I can vouch that it is a very fun place to live; espcially compared to other Canadian cities (I've lived in 4 major cities so far coast-to-coast).
One of the best thing in Quebec is that you can buy booze in any corner groceries! And even that store will have better selection than monopolistic backwaters like Toronto/Vancouver.
Re: 'prestige' companies, Element AI seems to be becoming quite a good place. It just got a massive VC funding of C$120+ mln, and Yoshua Bengio is one of the backers!!!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14557008
edit: typo + link.