When he moved up his departure from the management of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), in February 2020 rather than in March 2021, Michael Sabia then reinforced the scenario seeing Sophie Brochu take over. Here he is today approached to lead Hydro-Québec and take over the helm abandoned by the hasty departure of Sophie Brochu. Little karmic anecdote that all this, especially since obviously, if there was a difference in aim and vision between Mme Brochu and Pierre Fitzgibbon, Mr. Sabia’s past makes him the man of refocusing and major projects that fit harmoniously with the economic development program of the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy.
First, refocusing. Michael Sabia will have been the one who brought the Caisse de dépôt back to its dual mission including a role of strategic leverage for the development of the Quebec economy. This sensitivity had been greatly diluted under the previous administration, rather focused on financial engineering and derivatives before the outbreak of the financial crisis. subprime.
Previously, at the direction of BCE, he was given the mandate to reposition the company around its core business. Under the previous management, the telecommunications giant had just tried the adventure of multimedia, in the context of a convergence strategy carried out in the midst of the bubble of technological values. Under his presidency, analysts deplored its defensive positioning in the face of competition from cable distributors and called Bell that it had become a “company of engineers”. But the mandate was carried out.
Then the big jobs. During his 11 years at the head of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Michael Sabia favored the path towards the so-called real economy. That of private placements, infrastructures and partnerships, both here and in its international deployment, and this, with a long-term perspective. The manager played the card of its critical mass to support Quebec companies internationally, and its triple A rating to take over from governments in public infrastructure projects with a profit motive.
The president and CEO of the portfolio manager said he wanted to prioritize concrete investments, bet “on companies and projects that are firmly rooted in the real economy. who make real profits.
For him, reinventing himself every three months in pursuit of short-term goals, reacting to mood swings in the economy and volatility in stock prices was not a viable solution. The shift towards the long term, towards sustainability, with an investment horizon that is measured in years, “not in quarters or semesters”, had become his mantra. Getting rid of the “short-termite” required broadening the Caisse’s financial expertise to include production specialists, engineers, geologists, telecommunications and transportation experts, etc.
A few hiccups
Which was not without causing some failures. Mr. Sabia notably took charge of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) file. In May 2022, the Legault government had to dismiss CDPQ Infra from the Eastern REM project in order to review its governance, and abandon the heavily criticized downtown section.
In 2020, the Port-Daniel cement plant in Gaspé, a project marked by significant cost overruns, came under the control of a Brazilian conglomerate. The Cement McInnis project was announced with great fanfare by the PQ government of Pauline Marois in 2014, to then receive the green light from the Liberal government. He was widely supported, both by the Caisse and by public funds. This public investment was written off and the value of the Caisse’s investment melted like snow in the sun. McInnis remains one of Quebec’s largest greenhouse gas emitters.
But for the work as a whole, commenting on his departure from the Caisse, Pierre Fitzgibbon said of Mr. Sabia that “his rigorous management as CEO has brought the Caisse to another level […] It has always been a pleasure to work with him, both on the CDPQ’s Board of Directors and as Minister of the Economy.” A new opportunity is about to present itself to the minister.