On March 12, the Swedish company Northvolt declared bankruptcy. A massive investment in public funds will disappear with the Montérégie battery plant project. Quebec's CAQ government had invested $270 million of taxpayers' money in the plant, and $200 million for the Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund (CDPQ). The Swedish company had been denounced in 2024 for its ties with tax havens.
In addition to the $470 million lost by Quebecers, the CAQ loaned Northvolt $240 million to buy the land needed for their mega-plant. Taxpayers will not be able to recover this loan, since Northvolt sheltered itself from its creditors before declaring bankruptcy.
As for the Swedish company, it had only put up $135 million of its own money to create the new plant.
In addition to the public funds, the CAQ had granted Northvolt 354 megawatts (MW) of electricity at preferential rates for the first two stages of setting up their battery plant. These 354 MW are equivalent to the consumption of all the homes in Longueuil.
The bankruptcy of Northvolt and the disappearance of the taxpayers' money that had been invested in it adds to a long list of wastes of public money by the CAQ.
The SAAQclic fiasco required public investment of $1.1 billion. The electric bus manufacturer Lion Electric, which laid off hundreds of employees in recent months and filed for bankruptcy protection in February, received $193 million in public funds.
The multinational pharmaceutical company Medicago, which ceased all operations in 2023, received $257 million in public investment from the provincial government to build a huge complex in the Quebec City region.
Granting public funds to companies operating in tax havens is hardly a new phenomenon for Quebec governments. Philippe Couillard's Liberals put $2.5 billion of public money into Bombardier between 2015 and 2016. At the time, the Quebec company was in financial difficulty, even though a Luxembourg company that owns shares in the company declared hundreds of millions of dollars in profits over the same period.
The CAQ had presented the need for an energy transition to justify its generous donations to Northvolt. However, it is imposing budgetary austerity measures on public transit companies like the STM, which are essential to achieving an energy transition.
The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has given $200 million to the cities of Greater Montreal for public transit. They were asking for $561 million just to be able to maintain the existing offer, let alone expand it.
On the other hand, Pierre Fitzgibbon, who was Minister of Energy and responsible for wasting public money on Northvolt, tabled Bill 69 before leaving office.
In it, he attempts to pass on to Quebecers the bill for Hydro-Québec's expanded activities through massive rate hikes, while continuing to give preferential rates to multinationals that have no responsibility to Quebecers.