Quebec's Quiet Pharma Powerhouse:

  Punching Above Its Weight on the Global Stage

The global pharmaceutical and life sciences industry is a colossal force, driving innovation, healthcare advancements, and economic growth worldwide. Valued in the trillions, it is dominated by powerhouses like the United States (accounting for over half of global sales through massive R&D investment, biologics leadership, and high-value production in hubs such as New Jersey, Boston, and North Carolina), Switzerland (Basel as the epicenter for premium innovative drugs from Roche and Novartis), Germany and Ireland (strong in APIs, contract manufacturing, and exports), China and India (scale giants in generics and active ingredients), and others like Japan and Singapore.

Yet amid these giants, smaller players can achieve outsized influence through smart specialization, talent, policy support, and strategic niches. Regions like Ireland (population ~5 million, a biologics export leader via incentives) and Denmark (home to Novo Nordisk's global biologics dominance) demonstrate how focused execution can yield disproportionate impact.

Enter Quebec—a province of just ~8.8 million people—that stands as a compelling example of this “punching above its weight” phenomenon in the life sciences and pharmaceutical space. 

Quebec’s sector not only delivers high-volume generics and specialty products but plays a vital role in supporting mental health nationwide through a robust lineup of psychotropic generics—essential treatments for depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and related conditions, including key atypical antipsychotics like olanzapine (the active ingredient in the branded Zyprexa, patented in the 1990s and widely available to GPs since the late 1990s).

Quebec's Life Sciences Powerhouse: Scale and Impact

Quebec’s life sciences sector, with pharmaceuticals at its core, employs close to 40,000 people in high-skill, well-compensated roles (average salaries around $77,000+). It injects nearly $6.5 billion annually into the provincial economy through direct and indirect contributions. The ecosystem includes around 700–715 organizations overall, with a strong core of 300–400 in biopharma, generics, contract services, and innovative biotech.

A key pillar of this impact is the production of psychotropic generics by Quebec-based leaders like Pharmascience (facilities in Montreal-Royalmount for solid dosage forms and Candiac for injectables) and Laboratoire Riva (Blainville). 

These include widely used antidepressants such as:

• pms-CITALOPRAM (citalopram), 
• pms-ESCITALOPRAM (escitalopram), 
• pms-SERTRALINE (sertraline), 
• pms-VENLAFAXINE XR (venlafaxine), 
• and pms-AMITRIPTYLINE (amitriptyline); 

and antipsychotics like:

• pms-QUETIAPINE (quetiapine)
• and pms-OLANZAPINE (olanzapine, the generic equivalent of Zyprexa, available in various tablet strengths and orally disintegrating forms); 
• and anxiolytics such as pms-CLONAZEPAM (clonazepam). 

By manufacturing these affordable, bioequivalent alternatives at Quebec sites, the province helps make mental health care more accessible and cost-effective for Canadians—addressing a growing public health need with reliable, locally produced supply.

Manufacturing remains a cornerstone across categories. Over 30 pharmaceutical manufacturers produce generics:

• (including the psychotropics above), 
• injectables, biologics, 
• dermatology products, 
• and more, 

often for domestic supply and export. Greater Montréal dominates, generating roughly 79% of the sector’s GDP value, supported by clusters like Laval Biotech City (home to Moderna’s mRNA vaccine facility), Royalmount, Technoparc, and the practical industrial zone along Autoroute 20 in the West Island—often called “Pharmaceutical Row.”

This corridor, stretching through Pointe-Claire, Kirkland, Dorval, Baie-d’Urfé, and adjacent areas, exemplifies Quebec’s logistics-oriented strength. Facilities here such as

 

• Galderma’s major dermatology manufacturing plant in Baie-d’Urfé (Cetaphil® and prescription topicals), 
• AbbVie operations, 
• IQVIA’s clinical services in Kirkland, 
• Dermtek, and 
• DelPharm

focus on reliable production, contract manufacturing, and global distribution. 

Proximity to Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport ensures efficient supply chains for clinical materials and exports.

Homegrown leaders like Pharmascience (a major Canadian generic producer spanning psychotropics like olanzapine to everyday meds) complement multinational presences 

• Pfizer, 
• Novartis, 
• Sanofi, 
• Novo Nordisk), 

while CROs like Altasciences and emerging biotechs drive clinical research and innovation.

Government commitment fuels this momentum. The renewed Québec Life Sciences Strategy 2025–2028, backed by nearly $271.5 million in measures, emphasizes scaling companies, strengthening financing (e.g., Fonds Impulsion), boosting clinical research excellence, and attracting talent/investment to position Quebec as a top global player.

