Churchill Falls MOU<\/a>, the tentative agreement between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador which would replace the 1969 hydroelectric contract between the provinces.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe deal would increase the power of Churchill Falls and develop a run-of-river plant on Gull Island. But since the election of Progressive Conservative Premier Tony Wakeham, who is aiming to get a better deal for his province, the agreement has been on shaky grounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Legault said he\u2019s against putting more money on the table, but he would be open to the idea of modulating instalments differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The premier said he would be open, for example, to the idea of investing less money until\u00a02041 \u2014 the end of the current contract \u2014 even if it means paying more later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re making changes, I have things that I\u2019d like to improve,\u201d Legault warned. \u201cIt\u2019s give and take.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Critical minerals, defence<\/p>\n
Despite the setbacks of Northvolt and other companies like Lion and Taiga Motors, Legault said he wouldn\u2019t abandon the battery sector entirely, saying other opportunities will arise when Trump leaves the White House.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, according to the premier, Quebec must take advantage of new “strategic opportunities,\u201d such as critical minerals and defence.<\/p>\n
The federal government announced in its latest budget investments of $30 billion over five years to strengthen national defence.<\/p>\n
European Union countries also want to invest more in their armed forces to meet new spending targets they have set for themselves.<\/p>\n
Quebec, according to Legault, is well positioned to meet those needs, especially given Bombardier and Davie, two Quebec flagship companies whose factories are capable of producing civilian and military equipment in the province.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | Legault prioritizing defence spending:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762859054_432_default.jpg\")
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Why Quebec is taking a new approach and making defence spending a top priority<\/p>\n
Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault is slated to present his new economic vision for Quebec. Defence and security spending are expected to be the main focus. The government says it wants to help Quebec businesses to get their fair share of contracts from Ottawa and the European Union.Investing in data centres<\/p>\n
Part of Legault\u2019s vision for Quebec is to invest more in data centres, despite them being energy-intensive and creating few jobs.<\/p>\n
“Now, we have data centres that are ready to pay the full [electricity] price,” Legault said. “And companies increasingly want to set up next to data centres.\u201d<\/p>\n
The premier said the Quebec government is already in contact with Google, but it would not allow the American giant to pay a preferential rate for hydroelectricity.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m not closed to American companies as long as there are guarantees of benefits for Quebec, that prices are good and that we make big profits with hydroelectricity,\u201d he told CBC and Radio-Canada on Friday. <\/p>\n
Another bill to fast-track infrastructure projects<\/p>\n
Legault hinted that his government would also introduce legislation to give Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec more leeway.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Eric Girard is set to table Bill Q-5 in the next few weeks, the premier said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bill Q-5, whose name alludes to the Carney government\u2019s C-5 \u2013 One Canadian Economy Act \u2013 would exempt some infrastructure projects of national interest from certain environmental laws that would otherwise slow their materialization.<\/p>\n
However, in 2020 the Legault government adopted Bill 66, which has a similar purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The law is meant to speed up 181 infrastructure projects<\/a> and was a last-ditch effort to inject stimulus into an economy reeling from the effects of COVID-19.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-127368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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