Building favourable conditions for STPs in a difficult economic environment: City of Gatineau's experience

The City of Gatineau, located in Canadas Capital Region, created a 90 acre STP in the late 80s in order to create a suitable environment for the scientific and technological sector that was developing quite rapidly in the area. After an initial success in attracting an anchor tenant, the STP has not developed any significant projects in past twelve years in spite of the emerging telecommunications sector in the neighbouring community of Ottawa.\nGatineau is part of the Canadas Capital region and is, with Ottawa, the fourth largest agglomeration in Canada with 1.1 million people. It is a region that has a very strong government presence with over 80,000 public servants. It has also a very dynamic scientific and technology sector with 70,000 jobs in over 1,000 companies. The region is one of the top regions when it comes to research and development for the telecommunications industry and has the highest concentration in Canada of scientists, engineers and technologists per capita. Most of these resources are, however, located in Ottawa. The Capital Region has also been quite successful in attracting private capital with an average of close to 1 billion dollars US invested in local high technology sector before the technology meltdown in 2001-2002.The region is also unique in that it encompasses two provincial governments and three levels of local government. The City of Gatineau, located in the province of Quebec, provides the Capital Region with the best tax credit for research and development activities. It was in the hope of attracting many start-up companies with these tax incentives that Gatineaus STP was originally created.\nIn the past year, many significant elements have also changed the political landscape and have thus affected the environment conducive to the development of the STP: more attractive tax credits programs have been created, an amalgamation process at the municipal level has reduced the competitiveness between communities, the local universities have received additional funding to meet an influx of students and the federal government has created new initiatives for managing and promoting knowledge and innovation in the private sector. These elements have changed the prospective for the STPs in the region. In response to all these elements, the newly created Economic Development Corporation has initiated a complete review of its technological and scientific landscape in order to understand the economical, financial, cultural and sociological elements that create a favourable environment for creating an innovative, dynamic and responsive STP in our region.