It’s a relationship that goes back some 400 years. And with about 4,500 Quebec companies doing business with the U.S. state of New York daily, Jean-Claude Lauzon has a high-stakes job.
The former award-winning industrial psychologist and corporate head hunter turned diplomat heads the Quebec Government Office in New York, a quasi-embassy in the Big Apple and Quebec’s primary representation in the United States.
As the delegate general of Quebec in New York, it’s his job to promote the interests of the province in business, investment, government institutions, education, culture and public affairs.
“We share a lot, as you know the trade between Canada and the United States is the largest trade partnership in the world,” Lauzon said. “We’re talking about between $2 and $3 billion every day. Nothing of that nature exists anywhere in the world.”
(click to listen the full interview with Jean-Claude Lauzon)
ListenA big chunk of that trade goes through the Quebec-New York border.
“The relationship is extremely important between the United States and Quebec,” Lauzon said. “It represents more than 72 per cent of everything that Quebec sells around the world. And New York State is the number one client of Quebec in the world.”
Ties that bind
The relationship between Quebec and New York City also goes back a long way.
“The first international bond that was issued on Wall Street a Quebec bond in 1878,” Lauzon said. “I can tell you we repaid not only the interest but the entire capital on that bond.”
In 1904, New York started buying electricity from Quebec, a relationship that continues uninterrupted for over 110 years.
It’s not surprising then that Quebec opened its first international representation office in 1940 in New York City.
“We were the very first tenant of the Rockefeller Plaza in New York,” Lauzon said.
Located on the 26th floor of the Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the provincial office serves the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes eight states: Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
Open for business
The office’s main job is to make sure that American companies and entrepreneurs know that Quebec is open for business, Lauzon said.
“Of course, we have a clear distinction – our language, our French language, of which we are very proud of – but at the same time we are North American in the way we operate, North American in the way we live.”
There are also very significant cultural ties between Quebec and New York.
“There are probably more artists from Quebec performing in New York every day than there are in the entire European Community,” Lauzon said. “And we saw what happened with Yannick Nezet-Seguin last Saturday, becoming the artistic director of the Met Opera, the most important opera house in the world.”
Winds of protectionism
But there are some dark clouds gathering over Quebec’s and Canada’s relationship with the United States. An underlying current of protectionism and isolationism has emerged in the U.S. presidential campaign.
Pronouncements by the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic Party contender Bernie Sanders worry Canadian and Quebec officials.
Lauzon said he plans to meet with Trump’s and Clinton’s key advisors to make sure they understand how important the trade relationship with the United States is for Quebec.
He’s also in constant contact with federal and state legislators, Lauzon said.
When meeting with U.S. officials and policy makers in downtown Manhattan, Lauzon said he often reminds them that there is a one in two chance they took a Bombardier train in the subway.
“And when you walk out, you look out at the One World Trade Center and the big antenna on top of the new building was built and designed by ADF in Terrebonne, and if you go and watch a baseball game at the Yankee Stadium, well that stadium, all of its steel structure has been manufactured and developed by Canam (Group),” Lauzon said. “However, it is extremely difficult for anyone to define if a Bombardier car in the subway in New York is Canadian or American.”
Parts of that train were made in the U.S., others in Quebec, and the train was assembled in Plattsburgh, New York, Lauzon said.
“Those examples illustrate the importance of relaying that message constantly to the people that have influence on ‘Buy America’ acts that we see popping up in every state.”
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