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Trudeau, Legault announce $693M investment for Quebec aerospace industry – Global News
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Montreal Thursday, where he met with Premier François Legault as he continued his campaign-style tour of Quebec.
The pair announced a joint investment of up to $693 million help relaunch the aerospace industry which is among the top three leaders in the world representing some 60,000 direct jobs across the country.
The federal government is expected to pitch in $440 million with Quebec making up the difference.
“This financing will allow Bell Textron Canada, CAE and Pratt & Whitney Canada to continue to innovate and discover new markets,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau touted the province’s know-how when it comes to aerospace.
He harkened back to humble beginnings 115 years ago when Percival Reed made Quebec’s first plane in a garage on Ste-Catherine’s Street.
“Things have changed since then but not the desire to innovate,” Trudeau said, adding the province is one of the rare places in the world able to not only conceive and build a planes from A to Z, on top of flying and certifying them.
Trudeau also lauded the sector’s innovation when it comes to green technology.
“The world’s greenest model of airplane is the Airbus A220 — a Quebec plane,” he said, “but we have to continue to solidify our place as world leader in aerospace.”
The joint investment is expected to allow for the creation and maintenance of 12,000 “good paying jobs” and 6,200 internships for students.
It will also secure “the industry’s long-term future in Canada,” Trudeau said, “by developing green aviation projects and more clean technologies. Some of these technologies will take decades to develop so there is absolutely no time to waste.”
Legault specified it was 1,000 new jobs that would be created with annual salaries over $80,000.
“It’s excellent news,” he said
Legault pointed to the importance of encouraging students to study in the field because the creation of high-paying jobs isn’t enough in and of itself if you don’t have the qualified workers to fill those positions.
The prime minister acknowledged the aerospace sector was in need of a boost.
It was hard-hit by the pandemic as air travel ground to a halt as countries closed their borders to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The prime minister noted that the industry isn’t only comprised of big players, but smaller businesses too and announced the launch of the aerospace regional recovery initiative to help support their recovery.
“Whether it’s projects to lower your carbon footprint or support for AI solutions to better manage your inventory, we’re here to help your business innovate,” Trudeau said, adding the program was ready to receive applications as of Thursday.
The government will be investing an additional $250 million over three years countrywide in the project, with $100 million slated for Quebec.
Thursday’s announcement was well received with various stakeholders chiming in.
“We can only approve such an initiative,” said Renaud Gagné, the head of Unifor Quebec, in a written statement.
The union said the help was a long time coming with the union — which represents 3,000 members at Pratt & Whitney and CAE — making repeated calls to both levels of government for additional support.
While Gagné said the union was still examining the details of the deal he stressed the importance of not only supporting the industry but of making sure jobs stay in the province.
The Manufacturiers et Exportateurs du Québec, an association of manufacturers, also welcomed the news.
“MEQ is delighted with the large participation of the manufacturing sector in this announcement, which will promote a green recovery, which will strengthen the Canadian aerospace sector and which will have a positive impact on several Quebec companies,” said MEQ CEO Véronique Proulx.
Like the premier, she noted the success of such an endeavour rests on having the necessary skilled labour to fill the new positions.
“Success will therefore depend on increasing the immigration thresholds, improving vocational training programs and improving the temporary foreign worker program,” she said.
The prime minister began his day by visiting a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Montreal’s Saint-Michel neighbourhood, in a bid to encourage more people to get vaccinated.
Thursday’s visit comes on the heels of a $25-million investment for the expansion of General Electric’s LM Wind Power plant in Gaspé that produces rotor blades for windmills.
The $170-million project is expected to create 200 new jobs and maintain 380 existing jobs.
Trudeau also announced support for upgrades to the wharf at the Port of Cap-aux-Meules in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine and said Ottawa is withdrawing plans to transfer the port to a lower level of government.
Trudeau once again quelled rumours of an upcoming federal election, defending himself against what many perceive as campaigning.
“In an election campaign, you make promises about what you plan to do if you are elected,” he said. “This list of projects and announcements is the job of a good government.”
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Tesla has promised to start selling cheaper models next year, days after a Reuters report revealed that the company had shelved its plans for an all-new Tesla that would cost only $25,000.
The news that Tesla was scrapping the Model 2 came amid a drop in sales and profits, and a decision to slash a tenth of the company’s global workforce. Reuters also noted increased competition from Chinese EV makers.
Tesla’s deliveries slumped in the first quarter for the first annual drop since the start of the pandemic in 2020, missing analyst forecasts by a mile in a sign that even price cuts haven’t been able to stave off an increasingly heated competition on the EV market.
Profits dropped by 50%, disappointing investors and leading to a slump in the company’s share prices, which made any good news urgently needed. Tesla delivered: it said it would bring forward the date for the release of new, lower-cost models. These would be produced on its existing platform and rolled out in the second half of 2025, per the BBC.