Why Quebecers Can Be Proud

Quebec may not match the sheer volume of U.S. Northeast giants or Swiss innovation density, but its per-capita influence and specialization are remarkable. With only ~0.1% of world population, the province delivers high-quality, regulated manufacturing and R&D that supports Canada’s healthcare system (where Quebec holds ~30–35% of national pharma activity despite ~22% population share) and contributes to global supply chains.

It excels in essential areas: psychotropic generics for mental health accessibility (including olanzapine to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), dermatology/skincare (global exports via Galderma/Cetaphil), biologics/vaccines (Moderna’s Laval site), and contract/sterile production—delivering reliability in a world craving supply-chain security. This creates resilient, high-value jobs, fosters public-private collaboration (via universities, hospitals, and incentives), and attracts foreign direct investment amid global concerns.

In a world where reliability and innovation matter as much as size, Quebec has built a cohesive, efficient ecosystem that proves influence stems from execution, not just scale. The West Island’s Pharmaceutical Row—buzzing with production lines, skilled workers, and international logistics—is a visible emblem of this achievement, including the quiet but critical work on mental health generics like olanzapine.

Quebecers can take deep pride in transforming a modest province into a respected North American life sciences force—one that delivers real health solutions for everyday needs like mental wellness, economic resilience, and a brighter future for generations. It’s not about being the biggest; it’s about being essential, innovative, and enduringly impactful.

Written by Mack McColl assisted by Grok by xAI

The Price of Beef and the Price of Trust:

Canada’s Quiet Crisis

You can tell a lot about a country by the price of its beef. Not speeches, not press releases, not carefully staged photo‑ops where everyone pretends the house isn’t on fire. The truth lives in the grocery aisle, under fluorescent lights, where a family stands frozen in front of a $60‑a‑pound sticker and  recalculates what kind of nation they’re living in, quietly, viscerally, fearfully. It's been a century since anything like this happened in Canada. 

Canadians think of themselves as stable, polite, and vaguely sensible. But nothing says “the wheels are coming off” like a protein price that belongs in a luxury boutique instead of a supermarket. You don’t need a PhD in economics to understand what’s happening. You need a pulse and a shopping cart.

This isn’t inflation anymore. This is strain, and stress, and economic fear, the kind that shows up before politicians notice, before economists admit it, and long after the public has felt the bruise.

The reasons are predictable: droughts, feed shortages, shrinking herds, processing bottlenecks, and a retail sector so concentrated it might as well be a polite cartel. Add in the usual policy lag from carbon costs, transport costs, regulatory friction, and you get a system that’s buckling while Ottawa insists everything is “moving in the right direction.” Sure. Maybe on stationary of a vacation resort on the beach in Costa Rica where the briefing notes are written.

Meanwhile, Canadians are left doing the math on whether they can afford a roast. And this is where the economic story bleeds into the political one. People aren’t stupid. They know when they’re being managed instead of informed. They know when the official narrative doesn’t match the lived one. They know when the numbers don’t add up — not because they’re experts, but because they’re the ones paying the bill.

A population under financial pressure becomes a population that stops giving institutions the benefit of the doubt. That’s why the recent flare‑up over Mark Carney’s name appearing in the Epstein document dump hit like a spark in dry grass. The reporting is clear: the mentions are incidental, not relational. But that’s not the point. The point is Canadians no longer trust the gatekeepers to tell them the truth, and once the trust evaporates, even inexplicable facts start to look radioactive.

The Carney moment isn’t a scandal. It was a barometer. What we’re seeing now is convergence of the sort that doesn’t announce itself with sirens but with small humiliations. Shrinking grocery carts. Quiet resentment. A sense of the country being run by people who don’t shop where you shop and don’t live where you live. Food inflation feeds political cynicism. Cynicism feeds suspicion of elites. Suspicion feeds online wildfire. And the cycle keeps spinning until legitimacy becomes the real casualty.

A country doesn’t collapse in a single dramatic moment. It frays. It frays in checkout lines and kitchen tables and during a slow realization that the people in charge are more interested in managing perception than confronting reality. It frays when citizens stop believing numbers and start believing their eyes.

Canada isn’t falling apart. Not yet. But it’s drifting into something more dangerous: a quiet crisis wrapped in official calm. And denial — especially the polished, professional kind — is how quiet crises become loud ones.

The price of beef is telling us something. The question is whether anyone in power is willing to hear it.

The Lost LNG Decade | A Canadian Taxpayer’s Many Nightmares

Would you believe there are two countries in North America?

