Quebec takes U.S. import tax personally
Future of thousands of jobs in Quebec, Canada at risk, industry, government warn
MONTREAL— Forget talk of trade wars and fighter jets.
In the wake of a decision by the United States government to impose a staggering duty on Bombardier’s C Series airplane, those are topics for parliaments and politicians.
On Wednesday, the more vital conversations and calculations being hashed out in and around the city that the airplane manufacturer calls home had to do with jobs. There are a lot of them at play.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard spoke both for employers and workers when he responded to the decision by the U.S. Commerce Department to impose a 220-per-cent import tax on Bombardier’s newest commercial aircraft offering. The move was prompted by complaints from rival Boeing that the C Series had been illegally subsidized by the Quebec and Canadian governments.
“Quebec has been hit at the heart of its economy, at the heart of our aerospace industry, of our engineering, of our innovation,” Couillard said in Quebec City.
“It’s our workers, engineers, technicians and their families that were targeted . . . Hit because we make here in Quebec the best plane in the world in its class.”
There has been talk of a battle lost and a war now begun. There has been talk of Canada retaliating by refusing to purchase a long-sought fighter jet produced by Boeing.
There have been assurances that common sense will prevail in the end, but with U.S. President Donald Trump in power and hardball talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement underway, common sense has recently seemed like an uncommon occurrence.
“Logically, it should be overturned, but if we look at the United States right now there are many things happening that raise questions,” said Claude Lessard, president of Bombardier supplier Delastek Inc., a Shawinigan, Que., company that has a contract to produce the C Series cockpits.
Lessard’s business plan envisions his 65-person workforce nearly doubling to about 125 employees when the C Series hits full production. Now, he is fretting about delays and reduced orders for the plane, which could be effectively blocked from the all-important American market.
While the decision to penalize Bombardier is appealed, the company can focus on selling to Asian and European airlines. That should be enough to ensure the jobs of the 2,000 company employees who are working directly on the C Series, said David Chartrand, Quebec co-ordinator for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
“Where we’re going to run into an issue is if we don’t sell to the U.S. market for a long period of time. If we don’t get any orders over there what it would mean is less employment — less people coming in,” he said.
The projections are for an additional1,000 or so C Series jobs once Bombardier is at peak production, Chartrand said.
More immediately, there is a risk posed by the uncertainty of the situation in an industry concerned with churning out technicians and other skilled labourers with specific aerospace training, said Suzanne Benoît, president of Aéro Montréal, a think tank that advocates for the industry in Quebec.
This was an issue relayed to her by a junior college south of Montreal that offers specialized training for the aerospace industry, in such areas as avionics and airplane construction and maintenance, and is currently recruiting for the next crop of students.
“It creates uncertainty and the young people or their parents might choose to embark on another career path,” Benoît said.
It’s not only an issue for Quebec’s economy, said Derek Truba, the vicepresident of Oakville-based Coordinate Industries Inc., which supplies machine parts and assemblies to Bombardier.
The company employs about 110 people and trouble with the longterm troubles with the C Series could put in question the fate of up to 15 employees, Truba said.
But it’s difficult to tell how long the dispute between the airplane makers might last or how entrenched the United States government is in its position.
“It’s kind of all up in the air right now,” he said.
“It’s a Canadian product and I really hope that the government stands up to this because there are a lot of impacts, maybe not directly but indirectly.
“Eventually, it will be felt everywhere from material suppliers to people that process the parts.”