Reuters cited the company as warning that this change of plans could “result in achieving less cost reduction than previously expected,” however. This suggests the price tag of the new models is unlikely to be as small as the $25,000 promised for the Model 2.
The decision is based on a substantially reduced risk appetite in Tesla’s management, likely affected by the recent financial results and the intensifying competition with Chinese EV makers. Shelving the Model 2 and opting instead for cars to be produced on existing manufacturing lines is the safer move in these “uncertain times”, per the company.
Tesla is also cutting prices, as many other EV makers are doing amid a palpable decline in sales in key markets such as Europe, where the phaseout of subsidies has hit demand for EVs seriously. The cut is of about $2,000 on all models that Tesla currently sells.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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Divisions within the Bank of Canada over the timing of a much-anticipated cut to its key overnight interest rate stem from concerns of some members of the central bank’s governing council that progress on taming inflation could stall in the face of stronger domestic demand — or even pick up again in the event of “new surprises.”
“Some members emphasized that, with the economy performing well, the risk had diminished that restrictive monetary policy would slow the economy more than necessary to return inflation to target,” according to a summary of deliberations for the April 10 rate decision that were published Wednesday. “They felt more reassurance was needed to reduce the risk that the downward progress on core inflation would stall, and to avoid jeopardizing the progress made thus far.”
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Others argued that there were additional risks from keeping monetary policy too tight in light of progress already made to tame inflation, which had come down “significantly” across most goods and services.
Some pointed out that the distribution of inflation rates across components of the consumer price index had approached normal, despite outsized price increases and decreases in certain components.
“Coupled with indicators that the economy was in excess supply and with a base case projection showing the output gap starting to close only next year, they felt there was a risk of keeping monetary policy more restrictive than needed.”
In the end, though, the central bankers agreed to hold the rate at five per cent because inflation remained too high and there were still upside risks to the outlook, albeit “less acute” than in the past couple of years.
Despite the “diversity of views” about when conditions will warrant cutting the interest rate, central bank officials agreed that monetary policy easing would probably be gradual, given risks to the outlook and the slow path for returning inflation to target, according to the summary of deliberations.
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They considered a number of potential risks to the outlook for economic growth and inflation, including housing and immigration, according to summary of deliberations.
The central bankers discussed the risk that housing market activity could accelerate and further boost shelter prices and acknowledged that easing monetary policy could increase the likelihood of this risk materializing. They concluded that their focus on measures such as CPI-trim, which strips out extreme movements in price changes, allowed them to effectively look through mortgage interest costs while capturing other shelter prices such as rent that are more reflective of supply and demand in housing.
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They also agreed to keep a close eye on immigration in the coming quarters due to uncertainty around recent announcements by the federal government.
“The projection incorporated continued strong population growth in the first half of 2024 followed by much softer growth, in line with the federal government’s target for reducing the share of non-permanent residents,” the summary said. “But details of how these plans will be implemented had not been announced. Governing council recognized that there was some uncertainty about future population growth and agreed it would be important to update the population forecast each quarter.”
• Email: bshecter@nationalpost.com
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Shares in US tech giant Meta have sunk in US after-hours trading despite better-than-expected earnings.
The Facebook and Instagram owner said expenses would be higher this year as it spends heavily on artificial intelligence (AI).
Its shares fell more than 15% after it said it expected to spend billions of dollars more than it had previously predicted in 2024.
Meta has been updating its ad-buying products with AI tools to boost earnings growth.
It has also been introducing more AI features on its social media platforms such as chat assistants.
The firm said it now expected to spend between $35bn and $40bn, (£28bn-32bn) in 2024, up from an earlier prediction of $30-$37bn.
Its shares fell despite it beating expectations on its earnings.
First quarter revenue rose 27% to $36.46bn, while analysts had expected earnings of $36.16bn.
Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said its spending plans were “aggressive”.
She said Meta’s “substantial investment” in AI has helped it get people to spend time on its platforms, so advertisers are willing to spend more money “in a time when digital advertising uncertainty remains rife”.
More than 50 countries are due to have elections this year, she said, “which hugely increases uncertainty” and can spook advertisers.
She added that Meta’s “fortunes are probably also being bolstered by TikTok’s uncertain future in the US”.
Meta’s rival has said it will fight an “unconstitutional” law that could result in TikTok being sold or banned in the US.
President Biden has signed into law a bill which gives the social media platform’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, nine months to sell off the app or it will be blocked in the US.
Ms Lund-Yates said that “looking further ahead, the biggest risk [for Meta] remains regulatory”.
Last year, Meta was fined €1.2bn (£1bn) by Ireland’s data authorities for mishandling people’s data when transferring it between Europe and the US.
And in February of this year, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg faced blistering criticism from US lawmakers and was pushed to apologise to families of victims of child sexual exploitation.
Ms Lund-Yates added that the firm has “more than enough resources to throw at legal challenges, but that doesn’t rule out the risks of ups and downs in market sentiment”.
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