One smart and rich, and the other one is Canada

Canada’s LNG Debacle is a Taxpayer’s Recurring Nightmare in Five Acts

Canada entered the new century holding the geological equivalent of a winning lottery ticket and then spent the next decade misplacing it under a stack of forms marked “Pending Review.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. which has never shied away from monetizing a resource, took the opportunity and built a global LNG empire.

Has Canada finished its first round of stakeholder engagement on LNG? One country treated LNG like a revenue engine; the other treated it like a "Meh."

This isn’t policy the Canadian taxpayer might have anticipated since Canada has no shortage of Natural Gas and has known this for a century. Historically the country unites for big projects. The country was created by a railroad project. The country dredged the St Lawrence Seaway. The country developed the world's third largest deposit of petroleum. The nation built the James Bay Project. The country opened ports on every coast.

Today the indolent response to economic potential in natural gas is more like a nation encountering nightmare after nightmare: A country crippled by institutional fetters watching the U.S. mint brand new and recurring wealth at industrial scale, overnight.

From whence did these nightmares spring?

Nightmare 1: The One Where You Watch Someone Else Spend Your Lottery Winnings

The 2010s through early 2020s were golden years for LNG arbitrage. Asian buyers were paying premiums, the U.S. was still stretching before the race, and Canada had every structural advantage you can imagine. What it didn’t have was the ability to move faster than a glacier with a government appointment and a clipboard.

Economic modeling from the Conference Board of Canada shows what taxpayers could have gained if Canada had built out roughly 56 million tonnes per year of LNG capacity:

•  about $11 billion in annual GDP
•  nearly 100,000 sustained jobs every year
•  more than $2 billion per year in taxes and royalties

For taxpayers, that’s the kind of revenue that funds hospitals, schools, and infrastructure, and expands the horizons for all Canada, with the basics that nowadays need “more study” because budgets are tight. Instead, Canadians got the privilege of watching the U.S. collect the receipts, and building their economy. With they did in LNG.

Nightmare 2: The One Where Every Project Dies of Sclerosis

Pacific NorthWest LNG—$36 billion, global capital lined up, Indigenous partnerships ready—spent years in regulatory limbo before finally expiring of natural causes in 2017. A fact we all know was a procession of West and East Coast proposals followed into the bureaucratic afterlife, casualties of timelines that averaged 19 months longer than U.S. approvals.

Broader tallies of cancelled or stalled resource projects since 2015 reach the $660–$670 billion range. For taxpayers, that’s not just a number. It’s the sound of revenue evaporating while taxes keep rising to cover the gap. Add to the evaporating cash the mismanagement of federal spending, and debt spirals while development process dies horrible deaths.

Nightmare 3: The One Where Your Neighbour Builds a Formidable Mint While You’re Still Reading the Instructions on a Tinker Toy.

This is the dream where the U.S. appears in a montage of hard hats, cranes, liquefaction trains rising like steel cathedrals, and Canada, same vicinity, same offices, similar ciews, cannot find the right sticky notepad.

The neighbour’s holdings now contain:

•  the world’s largest LNG export system
•  long‑term contracts with half the planet
•  a job boom so large it needs its own zip code

Meanwhile, the Canadian taxpayer stands at the fence holding a bag of fentanyl precursor, wondering how the neighbour built a national treasure while Canada was debating the merits of people owning nothing or giving their property to a few sullen Native folk suddenly enamored of urban property belonging to others. The old game of Indian Giving taken to Grand Theft Auto Level 11 (and there's only 10 levels).

The people they are removing from property might be their MD, or their Professor, or their Band Accountant. If it seems like self-sabotage, that's because Canada's new motif is psychopaths rule.

Nightmare 4: The One Where You Finally Arrive, After the Market Has Gone Home

LNG Canada’s first cargo in mid‑2025 was a triumph, arguably, since it was the largest private investment in Canadian history now finally producing. But by then, the global market had shifted. U.S. and Qatari expansions had flooded supply. Prices had cooled. Competition was fierce.

Canada entered the market like someone fashionably late to a party that wasn’t supposed to be fashionable, like, for instance, making the King wait for knighting. For taxpayers, it meant the premium years were already gone, the years that would pay down debt and fund new services for immigration, for defense, for education, and new industry. Instead. Food banks, and grocery tax credits.

It's too pitiful for words, really. Let us continue with words anyway.

And now, Nightmare 5: This is the worst one. The lucid nightmare. The One Where the World Knocks—And Canada Isn’t Ready Yet

The moment when the taxpayer finally sees the problem clearly—and the problem is timing. In this dream, Canada isn’t short on demand because leaders from Japan, South Korea, India, Germany, heads of major economies with real energy needs, publicly stepped forward with the same message:

We want Canadian LNG. We want long‑term contracts. We want reliable partners.

