Quebec touts Airbus sales power, jobs saved in C Series deal

Bloomberg

The deal that ceded control of
Bombardier Inc.’s C Series jet programme to Airbus SE was the best option to save jobs in Quebec and ensure the industry’s future in the Canadian province, Economy Minister Dominique Anglade said.
The entry of the European plane maker brings in a “selling firepower” that Bombardier doesn’t have, opening up markets for the jetliner from Europe to Asia to Africa, the provincial minister said. It also boosts confidence in the program and helps “completely change the game,” she said.
“All that you could imagine was considered,” Anglade said, adding the government was involved in every discussion. “At the end of the day, we chose the option that guaranteed jobs in the long term in Quebec, ensured growth of the sector in Quebec, and ensured the durability of the C series programme.” Quebec held 49.5 percent of the C Series after investing $1 billion in the fledgling programme last year, only to see the stake decline to 19 percent in a deal where Airbus takes a majority stake for no cash. The agreement, which also cuts Bombardier’s share, seeks to preserve 2,000 jobs at a plant outside of Montreal until 2041, even as Airbus adds another final assembly line at its factory in Mobile, Alabama.

Opposition Outcry
While silent at first, opposition parties ramped up criticism, accusing the government of selling a crown jewel and getting ripped off.
Francois Legault, the chief of
the Coalition Avenir Quebec said the government’s investment amounted to spending C$650,000 ($518,000) per job.
“This is not a good deal, that’s not how you can help Quebec’s economy,” he said in remarks broadcast on RDI network.
The head of Parti Quebecois, Jean-Francois Lisee, tweeted that the government should have invested in Bombardier itself rather than the C series.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard defended the deal, which he said does more for the plane than putting more money into it because the programme really needed a strategic partner.
“We would have loved for Bombardier to become as big as Boeing and Airbus, but in practice that couldn’t happen, it was impossible,” he said.
“We had to think about workers above all, as well as the Montreal aeronautic sector.”