News

Expert: Montreal pitch as Amazon’s 2nd headquarters

Published: 8 September 2017

“Wanted: A place with a million people, a diverse population, good schools and malleable lawmakers. Room to accommodate up to 50,000 workers. Canadian provinces also welcome to apply.” (New York Times)

Saibal Ray, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University

“An Amazon headquarter in Montreal would be beneficial for the economy both directly (employment) and indirectly (giving Amazon better access to Quebec/Canada SMEs). It would also help attract new talent to Quebec from related industries (e.g., AI, Big Data, Design, Supply Chain, Marketing) and further benefit local universities and research centers. Montreal is well located for this project given its recent rise as a cutting-edge technology hub and as an international, cultural, and bilingual city that would be attractive to potential employees. The concern would be the cost of attracting Amazon in the short term. Amazon will surely demand significant inducements in some form (e.g., tax break, land). Can we afford it? Are there better areas to invest those funds, such as on start-ups and other societal programs?”—Saibal Ray

Professor Ray's research interest can broadly be categorized as supply chain management. He is specifically interested in studying supply chain risk management, retail operations management, and supply chain issues related to agri-food and natural resources sectors. Most of his research is at the interface of operations and marketing.

saibal.ray [at] mcgill.ca (English)

Back to top