{"id":728037,"date":"2026-06-10T18:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/728037\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:35:10","slug":"quebec-took-risks-pursuing-battery-dream-auditor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/728037\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec took ‘risks’ pursuing battery dream: auditor"},"content":{"rendered":"

QUEBEC \u2014 The government has invested a total of $2.2 billion in the dream of becoming an international electric battery<\/a> player but has failed to properly evaluate the risks and potential losses, Quebec\u2019s auditor general said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Tabling her annual report in the National Assembly, auditor-general Christine Roy says the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government went out on a limb when it launched its battery plant strategy in October 2022.<\/p>\n

The super-minister for the economy at the time was Pierre Fitzgibbon, who resigned from politics in 2024<\/a>. He was succeeded by Christine Fr\u00e9chette<\/a>, who is now premier.<\/p>\n

The full extent of the financial losses has yet to be calculated, but the plan suffered from a lack of planning from the get-go, the auditor states.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong the files, certain risks were not adequately analyzed or documented,\u201d the report says. \u201cBut they involve, in most cases, significant risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, the conditions included in aid packages were not followed up with rigour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of 11 companies audited that received government aid or loans, the report says, six today are either under bankruptcy protection or have been abandoned.<\/p>\n

The four that have gone bankrupt are Northvolt, Lion \u00c9lectric<\/a>, Moteurs Ta\u00efga and Recyclage Lithion. Those four received 89 per cent of the grants accorded by the government before going under.<\/p>\n

Three other projects have experienced significant cost overuns totalling $1 billion.<\/p>\n

\t\tBattery dreams\t<\/p>\n

As of March 2026, about $700 million has been earmarked in the government\u2019s books as potential costs, including provisions for possible losses.<\/p>\n

Officials told reporters there is no way today to calculate the total losses.<\/p>\n

For the first time, however, the auditor breaks down the total amounts handed to various high-profile battery makers either in loans or grants from the government via Investissement Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n

The Swedish-owned Northvolt, which went bankrupt in 2025, got a total of $507 million in government aid and loans.<\/p>\n

Lion \u00c9lectric got $127 million in government aid. Vale got $55 million.<\/p>\n

The auditor is to hold a news conference later Wednesday.<\/p>\n

pauthier@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUEBEC \u2014 The government has invested a total of $2.2 billion in the dream of becoming an international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,64884,218342,295,66],"class_list":["post-728037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-christine-frechette","tag-coalition-avenir-quebec-caq","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}