Ottawa urged to join CSeries rescue
Quebec wants feds to match $1B in support
Quebec plans to ask Canada’s federal government to match the province’s $1-billion investment in Bombardier Inc.’s CSeries program to round out the funding for the troubled jet and assuage any lingering customer concerns.
“If the federal government comes in, the notion of risk completely changes,” Economy Minister Jacques Daoust said Friday. “If the federal government also put in $1 billion, that would mean the CSeries financing package would be complete.”
His comments underscored Quebec’s determination to prop up the marquee aircraft model at Montreal-based Bombardier, which has been draining cash amid missed deadlines, cost overruns and scant interest among major airlines. Bombardier said Thursday that the jet will need an additional $2 billion during the next five years.
In specifying a figure, Daoust also made clear Quebec’s expectations about the extent of federal aid as prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party takes office next week. Bombardier assistance would be studied once the new leadership is in place, party spokesman Dan Lauzon said Thursday.
“In one week we will know exactly who we’re working with in Ottawa,” Daoust said. “I can assure you that in the following half-hour, I’ll get his or her phone number and put in a call.”
Quebec’s package also includes a potential equity investment of as much as $442 million. Daoust said the federal government needs to act, too, as it did in helping bail out General Motors and Chrysler as part of their 2009 bankruptcies.
“We are going to ask them to support the aerospace industry in Quebec the same way they backed the auto industry in Ontario when times were difficult,” Daoust said. “This will be a profitable transaction for everybody.”