They say it publicly. They say it diplomatically. They say it repeatedly.

And yet Canada, in the nightmare, answers with the soft thud of another discussion paper hitting another desk.

Meanwhile, Indigenous‑led projects—Woodfibre, Cedar, Haisla Nation’s leadership are proving what modern energy development can look like when communities lead: faster timelines, clearer accountability, stronger environmental stewardship. They’re building while the rest of Canada is debating the preamble.

The clocks in this nightmare have stopped moving. God forbid pensions go unfunded while taxpayers stand between global demand and Indigenous innovation and realize the nightmare isn’t a lack of opportunity—it’s a generational inability to act when opportunity arrives.

The bottom line remains at a decade earlier, when Canada could have had:

•  stronger provincial and federal revenues
•  diversified export markets
•  tens of thousands more well‑paid jobs
•  a fiscal position less dependent on hoping commodity prices behave

But the approvals stretched on into disapprovals, and the best projects aged out. But not on the exact same continent of North America where U.S. built an export empire in the same time it took for Canada drop to a zero growth GDP and no change in sight.

The Closing Gavel

Canada’s LNG story isn’t a tragedy of resources or capability. It’s a tragedy of timing. The world knocked. Indigenous partners stepped forward. Investors lined up. The opportunity was real, measurable, and repeatedly confirmed by global demand.

And yet, the decade slipped away.

The U.S. certainly didn’t out‑resource Canada. It out‑decided Canada's decision-makers and in so doing left Canadian citizens, taxpayers, in the lurch.

For taxpayers, the nightmare isn’t the lost wealth—it’s waking up to the realization that the alarm clock rang ten years ago, and the country is still reaching for the snooze button.

On the same continent

WFCA's John Betts Announces Upcoming Retirement

 Departing A Forest Sustainability Career This Spring

John Betts, long-standing Executive Director, WFCA, announced his retirement during the afternoon of day one, 2026 WFCA Annual Meeting, Jan 28, 2026, effective this coming spring.  John Betts retires after a long and fruitful tenure dedicated to the association of businesses that keep Canadian forests in all their splendor. 

All aspects of trees are covered by WFCA members, businesses, faculties, government departments and ministries, and human resource agencies. John knit this sector together for a long time. He knew the reforestation industry from a lifetime perspective. It was my pleasure to conduct media business with the WFCA over the years, in print, and technology. 

I learned a huge amount about the business of reforestation in Canada from John Betts. I was always reading the quarterly bulletins. I covered the reforestation business  journalistically for a couple of decades with the assistance of John Betts. Absorbing his perplexing puns, and the remarkable accounting of people making Canadian forests sustainable was educational for years.

Congratulations, John, for hosting another Annual Meeting, capping the career and putting your personal stamp on western Canadian reforestation from the rainforests to the boreal!

Mack McColl, Editor, McColl Magazine

Poilievre Speaks to Conservatives in Calgary

Poilievre Expected to Survive Leadership Review as Conservatives Gather end of January

CALGARY — Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is widely expected to survive this weekend’s mandatory leadership review, with party delegates signalling strong support as they arrive for the national convention in Calgary.

The review, triggered automatically after the party’s 2025 election loss, asks delegates to vote on whether Poilievre should remain at the helm. Senior party members and grassroots organizers say there is no sign of an internal revolt, and no credible challenger has emerged to test his position.

Interviews with delegates and young Conservative activists ahead of the vote suggest confidence in Poilievre remains high. Several described the review as a formality, noting that polling among Conservative voters continues to show strong approval of his performance.

The party is hoping for a decisive result that mirrors the 84 percent endorsement Stephen Harper received in 2004, a benchmark many Conservatives still view as the gold standard for post‑election leadership validation. Strategists say Poilievre is aiming for a similarly commanding mandate to reinforce stability and avoid speculation about succession.

Despite the loss in 2025, Poilievre retains firm control of the party apparatus, and insiders say there is no organized movement pushing for change. With no heir apparent and no visible fractures in the caucus, the leadership review is expected to reaffirm his position and allow the party to shift its focus toward rebuilding for the next campaign cycle.

The vote will take place shortly after Poilievre’s keynote address to delegates, with results expected later in the weekend.

