Article content

When there’s a skateboard ramp in your office, and an in-house barista to serve you coffee in between coding tasks, chances are you’re in California. Unless, of course, it’s Quebec.

Simon De Baene is installing the Silicon Valley perks at his Montreal-based software company GSOFT, which expanded its workforce by 60 per cent in the past year, with more to come. That’s just one example of the mini-boom that’s vaulted Quebec, long seen as Canada’s economic laggard, to the top of the country’s job-creation league.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or There's a surprise leader in Canada's race for smart global jobs (spoiler: it's Quebec) Back to video

And not just any old jobs: it’s smart ones, the kind Canada’s policy makers want to replicate nationwide, as they seek new sources of growth after the oil crash. Quebec’s unlikely position in the vanguard of that effort, two decades after it almost seceded, has been rewarded by investors who made its bonds the best performers among 10 provinces last year.

“We have an incredible quality of life in Quebec: great engineers; we’re creative; and the cost of living is really good,” said De Baene. “We have the ideal environment to build up successful organizations.”