Mr Prime Minister,
On September 28, 2023, the CAQ government announced financial assistance of $3 billion to the private Swedish company Northvolt. It will also receive financial assistance from the federal government. On this occasion, you proudly tell journalists (radio or television) that this investment, which I would describe as enormous, is reminiscent of that which the Liberal government, under Robert Bourassa, granted for the LG2 project: a project carried out to provide electricity by Hydro-Québec to the entire population of Quebec. You establish, in my opinion, a very dubious comparison in its content, which resembles disinformation, by comparing an investment in a collective good for collective purposes (Hydro-Québec) to an investment in a private company. Your comparison would have made more sense if you had cited the interest-free loan of $110 million granted in 1987 by the same Bourassa government to General Motors (GM) in Sainte-Thérèse/Boisbriand. In 2002, 15 years later, the activities ceased and it was only in April 2017 that the total amount of the loan was repaid without interest… we will not talk about the investment in the cement plant.
The amount granted to Northvolt is so staggering – and the conditions are unknown – that one might wonder where you found it… However, we know who will pay the price.
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