McColl Magazine Daily: Poilievre Secures Strong Mandate in National Convention

WFCA 2026 Annual Meeting -- Brinkman and Tesluk follow Hon. Ravi Pamar | Day One

McColl Magazine Daily: Dirk Brinkman, Jordan Tesluk and Company Speak to Day One | WFCA 2026

"Excuse me. Mind if I squeeze in here?"

Canada's best position would be to try and squeeze between these two and pretend to be a middle man on something besides fentanyl precursors.

Former Winter Olympian Turned Canadian Carpenter

#WinterOlympics #Carpentry #SkilledTrades
What if the discipline you admire in Olympians could help launch your next career in carpentry?
Meet Elena Muratova from Local 1598, a level-three carpenter apprentice who understands what it means to grow through the carpentry trade. For Elena, carpentry is more than a construction job. It is a career path that builds confidence, develops hands-on skills, and rewards hard work. The training you receive as a carpenter apprentice stays with you for life, both on and off the jobsite.
 If you are exploring careers in construction, apprenticeships, or opportunities in the skilled trades, this story shows what is possible.

What is one reason you would consider joining the carpentry trade? Stay in touch. Visit to learn more. 

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Canada's Salmon Industry in Crisis:

Rising Imports Threaten Food Security

A new report from the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) reveals a concerning trend in Canada's salmon industry. Despite strong demand, farm-raised salmon production in British Columbia has declined by over 40% since 2015, leading to a surge in imports from countries like Chile and Norway.

The CAIA warns that this shift threatens Canada's food security, economic resilience, and climate policy. Imported salmon has a higher carbon footprint due to longer transportation distances. The industry is calling for regulatory certainty and investment to boost local production.

Key Stats:

1. Salmon imports: $700 million annually, up from $300 million in 2015
2. BC salmon production: 53,816 tonnes in 2024, down 40% from 2015 peak
3. Jobs: 18,074 full-time positions in the aquaculture sector
4. Economic output: $6 billion annually

The CAIA proposes four priorities to revitalize the sector, including canceling the BC salmon farm ban and designating Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as the federal development lead. With the right support, Canada's aquaculture industry can generate $2.5 billion in annual output and 9,000 jobs by 2030.

The report from the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) reveals a growing imbalance in Canada’s food system. While demand for farm-raised salmon remains strong, production in British Columbia, which has traditionally led salmon production in Canada, has declined significantly, driving a surge in imports.

Since 2015, farm-raised salmon production in BC has fallen by more than 40 percent (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Production of farmed salmon by region, 1991 to 2024. Source: 2024 Aquaculture Industry Snapshot, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), 2026. Data sourced from Statistics Canada. Table 32-10-0107-01. 

Over the same period, Canada’s salmon imports have more than doubled (Figure 2),

Figure 2. Value of Canada’s imports of salmon, 2015 to 2024. Source: Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA). Data sourced from https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/trade-data-online/en. 

reaching approximately $700 million annually. Much of this growth has come from increased imports of salmon from countries such as Chile and Norway (Figure 3),

Figure 3. Percentage growth of Canadian imports of salmon from Chile, the United States, Norway and China, 2014 to 2015. Source: Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA). Data sourced from https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/trade-data-online/en. 

as Canada turns to international suppliers to meet demand that could be fulfilled locally.

“Salmon remains Canada’s most consumed seafood,” said Brian Kingzett, Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association. “The data clearly shows demand is strong. With long-term regulatory certainty, Canada has a real opportunity to produce more of this food at home.”

Canadian-raised salmon is a climate-friendly source of protein and a significant contributor to the national economy. The BC sector currently supports more than 4,000 families and generates $1.2 billion in annual economic output, with the most significant impacts felt on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland.

Increasing reliance on imported salmon also carries broader implications for food security, economic resilience, and climate policy, as imported salmon typically travels longer distances by ship or air, resulting in higher greenhouse gas emissions compared to locally produced Canadian salmon.

With renewed regulatory certainty and improved investment confidence, the sector has the potential to generate up to $2.5 billion in annual economic output and approximately 9,000 jobs by 2030, and as much as $4.2 billion in annual output and more than 16,000 jobs by 2040.

 “With the right framework in place, BC salmon farmers are ready to support Canada’s food system and help build a stronger Canada,” said Kingzett.

ICBA Continues to Lead

 . . . in training and apprenticeship

When it comes to training and apprenticeship, the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) is at the head of the class.

The construction industry is constantly evolving, and continual training is needed so workers don’t fall behind. Everyone needs to stay current with safety tickets, technical changes, code updates and more in order to get ahead in their careers.

Whether you are new in the construction industry or would like to add to your experience, ICBA has courses for you. This year, they offered more than 900 courses and that number keeps growing.