Ottawa paid $2M to defend C-Series jets in U.S.

The dispute between Bombardier and Boeing over the C-Series program — which has just been renamed the A220 — cost the federal government (named as a stakeholder) more than $2 million. In response to an accessto-information request by The Canadian Press, the government said it spent $2.03 million in legal fees defending itself in the litigation that ended with U.S. authorities ruling against Boeing in January. Cited in Boeing’s complaint, filed in the spring of 2017, Quebec, Ottawa and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec responded to the U.S. aircraft maker’s claims with legal filings submitted to U.S. authorities. Other parties, including Boeing, Bombardier and the British government, went through the same process. The United States International Trade Commission ultimately rejected the Chicago-based giant’s complaint and invalidated the countervailing and anti-dumping duties that were temporarily placed on C Series planes sent to the U.S. from Mirabel. Boeing alleged that it suffered harm from unfair subsidies given to its Quebec-based competitor that allowed Bombardier to offer Delta Air Lines an extremely low price to win an order for 75 CS100 planes in 2016. Boeing had claimed the illegal subsidies included Quebec’s $1.3 billion investment in the C-Series, the Caisse’s $1.5 billion investment in Bombardier Transportation and a $372.5 million loan from the federal government to Bombardier in February 2017. For Quebec, the legal fees are part of a larger mandate given to U.S. legal firm Arent Fox to defend the province on several issues, including the Canadian-U.S. conflict over softwood lumber. The mandate, which was renewed in April 2017, has an estimated maximum value of $9 million over two years. In the midst of the dispute between Bombardier and Boeing last October, Bombardier announced a partnership with Airbus, which saw the European giant become the majority shareholder of the C Series without paying a cent. The partnership officially came into effect on July 1. On Tuesday, the C-Series name was dropped and replaced with A220.