Investissement Québec is touting cheap labour to encourage companies in the battery sector to set up here.
This contrasts with the speech of Prime Minister François Legault, who says he wants to attract to Quebec companies that pay the highest wages to their workers.
Investissement Québec documents obtained by the Parti Québécois under the Access to Information Act claim that Quebec labour is 14% less expensive than the average for northeastern American states.
“We even compare salaries position by position to say: ‘Come here, you will pay less,'” lamented PQ MP Pascal Paradis during question period on Thursday.
One of the tables from Investissement Québec, entitled “A cost-advantage of nearly 30% on salaries for battery manufacturing employers” is particularly revealing, with salary gaps of up to $47,000 to the disadvantage of Quebec.
There are different job categories, scientist, production engineer, battery engineer, logistics analyst, maintenance employee, with their median salary, illustrating to what extent these workers are paid less in Montreal than in Cleveland, San Francisco, Austin or Detroit.
For example, a battery scientist would earn a median salary of $74,000 in Montreal, but $121,000 in San Francisco or $94,600 in Reno.
Similarly, a production engineer earns $64,300 a year in Montreal, but $88,000 in Cleveland or $103,500 in San Francisco.
The entire promotional document from Investissement Québec, which is nearly thirty pages long, aims to demonstrate, with a large amount of data, that the operating costs of a battery component factory are lower in Quebec.
“What does the Prime Minister have to say about what he has been telling us for days while he is selling “cheap labor”? [du Québec] ? ” asked Mr. Paradis.
Unusually, it was the Prime Minister himself who answered the MP’s question rather than the minister responsible, Christine Fréchette, whereas, usually, the leader only answers questions from other leaders.
Trudeau favours Ontario, says Legault
François Legault defended himself by saying that he wants to close the wealth gap with other provinces.
But he took the opportunity to attack the federal government of Justin Trudeau which, according to him, favoured Ontario to the detriment of Quebec in its support for investments in the battery sector.
“We don’t have our share because Mr. Trudeau […] refuses to treat Quebec fairly,” he castigated, while acknowledging in the same breath that in the case of the Northvolt factory project in Montérégie, “the bulk of what is invested in Northvolt comes from the federal government.”