The Minister of the Economy Pierre Fitzgibbon reiterated his full support for the Northvolt company on Friday, ensuring that it did not benefit from any privileges in terms of Quebec environmental rules. At the same time, the parliamentary budget officer in Ottawa let it be known that public aid to the company could take longer than expected to be profitable.
“It is false to say that Northvolt benefited from a short circuit in terms of the environment”, underlined Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, during a conference on the battery sector, organized by the Council of international relations of Montreal (CORIM).
The plant is “not on SEPAQ land” and there will be no “three-eyed fish” in the Richelieu River, near which the plant will be located, he said – obviously referring to the mutant fish species in The Simpsons: The Movie.
The land, which formerly housed the Canadian Industries Limited explosives factory but which has been unexploited for almost 25 years, today has no less than 74 wetlands, however, reports The duty earlier this week. And the majority of them are important for the conservation of biodiversity.
More time to make aid profitable
Furthermore, in a report published Friday, the parliamentary budget officer in Ottawa indicated that it would be necessary to wait longer than expected to make public aid to Northvolt profitable.
The federal public finance watchdog estimates that the production subsidy that the company will receive – once it begins producing batteries – will be profitable in 11 years rather than 9 years, as Quebec suggests. .
“Honestly, 9 or 11 years… I think 9 years is good. The assumptions may be different. This is a project that will be recovered in approximately 10 years. I think it is a very good project, considering that the Northvolt plant will remain in operation for more than 10 years,” underlined Minister Fitzgibbon, during a press scrum following the CORIM conference.
More generally, the report also figures the total envelope of public aid granted to Northvolt, Volkswagen and Stellantis-LGES for the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries between 2022 and 2033.
In total, $43.6 billion is granted to them by the federal government ($26.9 billion), Quebec and Ontario ($16.7 billion). This is an amount of $5.8 billion more than what was publicly announced ($37.7 billion) by the three levels of government.