Quebec Business Leaders Host Dinner for Florida Governor Jeb Bush

July 28, 2004

Quebec-based members of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) will host a dinner for Florida Governor Jeb Bush and members of his Team Florida trade mission in Montreal this evening.  The CCCE is composed of the chief executives of 150 leading Canadian corporations, and members from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Atlantic Canada also will attend.

Canada is Florida’s number one source of in-bound tourism, its largest source of foreign investment and its second-largest trading partner after Brazil.

Quebec alone is a more important business partner for Florida than major countries such as Spain, France or Italy, with two-way trade of $1.9 billion last year, not counting an estimated half a billion dollars that Quebec tourists spend in the state each year.

“The huge flows of tourism, trade and investment that connect Quebec and Florida demonstrate why it is so important for Canada and the United States to take the relationship between our countries to a new level,” said CCCE President and Chief Executive Thomas d’Aquino.

In April, the CCCE released a major discussion paper, New Frontiers: Building a 21st Century Canada-United States Partnership in North America, which made 15 recommendations for strengthening both the commercial relationship and the defence and security alliance between the two countries.

Canadian companies with substantial investments or operations in Florida include Abitibi-Consolidated, Air Canada, Bank of Montreal, Bombardier, CAE, CGI, Cirque du Soleil, Jean Coutu Group, Laurentian Bank, National Bank, Nortel, Power Corporation, Quebecor and RBC Financial Group.

The CCCE is a non-partisan organization with an outstanding record of achievement in matching entrepreneurial initiative with sound public policy choices. Member CEOs lead companies that collectively administer more than $2.3 trillion in assets, have annual revenues of close to $600 billion and account for a significant majority of Canada’s private sector investment, exports, training and research and development.

In addition to Mr. d’Aquino, the members of the CCCE’s Executive Committee are: Chairman Richard L. George, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suncor Energy Inc.; Honorary Chairman A. Charles Baillie; and Vice-Chairmen Derek H. Burney, Dominic D’Alessandro, Paul Desmarais, Jr., Jacques Lamarre, Gwyn Morgan and Gordon Nixon, the chief executives respectively of CAE, Manulife Financial, Power Corporation of Canada, SNC-LAVALIN Group Inc., EnCana Corporation and Royal Bank of Canada.