Premier Legault says Ottawa favours Ontario battery industry over Quebec

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Quebec Premier Francois Legault, centre, hold a prismatic cell as they pose with from left to right, co-founder and CEO, Northvolt North America Paulo Cerruti, Quebec Economy and Innovation Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne and co-founder, CEO, Northvolt Peter Carlsson, following an announcement that Northvolt Batteries North America will build a new electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant near Montreal, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. (Christinne Muschi, The Canadian Press)

Quebec Premier François Legault said on Thursday that the federal government has put Quebec at a disadvantage compared with Ontario in the battery industry.

In a news scrum, he said that the federal aid paid to industrial battery projects in Ontario far exceeded what had been allocated to Quebec, in particular to Northvolt.

On Wednesday, Ottawa warned Quebec against redistributing to other companies a block of energy reserved for the Swedish company Northvolt for its battery plant project in Montérégie.

Ottawa, which, like Quebec, has invested in the $7 billion project, suggests that withdrawing part of the guaranteed electricity supply would not bode well for the plant.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 26, 2024.