Are we, Quebecers, being fooled by the Northvolt megaproject, full of promises of a bright future, that our government promised us to finally get us, Quebec, out of our inferior condition compared to Ontarians, thanks to the $50-an-hour wages that should come from the production of batteries for electric cars by this uncertain company?
We are told that the Northvolt plant is continuing its construction in Montérégie, as if nothing had happened and, to top it all off, to the detriment of the environment, in these anxious times caused by climate change, even though the company’s liquidity is not there. With, again, politicians and bosses, who think they are reassuring us by saying without a hint that they have no concerns. All this after a major customer who had placed an order for batteries costing 2 billion euros withdrew because Northvolt did not respect the contractual terms.
I dare to draw a parallel here between two articles from the September 24, 2024 edition of your newspaper: that of Alexandre Shields entitled “Northvolt, a “controlled risk””, and another by the same author and three other journalists which deals with the effects in Quebec of the recent setbacks of the Swedish multinational.
“In all, therefore, […] $710 million from Quebec has been invested so far in the Swedish company.” This is what I read in one of the two articles, which contradicts Premier François Legault’s statement that if the project does not see the light of day, there will be no public funds injected into Northvolt. “Nothing has been disbursed yet. So, if there is no project, we are not going to disburse them.”
Two completely contradictory statements on the same page concerning such a large sum of public money, this deserves clarification for me.