A coffee with… Martine Hébert | Would Trump unload our battery industry?

Martine Hébert is well placed to talk about the business climate. And to gauge the impact that the re-election of Donald Trump would have on our economy and on the battery industry, among others.

Until mid-August, Martine Hébert was Quebec’s general delegate in New York, playing the role of Quebec’s economic diplomat in a dozen states. In 2019 and 2020, she was a delegate in Chicago as Trump ended his term in chaos.

“With Trump, we were always one tweet away from a torn agreement. However, one of the key determinants of the economy is predictability, the business climate,” Martine Hébert told me while drinking her iced latte.

In the event of Trump’s re-election, the ex-diplomat fears that the energy transition will be threatened in the United States, with its effects here, given the ex-president’s aversion to energy.Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The main objective of this law – despite its bad name – is to provide massive financial support to American companies for the energy transition, support that Canada has sometimes had to copy to attract battery assemblers here, like Northvolt.

In such a situation, the 58-year-old woman who made herself known as vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), believes that our businesses will demonstrate resilience. Our politicians and diplomats will then have to skillfully fight, among other things, against the protectionist inclinations of American elected officials – Republicans and Democrats alike – as was the case when Trump renegotiated the free trade agreement.

All the same, the stakes of the American election are colossal for our economy.

Batteries: too many eggs…

Regarding the battery sector, Martine Hébert judges that Quebec has done well to focus on this sector, especially since our production will be greener and more ethical than that of China.

“I have lived in the United States and I have noticed that Americans are very concerned about the issues of the provenance of critical and strategic minerals and about securing supply bases on the continent,” Martine tells me. Hébert.

But she wonders.

Martine Hébert is happy to have regained her freedom of speech, after having carried that of Quebec internationally under the CAQ and that of SMEs for 15 years.

The former vice-president of the CFIB had arranged to meet me in a corner where she was comfortable, at the Café du Marché, opposite the Jean-Talon market, where dozens of SMEs are busy.

“We have neglected our SMEs”

According to her, SMEs have been neglected under the CAQ, a speech that we also hear among the Quebec Liberals. “While we have focused on attracting large foreign investments to Quebec, we have neglected our SMEs,” says Martine Hébert, who describes herself as a “defrocked” economist.

She believes that more should have been done to help them increase their productivity and resolve their labor problem.

According to her, Quebec should focus on one of its great strengths, energy. “Let us also develop innovation and research and development in this sector. In the world, there is a race for energy, and we are well positioned,” she says.

Fragile social gains

Another concern of Martine Hébert, after her visit to the United States: the fragility of certain social achievements, such as the values ​​of inclusion, equality between men and women and the right to abortion.

The one who does not hide her homosexuality is worried about the fate that could be reserved for the LGBTQ+ movement in Canada, particularly under a possible conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre. “I come back with deep concern for our achievements, which are so fragile,” she said.

The aggressiveness in the comments of certain politicians worries him, in the United States as in France or here. “I came back upset to see how fragile the balance we were in is,” she says.

Martine Hébert lets me know that she is now being considered for politics, without wanting to say whether it is municipal, provincial or federal. One thing is certain, the former political attaché of PQ minister André Boisclair (at the end of the 1990s) does not believe that a Quebec would be better served outside of Canada.

Since her return to Quebec, Martine Hébert can sometimes be seen on Gérald Fillion’s show on Radio-Canada television. And who knows, maybe we will soon come across her on a political party poster?

Whatever the case, the words of Martine Hébert, who worked for five years to establish ties with the Americans, leave us wondering. And they invite us to be ready, whatever happens.

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Who is Martine Hébert

• She held the position of general delegate of Quebec in New York between 2021 and 2024, after that of Chicago.
• She was vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) between 2010 and 2019.
• She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Montreal.
• Named honorary graduate of the University of Montreal in 2010