Photo: Ryan Remiorz, The canadian Press
Through Investissement Québec (IQ), the State owns 25% of the A220 since February, given that Bomber has left the adventure.
The value of the investment of the State in the A220 — ex-C Series of Bombardier — has not finished poking the nose, acknowledged Monday the minister of Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, for whom he is, however, too early to tell if quebec taxpayers have lost everything.
In a press briefing, Monday, in Montreal, it did not go as far as the prime minister François Legault, who had hinted last Friday that the “amount” a total of 1.3 billion injected by the liberal government of Philippe Couillard in 2015 the aircraft is now controlled by Airbus ” should be cancelled “. Mr. Legault had offered this response after being questioned about the possibility that his government flies to the rescue of Bombardier in spite of new cuts within the company, which will result in the elimination of 2,500 jobs, including 1,500 in Quebec.
“It is likely that the assessment will be lower than last year because of the COVID-19, said Mr Fitzgibbon. Is it going to be 0, 100 or 200 million ? We do not know. “Through Investissement Québec (IQ), the State owns 25 % of the A220 since February, given that Bomber has left the adventure. In the wake of the transaction, in Quebec was devalued by 600 million for its investment. It should reveal towards the end of August the next evaluation.
The pandemic has crippled the commercial aviation sector, which defers aircraft deliveries and thereby affects the value of the program, said Mr. Fitzgibbon. But this is only in 2026, when the company will have the option to redeem the share of Québec, that we will have an idea of the amount that will be recovered, he added. “It is not impossible that next year, if all goes well, we would go up [the value of] the investment,” pointed out the minister of the Economy.
In his opinion, the comment made by Mr. Legault last week was “circumstantial” and referred, in fact, the value of the involvement of IQ in the A220 in the current economic environment.
At the beginning of the month of may, Airbus had announced 350 layoffs temporary at its facility in Mirabel, in the Laurentians, where the assembly of the device, without, however, say when these employees are going to be able to return to work. The company had decided to hand over to the next year’s rate increase, which means that the rate of production will remain at four aircraft per month.
