ST. LOUIS — The mission was simple: cover a press conference announcing Air Canada's new seasonal service from St. Louis Lambert International Airport to Montreal. Easy. We've written articles like this dozens of times. But beyond the cool accents, the crowd and the cake, we discovered a bigger story: business is booming between the Show Me State and its neighbor to the north.
“There is definitely something happening between Quebec and the Show Me State right now. The numbers show it: 8.5 per cent growth over the last five years. Trade relations of about $2 billion. Things are moving in the right direction,” Jean-François Ould, the Quebec government's representative for the Midwest, said in an interview on May 2, 2024.
“It's not just Canadian companies taking advantage of this here. St. Louis companies are taking advantage of the opportunity in Canada,” said Tim Nowak, executive director of the St. Louis World Trade Center.
Nowak said Canada is Missouri's and the St. Louis region's largest trade and investment partner. In 2023, Missouri's imports from Canada were $4.3 billion and its exports to Canada were $6.5 billion.
“When you look at distribution opportunities, rail, river, road and air, we have a very good starting point to do business in North America, particularly in some of these industries where we have strengths – ag tech, biolife sciences, the financial industry and geospatial,” Nowak responded.
After Air Canada's announcement on May 2, Nowak and a group of local leaders boarded a flight to Montreal as part of a four-day trade mission.
“Literally the week after we returned, a Quebec representative was back in St. Louis meeting with some of the companies and organizations that were part of our trade mission, so the work is continuing and it's growing,” Nowak said.
Vincent Routhier's Quebec-based company manufactures cutting-edge audiovisual systems with a wide range of educational applications, and the St. Louis Public School District will soon be installing Lü systems in all of its elementary school gyms.
“We were quickly introduced to government and economic development organizations, and everyone involved is so well connected that it made it easier to start a local business between these cities because the pathways were already paved,” Routier said.
A success story that shows the gateway to the west can be a driving force for Canadian businesses.
“It's very exciting for us and this is really the starting point of a much bigger relationship that we can learn a lot from,” Routier said.
“This is a highly interconnected global economy. We can't turn a blind eye to reality. We have to engage. We have to compete as a community. And that's exactly what we're doing,” Nowak added.
