The premier is defending his economic minister against accusations that he would personally benefit from government investments in Bombardier.
The National Assembly's ethics commissioner began an investigation into Pierre Fitzgibbon after learning the minister owns about $100,000 in shares of Heroux-Devtek, a parts supplier for Bombardier.
“I don't see the conflict of interest at all, at all. It doesn't make sense,” said Francois Legault, who will begin his first session in government as premier next week.
Last week Fitzgibbon shocked many when, the day after Bombardier announced it would be laying off 5,000 workers, he said the provincial government would be willing to invest more money into the troubled company.
The provincial government invested $1 billion in Bombardier in 2016, and this year the company gave up two of its airplane development projects, one to Airbus and another to a B.C.-based company.
Fitzgibbon was on the board of directors of Heroux-Devtek but he resigned his seat the day after the election, and then put his shares into a blind trust controlled by a broker.
"I haven't seen my shares since Oct. 2. So I don't know what I own," Fitzgibbon said on Tuesday.
On his way into a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Francois Legault said that Heroux-Devtek supplies many companies, and that it's sales to Bombardier are about one per cent of its total business.
"They compare that to [Pierre Karl Peladeau], PKP owned 50 per cent of media in Quebec. We're talking about a guy who used to have shares in a company that is having one per cent of its sales to Bombardier," said Legault.
Legault said that so far there is no new government investment in Bombardier planned, but if there is, he will guarantee the company maintains jobs in Quebec.
