Bicentennial of the Chambre de commerce de Québec

The Citadelle, Friday, September 18, 2009

I am delighted to welcome you to the Citadelle, the official residence of the governor general in the City of Québec.

This residence is a unique place, a place of memory that must keep pace with and reflect today’s realities. We love to come here to work and take every opportunity to open its doors to the public and show them all that it has to offer.

Especially since it is located in the heart of a city where so many pages of our collective history have been written.

Over the past four centuries, the City of Québec has become the site of a political, literary, artistic and economic Francophone life whose influence can be felt from one end of Canada to the other.

The City of Québec has also become an international meeting space, as we saw when it hosted the Sommet de la Francophonie, the EU-Canada Summit, and a multitude of other international meetings and gatherings last year.

And the Citadelle is without a doubt one of the most beautiful sites of the Old Capital.

What a magnificent place in which to celebrate 200 years of history, within the ramparts of the only military fortification in North America that remains intact.

Two hundred years of history. Looking back, you can see how in record time, we moved from an economy based on the fur trade, agriculture and fishing to the industrial age and finally to an age of new technologies and the globalization of markets.

Because of its function as a seaport, which has made it a hub of trade and an ideal place for transit and exchange, the City of Québec has always had a front-row seat to these changes.

It is not surprising that it was here, at the turn of the 19th century, that a group of businessmen first came together to accompany the City of Québec through its evolution and to ensure its prosperity.

Yesterday as today, the Chambre de commerce de Québec has always risen to the monumental challenges inevitably brought on by change.

Just look at the conviction with which it is today endeavouring to facilitate the integration of immigrant workers, who are an invaluable resource that our society simply cannot do without.

Just look at the way in which it is striving to balance economic growth, sustainable development and human development.

I have found within the business community of the City of Québec business leaders who believe in their civic responsibility, who believe in their social responsibility to give back and to support the initiatives and efforts of civil society in a spirit of partnership, reciprocity, recognition and solidarity. Business leaders who see themselves as stakeholders in civil society.

Looking to both its community and the wider world, the Chambre de commerce de Québec is even more relevant today, now that the world’s economies are more interconnected than ever before.

The current global financial crisis has made this increasing interdependency abundantly clear. And, by extension, has underscored the urgent need for us to work together to find common solutions to the problems we are all facing.

Yes, the time has come for co-operation and solidarity, the very raison d’être of an organization such as yours: to come together, pool strengths, help one another, forge partnerships, maintain close ties with the unsung heroes of our society, contribute to the common good, to the good of us all, in an effort to achieve the same objective.

Indeed, the interests you are defending go beyond those of the members you represent. They are the interests of us all.

You are helping to revitalize the city.

You are moving on issues and projects that encourage its growth and bolster its influence in Canada and around the world.

And it is all Quebeckers who benefit.

What you are proposing to the people of the City of Québec is a vision. The vision of a prosperous, dynamic, harmonious city that is open to the world, that knows how to make the most of its many attributes, as last year’s festivities commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the City of Québec showed us so well.

You are a driving force, pushing the City of Québec and surrounding area forward.

Without question, the city would not be the same without you and your invaluable contribution to its prosperity and quality of life.

They say that the past is a promise for the future. It is therefore with that promise of hope that I wish you every success as you celebrate your bicentennial.

Long live the Chambre de commerce de Québec!