Federal agency injects $5 million into programs for Quebec ecommerce ventures

The federal government is investing $5 million in 11 organizations in the first phase of a $50-million program to help more Quebec businesses get online and participating in ecommerce. On June 20, Canada Economic Development (CED) announced the winners from the first round funding competition of its Electronic Commerce Action Strategy. The grants are being spread between user groups, firms and organizations, as well as sectoral associations, research centres and universities. A second round of funding is scheduled for this fall, with winners expected to be announced in November. The deadline for phase two is August 18. The overall project will award a total of $50 million by June 2002. The funding should go a long way towards helping Quebec businesses implement new ecommerce initiatives at the same level as their counterparts in the rest of the country, and especially in comparison to the United States. Pierre Langelier, executive director of the Montreal-based Electronic Commerce Institute (ECI), says that Quebec has a larger proportion of small- and medium-sized businesses than other provinces. Those firms, he says, have traditionally been slower to adopt new technologies for doing business. Thousands of smaller companies have yet to put their businesses online. "We believe it’s very important for SMEs to consider how electronic commerce can be applicable to them, and what are the impacts if they don’t do it," Langelier told Canadian NEW MEDIA. "Have they looked at their competitors? Are their competitors already doing ecommerce or e-business? All of those new ways of doing business need to be evaluated." Langelier says many have some degree of Internet connectivity, but aren’t taking advantage of it to the same level as their counterparts elsewhere. "At the end of the day, what are they doing with it? What we want to make sure of is that this will evolve into a way of doing things in the future. It doesn’t mean that today they have to do full-blown ecommerce, but they have to make that reflection – think about it and how it could impact them and benefit them." The federal government isn’t alone in recognizing Quebec’s tardiness in getting online. Earlier this year, the Quebec government introduced a new tax credit for SMEs that covers up to 40 per cent of the cost to develop a transactional web site. The government estimates that about 10,000 SMBs will benefit from the credit, which tops out at $40,000 per company (CNM, March 22/00). Among the winners in CED’s first funding competition was the Electronic Commerce Institute, which received $280,000. The agency plans to hire 10 field workers skilled in the startup phases of launching an online business who can help companies both in Montreal and throughout the province overcome the first hurdles. Six resource people have already been hired, and are staffing offices in Hull, Lac St. Jean and in Quebec City. A further $1 million in partnership money and services will be injected into the project from other local development agencies. Other projects that won funding include: Eworldmusic.com ($350,000) @robex and J.O. Lévesque ($992,000) Rivières à saumons du Québec($443,000) Sous-traitance industrielle du Québec($448,000) Contracom Inc ($100,000) Yellowbox.com ($45,000) Centre francophone d’informa-tisation des organisations ($145,000) The École des Hautes ÉtudesCommerciales ($190,000).

Federal agency injects $5 million into programs for Quebec ecommerce ventures

Broadcast | June 28, 2000

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