Economy of Montreal

Montréal has a highly diversified economic base.

It is the metropolis of French-speaking Québec, and most of the large Francophone-owned corporations have headquarters there.

About one-fifth of the metropolitan workforce is employed in manufacturing.

As with many other eastern North American cities, Montréal’s traditional industrial base has been profoundly shaken since the 1960s, although the decline was less pronounced than in most places.

Remaining factories have been moving from the city to the suburbs.

Textiles and garment making remain the major types of manufacturing in Montréal, but are declining each year.

Next most important are the food, beverage, and tobacco industries.

The most significant change has been the growth of new industries such as aerospace, drug research and manufacturing, electronics, and computer programming.

The metropolitan industrial base also includes metal products, machinery, paper products, printing, automobiles, furniture, chemicals, and petroleum products.

In Montréal as elsewhere, most employment is in the services sector.

In finance, the city hosts the head offices of the first and third largest Canadian banks, the Royal Bank and the Bank of Montréal (although most of their activities take place in Toronto), and of the two Francophone banks, the National Bank of Canada and the Laurentian Bank.

Various other financial institutions are headquartered in Montréal: insurance and trust companies, brokerage houses, and investment firms.

Toronto-based firms usually have their eastern Canada regional offices in Montréal.

The Montréal Stock Exchange specializes in options and derivatives trading; it also lists a limited number of small-capitalization local enterprises.

Some 40 countries have a consulate in Montréal, and a similar number have an honorary consulate.

A number of worldwide organizations also have offices in Montréal.

Its bilingual character has helped make Montréal a favored meeting place for European and North American cultures and a leading site for large international conventions.

Each year, conventions attract more than 500,000 delegates to Montréal.

Montréal thrived as a port city when Canada’s economy was closely linked to Britain.

Although it has lost some importance in recent decades, its harbor remains very busy.

Montréal offers the shortest route from Europe to central Canada, the Midwestern United States, and the Northeastern states.

The harbor handles a great variety of goods. Bulk cargo is dominated by grain, minerals, and petroleum.

Montréal is Canada’s leading port for containerized cargo and one of the leading container ports on the Atlantic seaboard of North America.

In summertime it also attracts many cruise ships.

Once the railway hub of Canada, Montréal is still the rail center for eastern Canada.

It is served by Canada’s two transcontinental systems, the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railways, as well as by American railways.

Major freeways converging on the city were built during the 1960s and 1970s, connecting it with the Trans-Canada Highway and with the freeway system of the United States.

Two major airports serve Montréal. Trudeau takes care of domestic and international scheduled passenger flights, whereas international charter and cargo flights go to Mirabel. Together these two airports served 8.9 million passengers in 1996.