INTERVIEW
REAL ESTATE AT THE HEART OF AN INCLUSIVE CITY
EN
BY RENÉ VÉZINA, JOURNALIST SPECIALIZING IN ECONOMICS
A
Jean-Marc Fournier was not out of the public eye for very long. fter leaving the National Assembly barely two years ago, where he began his career as the member for Châteauguay in 1994, he has returned to public service, this time as the CEO of the Québec Urban Development Institute (IDU). COMPREHENSIVE BACKGROUND AND VISION To say the least, he has arrived at that position at a particular moment in history, in the heart of a crisis of a magnitude not seen in nearly 100 years. Far from
being despondent about the current context, he already sees better days ahead and intends, as the saying goes, to turn problems into opportunities. "It’s time to talk in terms of partners rather than adversaries," he said, evoking the role that the commercial real estate sector can play in the urban milieu, starting with Montréal. Unfortunately, real estate promoters are far too often perceived as being indifferent to the society they live in.
JBC MÉDIA BY DENIS BERNIER
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IMMOBILIER COMMERCIAL : : OCTOBRE – NOVEMBRE 2020