Economic diversification achieved through innovation

In my first-ever column which appeared in the July issue, I mention the need to innovate to ensure, most notably, the survival of our main street. Let’s stop for a moment and see how it’s possible to create more wealth for all our citizens. The current challenges actually provide us with incredible opportunities to innovate and truly diversify our local economy.

I’ve been hearing talk of economic diversification for more than 20 years and in spite of honest efforts, we are still a “one-horse town”. It’s true that the construction sector is doing well and that our organic farms, agri-food sector, secondary forest-industry products, Treetop Trail project and the incubator established by the CDE also contribute to regional diversification.

Locally

Our elected representatives and the senior staff members of the Ville de Mont-Tremblant have tried over the years with a series of attempts to build an infrastructure of economic development. We have dedicated significant financial resources and it’s important that, very soon, citizens start seeing a return on investment. In the town’s strategic plan the intentions, orientations and goals are legitimate and honest.

I would suggest, however, that we should go beyond the tourist industry and the businesses complementary to it. Our eternal dependence on this industry continues to expose our community to risks. The socioeconomic profile of our local population and the COVID-19 disease demonstrate this well.

The average family revenue in our region is well below the provincial and federal averages. I am, myself, a tourist industry person. It’s our milk cow, and we must certainly protect this industry and continue to develop it in a way that makes us even more internationally competitive.

It happens through innovation

Having said that, I’ll add that our future economic diversification should occur through innovation. Can we create a private incubator and ecosystem dedicated to local innovation?

I am absolutely convinced that we have, among our citizens and seasonal residents, inventors, thinkers, engineers, investors, financial angels, experts in the protection of intellectual property – and others – who can contribute to this kind of vision.

Our industries and infrastructure in tourism, forestry, construction, health, well-being, renewable energy and nature could allow us to create the most significant living lab on the planet where ideas, experimentation, exploration, design, co-creation and evaluation can work together towards a single goal: the diversification of our economy through innovation.

A unique model

We have the local assets to develop this culture of innovation. We must remember that innovation-linked sources of revenue go a lot further than the production of a new gadget.

These revenues can come from patents, licences, copyrights and royalties, design rights, industrial secrets, protected recipes and formulas, registered trademarks, domain names, new processes, products, services, objects and tools. Our ingenuity and potential are limited only by a commitment to observe and to find solutions.

Innovation must be considered the release mechanism that will finally allow us to diversify our local and regional economy. Actually, this second column is a call to the inventors and investors who believe in this kind of vision.

Together, let’s build a new local ecosystem which has the potential to create five, fifty and even five hundred jobs of the future such as industrial designers, online trainers, agri-food specialists, forest science technicians, researchers, consultants, soil use planners, food-processing operations and more.

We must, after all, consider that telework – distance work – has now made Mont- Tremblant exceedingly attractive for distance workers. So…let’s do it! Let’s innovate here in Mont-Tremblant and build, together, a local wealth that is truly for everyone.

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