proposed by the Partnership will increase real estate and school tax receipts by $66 million.

Given these impacts, the Partnership proposes to create an ambitious and creative financing plan with its partners from the three levels of government, to give us the means to realize our cultural and economic ambitions.

Taken from the 2005-2006 Business Report of the Quartier des spectacles Partnership, p. 13 (in French only).

  • Figures from the real-estate impact study carried out by the Altus Group, spring 2004. ** Figures from the economic impact study carried out by Gérald Leblanc, Professor of Economics at Université Laval, fall 2004.

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