Quebec premier in France talking jobs with Alstom

The Alstom hydrogen powered train at the Montmorency Falls on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023 in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot, The Canadian Press)

On the second day of his economic mission to France, Quebec Premier François Legault visited the offices of Alstom, where he rubbed shoulders with top boss Henri Poupart-Lafarge over the Quebec City third link project and the jobs he wants for the province.

"I suppose he wants the call for tenders not to be renewed, for the old one to exist," said Legault said on Wednesday morning as he arrived at the rail manufacturer's world headquarters in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, on the outskirts of Paris.

The Quebec government's lawyers are trying to determine whether it should re-launch the call for tenders that Alstom won for the third link worth more than half a billion dollars.

"There is no clear answer," Legault repeated to reporters.

The premier noted that he wanted to "develop the company together."

The day before, he had said that he wanted to "talk about projects with jobs in Quebec."

At the start of their meeting, Poupart-Lafarge said that it was "a great honour, a great pleasure" for him to welcome the premier, and that this "underlines the importance of our Quebec roots, and underlines the importance of our activity in Quebec, still today - numerous plants, numerous engineering centres."

"We are going to talk to the premier about the development of these activities in Quebec," he said before the media were invited to leave the room.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is Alstom's largest shareholder, with a 17.5 per cent stake.

During the meeting, Legault said that he was "very sad" when Bombardier Transport was sold to Alstom, given that he had "great ambitions" for what was a Quebec flagship.

The rail manufacturer has three sites in Quebec where it employs a total of 2,000 people.

The only place where Alstom could build a tramway is at La Pocatière, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. The Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville site is used for research and development, including engineering, design and electronic signalling. The Montreal site is administrative and commercial.

In the middle of the day, Legault will address an "economic lunch" at the official residence of Quebec's new delegate general in Paris, Henri-Paul Rousseau.

In the mid-afternoon, he will meet the CEO of Ubisoft.

Then, in the evening, he will hold a reception at a Paris hotel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 2, 2024.